Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 31

31. At rising of the sun (or moon).

[Uparibabhrava.—gavyam. gāyatram.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix., as in RV. (x. 189. 1-3), SV. (ii. 726-8),* VS. (iii. 6-8), TS. (i. 5. 3¹). K. (vii. 13), MS. (i. 6. 1). Used by Kāuç. (66. 14) in the savayajñas, with a spotted cow as sava. And by Vāit. in the agnyādheya ceremony (6. 3), as the sacrificer approaches the āhavaniya fire; and again in the sattra (33. 28), spoken by the Brahman-priest to the hotar, after the mānasastotra. *⌊Also in i. 631-3 = Nāigeya-çākhā v. 46-8.⌋

Translated: as RV. hymn, by Max Müller, ZDMG. ix. (1855), p. XI; Geldner, Siebenzig Lieder des RV., 1875, p. 57; Ludwig, number 160; Grassmann, ii. 433; and as AV. hymn, by Florenz, 289 or 41; Griffith, i. 262.

1. Hither hath stridden this spotted steer, hath sat upon his mother in the east, and going forward to his father, the heaven (svàr).

All the texts agree in this verse, except that TS. has ásanat and púnaḥ in b, while Ppp. has prayat in c. It seems to be a description of the rising of a heavenly body,—the comm. and the translators say, the sun; but the epithet "spotted," and the number thirty in the third verse point rather to the moon. The "mother" is of course the earth, upon which it seems to rest a moment.

2. He moves between the shining spaces, from the breath of this outbreathing [universe]; the bull (mahiṣá) hath looked forth unto the heaven (svàr).

RV. (with which, through the whole hymn, SV. and VS. entirely agree) reads (as does TS.) apānatī́ (p. apa॰anatī́) at end of b; in c, it reads dívam for svàḥ. TS. inverts the order of a and b, and has the same c as our text; on the other hand, MS. has our b, but arṇavé (for rocanā́) in a, and a wholly peculiar c: práti vām sū́ro áhabhiḥ. Ppp. has (nearly as TS.), for a, b, yasya prāṇād apānaty antaç carati rocanaḥ; and divam (with RV.) at the end. The sense of the verse is very obscure, made so by the unintelligible second pāda; Roth suggests apānati ⌊as 3d singular⌋, with rocanā "stars" as subject: "They die at his breath": but this teems with difficulties. ⌊In Geldner's note, anati was taken as 3d plural.⌋ Our P.M.I.R.T.K., and all SPP's authorities, separate rocanā́ asyá in saṁhitá (the pada-text reading -nā́), and SPP. has accordingly, properly enough, adopted it in his text: see the note to Prāt. iii. 34. ⌊Ppp. also has vyākhyan.⌋

3. Thirty domains (dhā́man) he rules over; voice, the bird, hath set up, to meet the day with the lights of morning.

This translation is one of despair, and of no value, like the others that are given of the verse. Taken by itself, the first pāda is well enough, and seems most naturally (as noted above) to refer to the thirty days of the moon's synodical revolution, or spaces of the sky traversed by it in them; to understand it of the thirty divisions of the day (muhūrta) looks like an anachronism; and thirty gods (Ludwig) is wholly senseless. ⌊Roth observes: Ushas, in returning to her point of departure, traverses thirty yojanas (RV. i. 123. 8): the path of the light around the world thus appears to be divided into thirty stages.⌋ The variety of reading of the texts indicates, as in many other like cases, the perplexity of the text-makers. RV. (with SV.VS.) has, for b, vā́k pataṁgā́ya dhīyate; TS. and MS. have. pataṁgā́ya, but TS. follows it with çiçriye, and MS. with

{{smaller block|hūyate. Ppp. reads -gāya su çriyat. In c, RV. (etc.) reads áha, particle, for áhas, and the comm. does the same; TS. gives, for the whole pāda, práty asya vaha dyúbhiḥ; while MS. substitutes our 2 c, in its RV. version, having given its wholly independent version of this as 2 c (see above); Ppp. has at end divi. In a, MS. reads triṅçáddhāmā, as compound; the other texts (and three of SPP's authorities) have triṅçád dhā́ma (the pada-reading is dhā́ma). Both TS. and MS., it may be added, put vs. 3 before 2.

With this hymn ends the third anuvāka, of 11 hymns and 33 verses; the extracted item of Anukr. is simply tṛtīya (see end of the next anuvāka).