Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book V/Hymn 19
19. The Brahman's cow.
[Mayobhū.—pañcadaçakam. brahmagavīdevatyatn. ānuṣṭubham: 2. virāṭpurastādbṛhatī; 7. upariṣṭādbṛhatī.]
A part of the verses of this hymn are found also in Pāipp. ix. (namely, and in the order, 1, 2, 3, 7, 4, 10, 8, 12; also 15 in another place). Vāit. does not refer to it, but it is noted at Kāuç. 48. 13 with the preceding hymn (as there mentioned).
Translated: Muir, i2. 286; Ludwig, p. 451; Zimmer, p. 201; Grill, 43, 150; Griffith, i. 218; Bloomfield, 171, 433; Weber, xviii. 237.—Cf. Hillebrandt, Veda-chrestomathie, p. 42.
1. They grew excessively; they did not quite (iva) touch up to the sky; having injured Bhrigu, the Sriñjayas, Vāitahavyas, perished.
Ppp. reads, in c, d, mṛga hīṅsitvā brahmīm asaṁbhavyaṁ par-: cf. 18. 12 c, d. The verse is found also in JB. i. 152, with vad for ud in b, and māhenā asaṁheyam (for sṛñ- vāit-) in c, d: a much corrupted text. The pada-text strangely divides sṛ́ñ॰jayāḥ (the word is left undivided in the TS. pada, vi. 6. 2). ⌊Griffith cites MBh. xiii. 30. 1 (= 1940) ff. for the story of the Vāitahavyas. See Weber's notes.⌋
2. The people who delivered up (? arpay-) the Brahman Brihatsāman, descendant of An̄giras—a he-goat with two rows of teeth, a sheep, consumed (av) their offspring (toká).
The translation implies emendation in c to ubhayā́dann (nom. of -dant), as suggested in the Index Verborum, and, indeed, assumed also by Zimmer and Muir. Ppp. is so mutilated that nothing is to be learned from it. The definition of the verse given by the Anukr. corresponds with its present form; but a invites emendation.
3. They who spat upon a Brahman, or who sent [their] mucus at him—they sit in the midst of a stream of blood, devouring hair.
Ppp. reads asmāi in b, and combines -ntā ”sate in d. Read in our text īṣiré at the end (an accent-sign, lost under ṣi).
4. The Brahman's cow, being cooked, as far as she penetrates (?), smites out the brightness (téjas) of a kingdom; no virile (vṛ́ṣan) hero is born [there].
Ján̄gahe is doubtful in meaning, although it cannot well be referred to any root but gāh; derivation from a root jaṅh, proposed in the major Pet. Lex., is apparently withdrawn in the minor. Ppp. reads pumān in d. The separate accent of abhí in b is a case falling under Prāt. iv. 4, and the passage is quoted in the commentary to that rule.
5. Cruel is the cutting up of her; harsh to eat (?) is her prepared flesh (piçitám); in that the milk (kṣīrá) of her is drunk, that verily is an offense against the Fathers.
The translation implies emendation of asyate in b to asyate, as suggested by Zimmer; Ppp. unfortunately lacks the verse.
6. A king who thinks himself formidable, [and] who desires to devour a Brahman—that kingdom is poured away, where a Brahman is scathed (jyā).
Yáj jíghatsati in b is an error for yó j-. 'Pour away,' doubtless a figure from the pouring off onto the ground of worthless liquid. With a, b compare RV. ii. 23. 12.
7. Becoming eight-footed, four-eyed, four-eared, four-jawed, two-mouthed, two-tongued, she shakes down the kingdom of the Brahman-scather.
Ppp. reads, in c, dvijihvā dviprāṇā bhūtvā, and omits brahmajyásya at the end.
8. It leaks verily into that kingdom, as water into a split boat (nāú); where they injure a Brahman, that kingdom misfortune smites.
Ppp. puts bhinnām before nāvam in b, and has for c brāhmaṇo yatra jīyate (like our 6 d). Zimmer and Muir prefer to understand in a a subject, coördinate with udakam in b: "ruin flows into that kingdom." ⌊W. doubtless means to imply that it is not competent to base upon the phrase in b an argument about shipwreck and ocean commerce. But cf. Hopkins, AJP. xix. 139.⌋
9. Him the trees drive away, saying "do not come unto our shadow," who, O Nārada, plots against that which is the riches of the Brahman.
Or, 'against the real (sát) riches' etc.; emendation of sát to tát (BR. v. 515) seems uncalled for. The verse reads as if taken from a collection of adages.
10. King Varuṇa called that a god-made poison; no one soever, having devoured the cow of the Brahman, keeps watch in the kingdom.
That is, guards successfully his realm: jāgāra, as such passages as xiii. i. 9, xix. 24. 2; 48. 5 plainly show, belongs to gṛ (jāgṛ) 'wake,' and not to jṛ 'waste away, grow old,' as claimed in the minor Pet. Lex. Ppp. has jāgara, and dugdhvā in c.
11. Those same nine nineties whom the earth shook off, having injured the progeny of the Brahman, perished irretrievably.
This verse is nearly the same with 18. 12 above; and the various accentuations of vyádhūnuta are precisely the same here as there.
12. The kūdī́ which they tie on after a dead man, as effacer (?) of the track, that verily, O Brahman-scather, did the gods call thy couch (upastáraṇa).
Kūdī́, which occurs several times in the Kāuç. (see Bloomfield's edition, p. xliv [where read Kāuç. 21.2,13], and AJP. xi. 355), is identified by the scholiasts with badarī 'jujube.' For the habit of tying a bunch of twigs to a corpse, see Roth in the Festgruss an Böhtlingk, p. 98 ⌊and Bloomfield, AJP. xii. 416⌋.
13. The tears of one weeping (kṛp), which rolled [down] when he was scathed, these verily, O Brahman-scather, did the gods maintain as thy portion of water.
Vāvṛtús (p. vavṛtúḥ) is quoted as example under Prāt. iii. 13; iv. 84. P.M.W. read jīvásya in b.
14. With what they bathe a dead man, with what they wet (ud) beards, that verily, O Brahman-scather, did the gods maintain as thy portion of water.
15. The rain of Mitra-and- Varuna does not rain upon the Brahman-scather; the assembly (sámiti) does not suit (kḷp) him; he wins (nī) no friend to his control.
Ppp. reads in b -jyām. With c compare vi. 88. 3 d.