Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 102

102. To win a woman.

[Jamadagni (abhisammanaskāmaḥ) .—āçvinam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Used by Kāuç. (35. 21) in a rite concerning women, with vi. 8, 9, etc., for reducing to one's will. Verse 3 is also reckoned (19. 1, note) to the puṣṭika mantras.

Translated: Weber, Ind. Stud. 243; Grill, 54, 169; Griffith, i. 301; Bloomfield, 101, 512.

1. As this draft-horse (vāhá), O Açvins, comes together and moves together [with his mate], so unto me let thy mind come together and move together.

The comm. paraphrases vāhas with suçikṣito ’çvaḥ, 'a well-trained horse,' but regards the driver (vāhaka) as the unexpressed object ⌊? or adjunct⌋ of the verbs—which is also possible.

2. I drag along (ā-khid) thy mind, as a king-horse a side-mare (?); like grass cut by a whirlwind, let thy mind twine itself to me.

Some of SPP's authorities give pṛṣṭhyā́m in b; but in general the mss. cannot be relied on to distinguish ṣṭy and ṣṭhy. The Pet. Lex. understands the word with ṭh, but the minor Pet. Lex. with ṭ, in the sense here given, which Grill (following Roth) accepts. ⌊Cf. W's note to xviii. 4. 10.⌋ The comm. explains the word as çan̄kubaddhām '[a mare] tied to a stake (to the pole of the chariot?)', rājāçva as açvaçreṣṭha, and ā khidāmi as madabhimukham utkhanāmy unmūlayāmy āvarjayāmi. The reading tṛ́ṇma in c, which our edition wrongly accepts, is that of only two of our mss. (Bp.Bp.²). ⌊Read therefore tṛ́ṇam.⌋ The comm. explains reṣman as reṣako vātyātmako vāyuḥ. Ppp. ends b with pṛṣṭyāmayaḥ.

3. Of ointment, of madúgha, of kúṣṭha, and of nard, by the hands of Bhaga, I bring up quick a means of subjection.

The construction of the genitives in the first half-verse is obscure. The comm. makes them depend on anurodhanam, and so also Grill. They are perhaps rather the means by which the anurodhana (= anulepana, comm.) or gaining to one's purposes of the desired person is to be brought about, and so are coördinate with Bhagasya, the latter's 'hands' taking the place of the 'means' or 'aid' which would have better suited them. Turás in c is possibly genitive, 'of quick' (or powerful) Bhaga (so the comm.: = tvaramāṇasya). Ppp. reads (as in other places) madhugasya in a; the comm. madhughasya. Ppp. has also ā for ud in d. Several of our mss. (P.M.I.O.T.) accent ánu ródh-, ⌊and so do six of⌋ SPP's authorities.

The tenth anuvāka, of 10 hymns and 30 verses, ends here; the quoted Anukr. says simply daçama.

Here ends also the fourteenth prapāṭhaka.