Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book V/Hymn 10

10. For defense from all quarters.

[Brahman.—aṣṭakam. vāstoṣpatyam. 1-6. yavamadhyā 3-p. gāyatrī; 7. yavamadhyā kakubh; 8. purodhṛtidvyanuṣṭubgarbhā parāṣṭi 3-av. 4-p. atijagatī.]

⌊This piece is prose.⌋ This piece, like the preceding, is wanting in Pāipp. Parts of vss. 1-7 are apparently used by Kāuç. in a magic rite (49. 7-9); and certainly those verses are quoted in a ceremony (51. 14) for the welfare of the house with burying ⌊five⌋ stones in its corners ⌊and middle and putting a sixth above it⌋; and the hymn is reckoned (8. 23, note) to the vāstu gaṇa; while vs. 8 appears, with vi. 53 and vii. 67, in the savayajñas (66. 2). In Vāit. (29. 11) the verses are addressed to the stones of enclosure in the agnicayana.

Translated: Griffith, i. 202; Weber, xviii. 200.

1. My stone-defense art thou; whoever from the eastern quarter, malicious, shall assail me, this may he come upon (ṛch).

2. My stone-defense art thou; whoever from the southern quarter etc. etc.

3. My stone-defense art thou; whoever from the western quarter etc. etc.

4. My stone-defense art thou; whoever from the northern quarter etc. etc.

5. My stone-defense art thou; whoever from the fixed quarter etc. etc.

6. My stone-defense art thou; whoever from the upward quarter etc. etc.

It is possible to read these verses as 7 + 12 (or 13 ⌊or 14⌋): 5 = 24 (or 25 ⌊or 26, vs. 2⌋).

7. My stone-defense art thou; whoever from the intermediate quarters of the quarters etc. etc.

O. is the only ms. that fills out the paragraphs between 1 and 7; and it leaves aghāyúr unelided in all the verses. In paragraph 7 of our edition the accent-mark has dropped out under the va of açmavarmá. The Anukr. reads 7 + 16: 5 = 28 syllables.

8. By the great one (bṛhát) I call unto mind; by Mātariçvan, unto breath and expiration; from the sun [I call] sight, from the atmosphere hearing, from the earth body; by Sarasvatī, mind-yoked, we call unto speech.

The verse divides most naturally as 9 + 9: 16: 16 = 50; the metrical definition of the Anukr. fits it very ill. ⌊For c, cf. v. 7. 5.⌋

The second anuvāka ends here, and contains 5 hymns and 49 verses; the old Anukr. says ādyāt para ekādaçahīnaṣaṣṭiḥ.