Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 72

72. For virile power.

[Atharvān̄giras.—çepo ‘rkadcvatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 1. jagatī; 3. bhurij.]

Found also in Pāipp. xx. Used by Kāuç. (40. 16, 17) in a rite for sexual vigor, with an amulet. The arka-thread spoken of in 16 may find its explanation in the peculiarity reported by Roxburgh (Flora Indica, ii. 31): "A fine sort of silky flax is in some parts prepared from the bark of the young shoots."

Translated: Griffith, i. 474.—Cf. iv. 4; vi. 101.

1. As the black snake spreads himself at pleasure, making wondrous forms (vápus), by the Asura's magic (māyá), so let this arid suddenly make thy member altogether correspondent (? sáṁsamaka), limb with limb.

The comm. reads sitas instead of asitás in a, and explains it as 'a man that is bound.' He takes arka as 'an amulet of arka-tree' (Calotropis gigantea, of which various medicinal use is made). In d he reads saṁ samagam and paraphrases the latter with 'of like going' (samānagamana). The Petersburg Lexicon conjectures for sáṁsamaka 'joined to one another.' The verse is mixed triṣṭubh and jagatī.

2. As the member of the tayādara is made big by the wind—as great as is the member of the párasvant, so great let thy member grow.

What creature the parasvant is is unknown (Pet. Lex. "perhaps the wild ass"); the tayādara is yet more obscure, being mentioned only here. The comm. reads tāyodaram, and defines the tayodara as 'a kind of animal'; the bha of sthūlabha he takes as representing a verbal root: sthāulyena bhāsamānam.

3. As much of a limb as is that of the párasvant, that of the elephant, and that of the ass—as great as of the vigorous (vājín) horse, so great let thy member grow.

The comm. reads and explains yāvad an̄gīnam at the beginning as two independent words; the metrical irregularity, as well as the anomalousness of the word as a derivative and compound, suggest emendation to yā́vad án̄gam (an̄gam = pasas). ⌊Cf. Pischel, Ved. Stud., i. 83, with reference to the ass.⌋

The seventh anuvāka, having 11 hymns and 34 verses, ends here; and the mss. quote the old Anukr. to this effect: catasṛbhir adhikas tu saptamaḥ syāt.