Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 59

59. For protection to cattle.

[Atharvan ⌊?⌋.—rāudram uta mantroktadevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Reckoned by Kāuç. (9. 2) to the bṛhachānti gaṇa, and used (41. 14), with vi. 19, 23, 24, etc., for good fortune; and also (50. 13), with vi. 1, 3, etc., in a similar rite.

Translated: Grill, 65, 163; Griffith, i. 277; Bloomfield, 144, 490.

1. To the draft-oxen ⌊do thou⌋ first, to the milch kine ⌊do thou⌋, O arundhatī́, to the non-milch cow, in order to vigor (váyas), to four-footed creatures do thou yield protection.

For the arundhatī́ cf. iv. 12 and v. 5; the comm. identifies it with the sahadevī. Instead of tvam in a, Ppp. reads nas, which is better. The sense of c is very doubtful; Grill conjectures avayase, to fill out the meter as well as ease the translation; the comm. explains vayase as a cow or horse or the like under five years old; perhaps the corruption of the reading is a deeper one. Ádhenu may signify young kine, not yet yielding milk. Both this verse and vs. 3 are defective by a syllable.

2. Let the herb, the arundhatī́, allied with the gods (?), yield protection; may it make the cow-stall rich in milk, and the men (púruṣa) free from disease (yákṣma).

The translation implies the emendation of sahá devī́s in b to sahádevī; this the comm. gives (it is conjectured also by Grill); it may be here simply the name of the plant, but yet probably with pregnant implication of its etymological sense. Ppp., in d, reads -mām and pāuruṣām.

3. I appeal to the all-formed, well-portioned, vivifying one; let it conduct the hurled missile of Rudra far away from our kine.

The comm. understands, in b, achā vadāmi, and explains jīvalām as jīvanaṁ lāti dadāti.