Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 129
129. For good-fortune: with a çiṅçápā amulet.
[Atharvān̄giras.—bhagadevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]
Found also in Pāipp. xix. (in the verse-order 1, 3, 2). Used by Kāuç. (36. 12), with vi. 139 and vii. 38, in a rite relating to women, for good-fortune: one binds sāuvarcala on the head after the fashion of an herb (-amulet? Keç. and the comm. explain as the root or flower of the çan̄khapuṣpikā) and enters the village.
Translated: Griffith, i. 317.—The association of this hymn with 139 seems to imply something more specific than "good-fortune," namely, luck in love for a man, as Keçava's yasya (not yasyās) sāubhāgyam ichati indicates.
1. Me with a portion (bhága) of çiṅçápā, together with Indra [as] ally, I make myself portioned; let the niggards run away.
The mss. blunder over the word çāṅçapéna. SPP. reports only çāṅçaphéna as variant (read by two of his); ours have that, and also çāṅsayéna and sāṅçayéna; our text reads wrongly ⌊cāṅçayéna correct to çāṅçapéna⌋. The comm. gives saṁçaphena, and etymologizes it accordingly as sam = çapha! Ppp. has sāṅçapena. The çiṅçapā is the Dalbergia sisu, a tree distinguished for height and beauty. The comm. understands bhaga throughout the hymn as the god Bhaga. ⌊The refrain recurs at xiv. 2. 11.⌋ The Anukr. overlooks the lack of a syllable in c.
2. With what portion thou didst overcome the trees, together with splendor, therewith make me portioned; let the niggards run away.
Ppp. reads quite differently: athā vṛkṣāṅ adyabhavat sākam indreṇa medinā: evā mā etc.
3. The portion that is blind, that is reverted (pinaḥsará), set in the trees—therewith make me portioned; let the niggards run away.
Extremely obscure. There must be some special connection, unclear to us, between bhaga and çiṅçapā. The comm. understands the god Bhaga, and explains the epithet 'blind' in this verse by referring to Nirukta xii. 14, and 'reverted' as relating to his consequent inability to go forward; he reads āhatas in b for āhitas, and pictures the blind Bhaga as running against the trees along his way! The sense is, perhaps, the fortune or beauty that lies invisible and withdrawn in the trees. Ppp. ends b with vṛkṣe sārpitaḥ, and has, for c, bhage nī rāme ‘stu çāṅçapo.