Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 133

133. To a girdle: for long life etc.

[Agastya.—pañcarcam. mekhalādevatākam. trāiṣṭubham: 1. bhūrij; 2, 5. anuṣṭubh; 4. jagatī.]

Found also in Pāipp. v. Used by Kāuç. (47. 14-15) in a rite of sorcery, with the following hymn, for due preparation of girdle and staff; vs. 3 also alone in the same rite (47. 13), with laying fuel of bādhaka on the fire; and vss. 4 and 5 twice in the upanayana ceremony (56. 1; 57. 1), with tying on a girdle.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 432; Griffith, i. 319.

1. The god that bound on this girdle, that fastened [it] together (sam-nah), and that joined (yuj) [it] for us, the god by whose instruction we move—may he seek the further shore, and may he release us.

Ppp. has in c the singular carāmi. 'Further shore' is a familiar expression for the end of a difficult or dangerous act or process (prāripsitasya karmaṇaḥ samāptim, comm.). Tásya at beginning of c in our text is a misprint for yásya. ⌊The Anukr. refuses to sanction the contraction ye ’mām.⌋

2. Offered to art thou, offered unto; thou art the weapon of the seers (ṛṣi); partaking (pra-aç) first of the vow (vratá), be thou a hero-slayer, O girdle.

For the first pāda Ppp. has only the single word āhuta (perhaps by accidental omission); in d it reads avīraghnī. The comm. explains vrata as either 'vow' or, by the usual secondary application, 'milk etc' (kṣīrādikam); to abhihutā in a it prefixes an explanatory sampāta-.

3. Since I am death's student (brahmacārín), soliciting from existence (? bhūtá) a man (púruṣa) for Yama, him do I, by incantation (bráhman), by fervor, by toil, tie with this girdle.

It is the duty of a Vedic student to beg provision for his teacher. Ppp. begins b with bhūtāu niryācan. The comm. reads niryācam, explaining it as first person sing. (= yāce)! The result he takes to be "by this binding on of a girdle I impede the progress of my enemy." Pāda c has a redundant syllable.

4. Daughter of faith, born out of fervor, sister of the being-making seers was she; do thou, O girdle, assign to us thought (matí), wisdom; also assign to us fervor and Indra's power.

All the mss. (and both editions) accent babhū́va at end of b, as if a relative were expressed or implied in the line somewhere. The verse is really mixed triṣṭubh and jagatī; ⌊a is jagatī only by count; no in c looks like an intrusion⌋. ⌊As to the combination -sa ṛṣ-, see note to Prāt. iii. 46.⌋

5. Thou whom the ancient being-making seers bound about, do thou embrace me, in order to length of life, O girdle.