Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 108

108. For wisdom.

[Cāunaka.—pañcarcam. medhādevatyam: 4. āgneyī. ānuṣṭubham; 2. urobṛhatī; 3. pathyābṛhatī.]

Pāipp. xix. has vss. 1, 2, 5, thus reducing the hymn to the norm of this book. Found used in Kāuç. (10. 20), with vi. 53 ⌊so the comm.: but Dārila understands xii. 1. 53 as intended⌋, in the medhājanana ceremony; and also (57. 28) in the upanayana, with worship of Agni.

Translated: Muir, i² 255; Griffith, i. 304.

1. Do thou, O wisdom (medhā́), come first to us, with kine, with horses, thou with the sun's rays; thou art worshipful to us.

The comm. explains medhā as çrutadhāraṇasāmarthyarūpiṇī devī, and finds in c an elliptical comparison (luptopamā): "as the rays of the sun quickly pervade the whole world, so come to us with own capacities able to pervade all subjects."

2. I call first, unto the aid of the gods, wisdom filled with bráhman, quickened by bráhman, praised by seers, drunk of (?) by Vedic students.

Ppp. omits brahmajūtām in b, without rectifying the meter, which can only be saved by leaving out the superfluous prathamā́m in a. It avoids, in c, the doubtful prapītām by reading instead praṇihitām; and it has avasā (for avase ā?) vṛṇe in d. Prápītām should perhaps be understood as coming from pra-pī or pra-pyā; the comm. takes it alternatively* both ways, paraphrasing it with either sevitām or pravardhitām. The Anukr. reckons brahmaṇvatīm to b (so do the pada-mss.), and passes without notice the deficiency of a syllable in a; in fact, prathamā́m is intruded, and the verse otherwise a good anuṣṭubh. *⌊That is, he refers it to pibati by sevitām and to pī or pyā by pravardhitām.⌋

3. The wisdom that the Ribhus know, the wisdom that the Asuras know, the excellent wisdom that the seers know—that do we cause to enter into me.

It is the intrusion of bhadrām in c that spoils the anuṣṭubh, but does not make a regular bṛhatī.

4. The wisdom that the being-making seers, possessed of wisdom, know—with that wisdom do thou make me today, O Agni, possessed of wisdom.

Many of the mss. (including our P.M.H.I.K.O.) leave vidus unaccented at the end of b. The second half-verse is VS. xxxii. 14 c, d (which has kuru for kṛṇu); ⌊so also RV. khila to x. 151⌋.

5. Wisdom at evening, wisdom in the morning, wisdom about noon, wisdom by the sun's rays, by the spell (vácas), do we make enter into us.

Ppp. is corrupt in c, d: medhāṁ sūryeṇo ’dyato dhīrāṇā uta stvama.