Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 29

29. Against birds of ill omen.

[Bhṛgu.—yāmyam uta nāirṛtam. bārhatam: 1, 2. virāṇnāmagāyatrī; 3. 3-av. 7-p. virāḍaṣṭi.]

Not found in Pāipp. Used by Kāuç. (46. 7) with the two preceding hymns.

Translated: Florenz, 287 or 39; Griffith, i. 260; Bloomfield, 166, 475.

1. Them yonder let the winged missile come upon; what the owl utters, [be] that to no purpose, or that the dove makes its track (padá) at the fire.

The second and third pādas are RV. x. 165. 4 a, b (we had d in the last verse of the preceding hymn); RV. omits vā in c; its addition damages the meter of the pāda, but the Anukr. overlooks this. ⌊Pādas b, c also occur at MGS. ii. 17. 1 d—cf. under h. 27.⌋

2. Thy two messengers, O perdition, that come hither, not sent forth or sent forth, to our house—for the dove and owl be this no place.

The comm. reads etāu for etás in a; he renders ápadam by anāçrayabhūtam.

3. May it fly hither in order to non-destruction of heroes; may it settle (ā-sad) here in order to abundance of heroes; turned away, do thou speak away, toward a distant stretch (? saṁvát); so that in Yama's house they may look upon thee [as] sapless, may look upon [thee as] empty (ābhū́ka).

The sense would favor the accent ávāirahatya in a; and avīrahatyāyāi, which the comm. reads, would be a further improvement. The comm. also has papadyāt at end of a, and, for c, parām eva parāvatam. He explains ābhū́kam by āgatavantam. At the end of e, gṛhé ought, of course, to be gṛhè; but most of the mss. (all of ours that are noted) have gṛhé, and SPP. also has admitted it into his text. ⌊As to Yama's house, cf. Hillebrandt, Ved. Mythol., i. 512. For cā́kaçān, see Gram. §1008 b.⌋