Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 136

136. To fasten and increase the hair.

[Atharvan (keçavardhanakāmaḥ ⌊vītahavyaḥ⌋).—vānaspatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 2. 1-av. 2-p. sāmni bṛhatī.]

Not found in Pāipp. Used by Kāuç. (31. 28), with the following hymn, in a remedial rite for the growth of the hair.

Translated: Zimmer, p. 68; Grill, 50, 176; Griffith, i. 321; Bloomfield, 31, 536.

1. Thou art born divine on the divine one, [namely] the earth, O herb; thee here, O down-stretcher, we dig in order to fix the hair.

The comm. explains the plant addressed to be the kācamācī etc.; nitatnī apparently not the name, but an epithet, "sending its roots far down" (nyakprasaraṇaçīlā, comm.).

2. Fix thou the old ones, generate those unborn, and make longer those born.

The comm. strangely divides vss. 2 and 3 differently, adding 3 a, b to 2, and leaving 3 c, d to form by themselves a verse. ⌊The Anukr. scans as 9 + 9. The "verse" seems to be prose.⌋

3. What hair of thine falls down, and what one is hewn off with its root, upon it I now pour with the all-healing plant.

The comm., as well as all the mss. (and both editions), has the false form vṛçcáte (for vṛçcyáte).