Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book IV/Hymn 8

8. Accompanying the consecration of a king.

[Atharvān̄giras.—rājyābhiṣekyam, cāndramasam, āpyam. ānuṣṭubham: 1, 7. bhuriktriṣṭubh; 3. triṣṭubh; 5. virāṭprastārapan̄kti.]

Found in Pāipp. iv. (in the verse-order 1-3, 7, 4-6). For occurrences in other texts, see under the verses. Used by Kāuç. (17. 1 ff.), and also in Vāit. (36. 7) in connection with the rājābhiṣeka or rājasūya ceremony; and Vāit. (29. 12) further employs vs. 5 in the agnicayana, with pouring of water around the erected altar.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 458; Zimmer, p. 213; Weber, Ueber den Rājasūya, Berliner Abh., 1893, p. 139 (with full discussion); Grifiith, i. 139; Bloomfield, 111, 378; Weber, xviii. 30.

1. The being (bhūtá) sets milk in beings; he has become the overlord of beings; Death attends (car) the royal consecration (rājasū́ya) of him; let him, as king, approve this royalty.

The meaning is obscure. Very possibly bhūtá is taken here in more than one of its senses, by a kind of play upon the word. Weber renders it the first time by "powerful" (kräftig), nearly as the comm., whose gloss is samṛddhaḥ; the latter gives it the same sense the second time, but the third time simply prāṇinām. The introduction of "death" in the second half-verse suggests the interpretation (R.) that the deceased predecessor of the prince now to be consecrated is besought to give his sanction to the ceremony from the world of the departed (bhūtá). The comm. regards death as brought in in the character of dharmarāja, as he who requites good and evil deeds. TB. (in ii. 7. 15¹) is the only other text that has this verse, reading in a carati práviṣṭaḥ (for páya ā́ dadhāti) and in c mṛtyāú: the variants are of a character to make us distrust the value of the matter as admitting any consistent interpretation. Ppp. reads in c sa te for tásya.

2. Go forward unto [it]; do not long (? ven) away, a stern (ugrá) corrector (cettár), rival-slayer; approach (ā-sthā), O increaser of friends; may the gods bless (adhi-brū) thee.

Found, with vs. 3, in TB. (in ii. 7. 8¹), and also, with the remainder of the hymn, in K. (xxxvii. 9). ⌊It seems to be a reminiscence of the Indra-verse, RV. v. 31. 2, applied, like vs. 3 of this hymn, to the king.⌋ TB. reads in a (for mā́ ’pa venas) vīráyasva, and Ppp. has vīḍayasva; TB. gives, as also the comm., the nom. mitravárdhanas (a later repetition of the verse, in ii. 7. 16¹, presents vṛtrahántamas instead); and it ends with bravan,* which is better, and might have been read in our text, as near half the mss. give it; but SPP. also accepts bruvan, with the comm. The comm. takes the "throne" as object of the first verb, and renders mā́ ’pa venas by apakāmam anicchām mā kārṣīḥ ⌊cf. vi-ven in BR.⌋. (Weber renders ven by "see.") *⌊But the Poona ed., p. 716, has bruvan.⌋

3. Him approaching all waited upon (pari-bhūṣ); clothing himself in fortune, he goes about (car), having own brightness; great is that name of the virile (vṛ́ṣan) Asura; having all forms, he approached immortal things.

This is a RV. verse (iii. 38. 4: repeated without variant as VS. xxxiii. 22), transferred from Indra to the king; RV. reads, as does Ppp., çṛíyas in b. TB. (as above) has svárocās at end of b, and asyá for vṛ́ṣṇas in c. At the beginning of c, the comm. has mahas (but explains it as = mahat) tad viṣṇo, and a couple of SPP's mss. support him. He renders pári abhūṣan either alaṁkurvantu or sevantām: that the form is imperative is the point he is sure of; and as alternative value of asurasya he gives çatrūṇām nirasituḥ! ⌊Is not ásurasya nā́ma a simple periphrasis of asuryàm, 'the divinity' that "doth hedge a king," in which gods are said to clothe themselves at RV. iii. 38. 7? Nā́ma might then be construed with vásānas, or else as above.⌋

4. A tiger, upon the tiger's [skin], do thou stride out unto the great quarters; let all the people (víças) want thee, the waters of heaven, rich in milk.

