Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 125

125. To the war-chariot: for its success.

[Atharvan.—vānaspatyam. trāiṣṭubham: 2. jagatī.]

Found also in Pāipp. xv. (in the verse-order 2, 3, 1). This hymn and the next are six successive verses of RV. (vi. 47. 26-31), and also of VS. (xxix. 52-57), TS. (iv. 6. 6^5-7), and MS. (iii. 16. 3). In Kāuç. (15. 11) it ⌊and not xii. 3. 33⌋ is used in a battle-rite, with vii. 3, 110, and other passages, as the king mounts a new chariot (at Kāuç. 10. 24 and 13. 6 it is ix. 1. 1 that is intended ⌊so SPP's ed. of the comm. to iii. 16⌋, not vs. 2 of this hymn). In Vāit. (6. 8), vss. 3 and 1 are quoted in the agnyādheya, accompanying the sacrificial gift of a chariot; and the hymn (or vs. i), in the sattra (34. 15), as the king mounts a chariot.

Translated: by the RV. translators; and, as AV. hymn, by Ludwig again, p. 459; Griffith, i. 314.—See also Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 155.

1 . O forest-tree! stout-limbed verily mayest thou become, our companion, furtherer, rich in heroes; thou art fastened together with kine; be thou stout; let him who mounts thee conquer things conquerable.

There is no difference of reading among all the versions of this verse. GB. (i. 2. 21) quotes its pratīka ⌊and so does MGS. at i. 13. 5; cf. p. 155⌋; MB. (i. 7. 16) has the whole verse. "Kine," as often elsewhere, means the products of cattle, here the strips of cow-hide; and "-tree" the thing made of its wood ⌊cf. i. 2. 3, note⌋.

2. Forth from heaven, from earth [is its] force brought up; forth from forest-trees [is its] power brought hither; to the force of the waters, brought forth hither by the kine, to Indra's thunderbolt, the chariot, do thou sacrifice with oblation.

Or all the nouns ("force" and "power" in a, b as well) are to be taken as accusatives with yaja 'sacrifice to.' Ppp. reads ābhṛtaṁ at end of a, and parisambhṛtaṁ in b. All the other versions have the better reading ā́vṛtam at end of c; and so has the comm., followed by three of SPP's mss.; and it is accordingly adopted in SPP's text. MS. reads ā́vṛtam also in b, and antárikṣāt instead of ója údbhṛtam in a. TS.VS. have diváḥ p- at the beginning. The comm. refers to TS. vi. i. 3⁴ as authority for identifying the chariot with Indra's thunderbolt.

3. Indra's force, the Maruts' front (ánīka), Mitra's embryo, Varuṇa's navel—do thou, enjoying this oblation-giving of ours, O divine chariot, accept the oblations.

All the other versions have vájras for ójas in 'a, and Ppp. agrees with them. All, too (not Ppp.), combine sé ’mā́m at beginning of c, against the requirement of the meter. The GB. quotes (i. 2. 21) the pratīka of this verse in its form as given by our text. ⌊Ppp. has dharuṇasya for vár- in b.⌋