Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 120

120. To reach heaven.

[Kāuçika.—mantroktadevatyam 1. jagatī; 2. pan̄kti; 3. triṣṭubh.]

Found also in Pāipp. xvi. ⌊Von Schroeder's Zwei Hss., p. 16, and Tübinger Kaṭha-hss., p. 76, may also be consulted for all three vss.⌋ Not used by Kāuç. otherwise than with the whole anuvāka: see under hymn 114.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 442; Grill, 72, 173; Griffith, i. 311; Bloomfield, 165, 529.

1. If (yát) atmosphere, earth, and sky, if father or mother we have injured (hiṅs), may this householder's-fire lead us up from that to the world of the well-done.

The first half-verse is found, without variation, in a number of other texts: in TS. (i. 8. 5³), TB. (iii. 7. 12⁴), TA. (ii. 6. 2⁸), MS. (i. 10. 3), AÇS. (ii. 7. 11); they do not agree entirely in the second half which they put in place of ours. Ppp. agrees with some of them, reading agnir mā tasmād enaso gārhapatyah pramuñcatu. Only b is really jagatī.

2. May mother earth, Aditi our birthplace, brother atmosphere, [save] us from imprecation; may our father heaven be weal to us from paternal [guilt]; having gone to my relatives (jāmí), let me not fall down from [their?] world.

The verse is found also in TA. (ii. 6. 29), which reads at end of a ábhiçasta énaḥ; and, in c, d, bhavāsi jāmi mitvā́ (jāmím itvā́?) mā́ vivitsi lokā́n: the variants are of the kind that seem to show that the text was unintelligible to the text-makers, and that we are excusable in finding it extremely obscure. Ppp. brings no help.* Our translation implies in b abhiçastyās, but the pada reading is abhí॰çastyā, as if instr.; the comm. understands -tyās. Our pada mss. also leave mā unaccented in d. Ludwig and Grill supply lokāt to pitryāt: "from the paternal world." The comm. divides alternatively jāmi mṛtvā and jāmim ṛtvā. The verse is a good triṣṭubh, though capable of being contracted to 40 syllables. *⌊Grill reports a Ppp. reading trātā for bhrā́tā, although I do not find it in Roth's collations. Might it represent a trā́tv antárikṣam?⌋

3. Where the well-hearted, the well-doing revel, having abandoned disease of their own selves, not lame with their limbs, undamaged in heaven (svargá)—there may we see [our] parents and sons.

⌊The first half we had at iii. 28. 5.⌋ The verse corresponds to TA. ii. 6. 2¹⁰, which reads mádante at end of a, tanvā̀ṁ svā́yām at end of b, açloṇā́n̄gāir (so Ppp. also) in c (also áhṛtās, but this is doubtless a misprint ⌊he Poona ed. reads in fact áhrutā⌋), and pitáraṁ ca putrám at the end. The comm. reads tanvās in b, with part of the mss. (including our P.M.I.O.), and açroṇās in c. ⌊For the substance of the vs., cf. Weber, Sb. 1894, p. 775.⌋