Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 24

24. To the waters: for blessings.

[Çaṁtāti (?).—abdevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Reckoned in Kāuç. (9. 2) to the bṛhachānti gaṇa, and (note to 7. 14) to the apāṁ suktāni; used in a rite for good-fortune (41. 14) with vi. 19 etc.: see under 19; and also (30. 13) in a healing ceremony for heart-burn, dropsy, etc.

Translated: Florenz, 279 or 31; Grill, 13, 161; Griffith, i. 258; Bloomfield, 12, 471.

1. They flow forth from the snowy (mountain); in the Indus somewhere [is their] gathering; may the heavenly waters give to me that remedy for heart-burn.

Ppp. reads, for a, b, himavataḥ prasravatas tās sindhum upagachataḥ. In d, the true reading is of course hṛddyo-, and SPP. so reads, though doubtless against his mss., as certainly against all ours; it is a very rare thing to find the full form written in such a case (and hence the pada-text blunder hṛ-dyota in i. 22. 1).

2. Whatever hath burnt (ā-dyut) in my eyes, and what in my heels, my front feet; may the waters remove all that—they of physicians the most excellent physicians.

The collocation of suffering parts in a, b is very odd; Ppp. seems to read for a, yad akṣibhyām ād-, and, for b, pārṣṇibhyāṁ hṛdayena ca; for d, tvaṣṭā riṣṭam ivā ’nasaḥ. One or two of our mss. (P.H.) agree with some of SPP's in reading karat at end of c; and two of his have níḥ before it. The pada-division subhiṣak॰tama is taught in Prāt. iv. 46.

3. Ye whose spouse is the Indus, whose king is the Indus, all ye streams that are—give us the remedy for this; for that would we enjoy you.

Ppp. exchanges the place of the two epithets in a. The comm. reads stana at end of b. Before sthána most of our mss. retain the final ḥ, as usual; SPP. does not note anything as to his authorities.