That is, let the rains not desert thee (so the comm. also). This verse and the two following are found, in the same order, in TB. ii. 7. 15^3-4; it puts ádhi after vāiyyāghré (sic) in a, reads çrayasva in b, and has for d mā́ tvád rāṣṭrám ádhi bhraçat (found below as vi. 87. 1 d, and in other texts: see under that verse). Ppp. gives yanti ⌊or yānti?⌋ instead of vāñchantu in c.

5. The waters of heaven that revel with milk, in the atmosphere or also on the earth—with the splendor of all those waters do I pour upon (abhi-sic) thee.

The version of the first half-verse given by TB. is quite different: yā́ divyā́ ā́paḥ páyasā sambabhūvúḥ: yā́ antárikṣe utá pā́rthivīr yā́ḥ; and Ppp. so far agrees as to have uta pārthivā yāḥ; TB. also reads rucā́ for apā́m in c. The comm. renders madanti as if causative: prāṇinas tarpayanti. The abhiṣeka process, instead of an anointing with oil, is a pouring of water upon the person to be consecrated. The verse (11 + 10: 8 + 8 = 37) lacks three syllables of being complete, rather than two. ⌊Put another yā́s at the beginning of b and the verse is orderly, 11 + 11: 8 + 8.⌋

⌊Perhaps mad here approaches its physical meaning, 'boil (cf. ÇB. iii. 4. 3 end, and my Reader, p. 211), bubble over, overflow'; used of the rains that 'drip abundantly with.' páyas or life-giving moisture. W's prior draft rendered mad by "intoxicate"; over this he interlined "revel."—This, says Weber, is the verse of the act of consecration proper. The celebrant transfers to the king the várcas or glory-giving vigor of the waters of all three worlds.⌋

6. The heavenly waters, rich in milk, have poured upon thee with splendor; that thou be an increaser of friends, so shall Savitar make thee.

Instead of our asiñcan, SPP. gives, as the reading of all his authorities, asican, which is decidedly preferable, and implied in the translation (our Bp. is doubtful; other mss. possibly overlooked at this point); TB. has instead asicam; Ppp. and the comm., asṛjan. Then, for b, TB. and Ppp. give divyéna páyasā (Ppp. pāy-) sahá; and in c TB. has rāṣṭravárdh-, which is better, and before it yáthā́sā (regarded by its commentary as yáthā: ā́sa).

7. Thus, embracing the tiger, they incite (hi) the lion unto great good-fortune; as the well-being ones (subhū́) the ocean that stands, do they rub thoroughly down the leopard amid the waters.

Found also in TB. (ii. 7. 16⁴) and MS. (ii. 1. 9: besides K.). In b, MS. has mṛjanti for hinvanti, and dhánāya (which rectifies the meter) for sāúbhagāya. For c, MS. has a much less unmanageable version, mahiṣáṁ naḥ subhvàm, and Ppp. supports it by giving mahiṣaṁ nas subhavas: thus, in each pāda the king is compared to a different powerful animal—which is the leading motive of the verse. But TB. differs from our text only by giving suhávam* for subhúvas. Subhvàm, with a further slight emendation of samudrám to -dré, would give a greatly improved sense: "him who stands comfortable in the ocean, as it were," or bears himself well under the water poured upon him. The phrase samudráṁ ná subhvàḥ occurs also at RV. i. 52. 4 b (and its occurrence here in such form may be a reminiscence of that); Sāyaṇa there understands subhvàs of the "streams" that fill the ocean; and our comm. gives a corresponding interpretation here (nadīrūpā āpaḥ); samudrám he allows us alternatively to take as = varuṇam. He also, most ungrammatically, takes enā́ at the beginning as ends "those [waters]." Ppp. further has pari mṛjyante for marm- in d. *⌊Poona ed., p. 750, reads suhúvam.⌋