Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 137

137. To fasten and increase the hair.

[Atharvan (⌊keçavardhanakāmaḥ⌋ vītahavyaḥ).—vānaspatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Of this hymn only the second verse is found in Pāipp. (i.). It is used by Kāuç. only with the preceding hymn, as there explained.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 512; Zimmer, p. 68; Grill, 50, 176; Griffith, i. 321; Bloomfield, 31, 537.

1. [The herb] which Jamadagni dug for his daughter, [as] hair-increaser, that one Vītahavya brought from Asita's houses.

Or vītahavya may be understood (with the Anukr.) as an epithet, 'after the gods had enjoyed his oblations.' The comm. takes it as a proper name, as also ásitasya (=kṛṣṇakeçasyāi ’tatsaṁjñasya muneḥ).

2. To be measured with a rein were they, to be after-measured with a fathom: let the black hairs grow out of thy head like reeds.

The Ppp. version, though corrupt, suggests no different reading. The comm., startled at the exaggeration implied in abhīçu, declares it to mean "finger." In d, asitā́s is read by all the mss., and consequently by both editions; it apparently calls for emendation to ásitās, and is so translated kṛṣṇavarṇāḥ, comm.). The Anukr. seems to admit the contraction naḍe ’va in 2 c, 3 c.

3. Fix thou the root, stretch the. end, make the middle stretch out, O herb; let the black hairs grow out of thy head like reeds.

Yāmaya, in b, is yamaya in pada-text, by Prāt. iv. 93.