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Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 131

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1477412Atharva-Veda SamhitaBook VI, Hymn 131William Dwight Whitney

131. To win a man's love.

[Atharvān̄giras.—smaradevatākam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Not found in Pāipp. (like the preceding and the following hymn). Used by Kāug. only with the preceding and the following hymn (see under the former).

Translated: Weber, Ind. Stud. v. 244; Grill, 58, 175; Griffith, i. 318; Bloomfield, 104, 535.


1. Down from the head, down from the feet, thy longings (ādhī́) I draw down. Ye gods, send forth love; let yon [man] burn for me.

Again the comm. stupidly (see vs. 3) understands a woman to be addressed.


2. O Anumati, assent to (anu-man) this; O design (ā́kūti), mayest thou constrain (sam-nam) this. Ye gods, send etc. etc.

'Design' (ā́kūti) is evidently here a personification (saṁkalpābhimāninī devatā, comm.), as is often ánumati 'assent.' No ms. reads namas, without accent, and SPP. accordingly prints námas in his text; ours emends to namas; the comm. takes the word as a noun; idam in a he explains by madabhilaṣitam. The Anukr. heeds not that the first pāda is triṣṭubh.


3. If (yát) thou runnest three leagues, five leagues, a horseman's day's journey, thence shalt thou come back; thou shalt be father of our sons.

The proper division of ā́yasi in c is doubtless ā́: ayasi, which is, however, read only by one of SPP's pada-mss.; the others give ā॰áyasi (cf. ā॰áyati at vi. 60. 2) or ā́॰ayasi, and this last is adopted by SPP.—quite unaccountably, since such accent and such division do not properly go together in any pada-text.