Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 69

69. For glory etc.

[Atharvan (? varcaskāmo yaçaskāmaç ca).—bārhaspatyam utā ”çvinam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Verses like the first two are found in Pāipp., in two different books (1 in ii., 2 in xix.), but perhaps correspond rather to the nearly equivalent verses ix. 1. 18, 19. It is employed by Kāuç. (10. 24) at the end of the medhājanana ceremony, with iii. 16 and ix. 1, on rising and wiping the face; also twice (12. 15 and 13. 6) in varcasya rites, with the same two hymns (and is reckoned to both varcasya gaṇas: notes to 12. 10 and 13. 1); further, in the ceremony on beginning Vedic study, with vi. 38, 39, 58 and others (139. 15); and vs. 3 in the savayajñas (68. 7), as expiation for an error in the ceremonial. In Vāit., in the sāutrāmaṇī (30. 13), the hymn accompanies, with vi. 19 and ix. 1. 18, the pouring out of the surā.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 240; Griffith, i. 283.

1. What glory [is] in the mountain, in the aragárāṭas, in gold, in kine, in strong-drink when poured out, [what] honey in sweet-drink, [be] that in me.

The verse corresponds nearly to ix. 1. 18, below; but the latter has a quite different first half, and with it Ppp. precisely agrees. What our aragarāṭa's are is wholly obscure, and the word is most probably a corruption. The comm. explains it in two alternative ways: as kings that 'go' (aṭa) in 'spoke(ara)-swallowers(gara),' i.e. chariots; or, as 'shouts' (rāṭa) of soldiers that 'go' (ga) at the 'enemy' (ara = ari)!

2. O ye Açvins, lords of beauty! anoint me with the honey of bees, that I may speak brilliant words among the people.

The verse is found below as ix. 1. 19, with the difference of a single word (várcasvatīm for bhárgasv-). The comm. reads āvadāmi in d. ⌊SPP. gives the fuller spelling an̄ktam: cf. Gram. § 231 a.⌋

3. In me [be] splendor, also glory, also the fatness (páyas) that belongs to the offering; let Prajāpati fix (dṛṅh) that in me, as the heaven in the sky.

The verse corresponds to iii. 1 in the Nāigeya supplement to the Sāma-Veda (or SV. i. 603), which, however, rectifies the meter of c by reading parameṣṭhī́ for tán máyi. "Heaven" and "sky" in d are the same word; the comm. renders the latter by "atmosphere." The Anukr. does not note the deficiency in c.