Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 135

135. To crush an enemy.

[Çukra.—mantroktavajradevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. v. Used by Kāuç. (47. 20) in the same rite of sorcery as the two preceding hymns, with the direction "do as stated in the text."

Translated: Griffith, i. 321.

1. When (yát) I eat, I make strength; thus do I take the thunderbolt, cutting to pieces (çat) the shoulders of him yonder, as Cachīpati of Vritra.

Skandhá 'shoulder' is always plural ⌊in AV.⌋, and so is not precisely equivalent to the word used to render it. Ppp. has for b, vajram anupātayati. Pāda b is deficient unless we read va-jṛ-am.

2. When I drink, I drink up, an up-drinker like the ocean; drinking up the breath of him yonder, we drink him up.

Ppp. combines samudrāi ’va in b, and reads, in c, d, saṁpivāṁ saṁpivāmy ahaṁ pivā.

3. When I swallow, I swallow up, a swallower-up like the ocean; swallowing up the breath of him yonder, we swallow him up.

Ppp. reads, for c, d, prāṇam amuṣya saṁgiraṁ saṁgirāmy ahaṁ giraṁ. The accent gírāmi in our text is doubtless wrong (read girā́mi), but it is read by all the authorities, and accordingly is adopted in both editions.