Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 40

40. For freedom from fear.

[Atharvan (?: 1-2. abhayakāmaḥ; 3. svastyayanakāmaḥ).—1-2. mantroktadevatye. jagatyāu. 3. āindrī. anuṣṭubh.]

The first two verses are found also in Pāipp. i., much altered. Used, according to Kāuç. (59. 26), by one who desires absence of danger, with vi. 48, with worship or offering to the seven seers in as many directions; and Keçava and the comm. regard it as further intended by 16. 8, in a rite for courage in an army; vss. 1, 2 are reckoned (note to 16. 8) to the abhaya gaṇa, and vs. 3 (note to 25. 36) to the svastyayana gaṇa; the comm. notes its application according to 139. 7 in the rite for one beginning Vedic study.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 373, also 242; Florenz, 300 or 52; Griffith, i. 266.

1. Let fearlessness, O heaven-and-earth, be here for us; let Soma, Savitar, make us fearlessness; be the wide atmosphere fearlessness for us; and by the oblation of the seven seers be there fearlessness for us.

In d, saptarṣīṇām is read by one or two mss. Ppp. has only the first pāda of this verse. Neither vs. 1 nor vs. 2 is a good jagatī; easy emendations would make both good triṣṭubh.

2. For this village [let] the four directions—let Savitar make for us sustenance, well-being, welfare; let Indra make for us freedom from foes, fearlessness; let the fury of kings fall on (abhi-yā) elsewhere.

Ppp. rectifies the redundancy of b by reading subhūtaṁ savitā dadhātu; in c, it reads açatrum and omits nas; for d, it has madhye ca viṣāṁ sukṛte syāma. The comm. reads açatrus in c.

3. Freedom from enemies for us below, freedom from enemies for us above; O Indra, make freedom from enemies for us behind, freedom from enemies in front.

Or, these four directions admit of being understood (so the comm.) as from the south, from the north, from the west, in the east. The verse is found also in the Kāṇva version of the Vājasaneyi-Saṁhitā (iii. 11. 6), with me adharā́g in a, udák kṛdhi in b, and paçcā́n me in c; further, in K. (xxxvii. 10).