Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 21

21. To healing plants.

[Çaṁtāti.—cāndramasam. ānuṣṱubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. 1. Used by Kāuç. (30. 8) in a remedial rite for growth of hair.

Translated: Florenz, 275 or 27; Grill, 50, 160; Griffith, i. 256; Bloomfield, 30, 470.—See also Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 150.

1. These three earths (pṛthivī́) that there are—of them earth (bhū́mi) is the highest; from off their skin have I seized a remedy.

Ppp. elides the initial a of aham in c, and its d is sam u jagrabha bheṣajam. ⌊See Griffith's note.⌋

2. Thou art the most excellent of remedies, the best of plants; as Soma, lord (? bhága) in the night-watches (yā́ma), like Varuṇa among the gods.

The comm. takes yāma in the sense here given (ahorātrabhāgeṣu sādhyeṣu), and Soma as 'moon,' which is doubtless true; but he renders bhagas by 'and the sun.' Ppp. exchanges the place of 'remedies' and 'plants,' and reads yajñas for somas in c. The Anukr. appears to authorize bhage ’va in c.

2. O ye wealthy (revánt) ones, doing no violence, desirous to bestow ye desire to bestow; both are ye hair-fasteners, and also hair-increasers.

Ppp. exchanges the place of -dṛṅhaṇīs and -vardhanīs, and reads the equivalent siṣāsantīs for siṣāsavas. Anādhṛṣyā́s in a would seem a better reading. The Anukr. overlooks the deficiency in a; insertion of sthā after revatīs would rectify it.