Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 76

76. For a kṣatríya's security from death.

[Kabandha.—caturṛcam. sāṁtapanāgneyam. ānuṣṭubham: 3. kakummatī.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Used by Kāuç. (50. 4), with i. 26, 27 and vi. 3, by one desirous of success in conquest, and for other like purposes.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 459; Griffith, i. 286.

1. They who sit about him, who pile on [fuel] in order to beholding [him]—let Agni, fully kindled, with his tongues arise out of [their] heart.

The sense is somewhat obscure. In b, cákṣase probably 'that he may become conspicuous'; the comm. very strangely renders it 'for injury' (hiṅsāyāi) and regards the "they" as demons and the like. Ppp. begins yene ’daṁ par-, and elides the a of agnir in c.

2. Of the heating (? sāṁtapaná) Agni I take hold of the track (? padá), in order to length of life (ā́yus)—out of whose mouth the soothsayer (addhātí) sees the smoke arising.

Ppp. reads, for c, d, dhātur yasya paçyata mama dyantaç çritaḥ, corrupt. The comm. explains pada as either 'place' (sthāna) or 'sound' (çabda).

3. He who knoweth the fuel of him, piled on by the kṣatríya—he setteth not the foot (padá) in detriment unto death.

Ppp. elides the initial a of asya in a, and begins c mā vihvare. To the comm., abhihvāra is 'a roundabout crooked cause of meeting death.'

4. They that go about (paryāyín) do not slay him, he goes not down to the dead (? sanná)—the kṣatríya who, knowing, takes the name of Agni unto length of life.

Ppp. has, in b, evam for ava; and, in c, viçvā for vidvān. The comm. understands sannān as '(the enemies) even when in his neighborhood'; Ludwig, 'die [im Hinterhalt?] gelagerten': cf. TB. ii. 4. 7¹¹ sannā́n mā́ ’va gāta.

⌊A supplementary note from Roth says that Ppp. has, inserted just before iv. 9. 7 of the Vulgate, the following: nāi ’naṁ ghnantu paryāyaṇo na manvāṁ iva gacchati: jane mana pramīyate yas tvāṁ bibharty āñjana (cf. iv. 9. 5 d).⌋