Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 77

77. For recovery and retention of what is lost.

[Kabandha.—jātavedasam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. The comm. regards this hymn, and not vi. 44 (which has the same pratīka), as intended in Kāuç. 36. 5, in a rite concerning women (the prevention of a woman's escape, etc., comm.).

Translated: Ludwig, p. 468; Griffith, i.286; Bloomfield, 106, 496.

1. The heaven hath stood; the earth hath stood; all this living world hath stood; on their base (āsthána) the mountains have stood; I have made the horses stand in their station.

The first half-verse is 44. 1 a, b, above; the second is nearly vii. 96. 1 c, d, below. But Ppp. is different in c, d, and partly illegible; tiṣṭha...ime sthāmann açvā ’raṅsata can be read. The comm. inserts 'thee, O woman' in d, and regards açvān as an incomplete comparison: 'as they bind vicious horses with ropes'! Prāt. iv. 96 prescribes the unchanged pada-reading atiṣṭhipam. ⌊Most of SPP's authorities have asthuḥ in saṁhitā.⌋

2. He who hath attained the going away, he who hath attained the coming in, the turning hither, the turning in—he who is herdsman, on him I call.

The first half-verse is nearly RV. x. 19. 5 a, b, and the second exactly ib. 4 c, d. RV. reads vyáyanam for parā́yaṇam in a, and parā́yaṇam for nyā́yanam in b. The comm. appears to read nyayanam.

3. O Jātavedas, cause to turn in; be thy turners hither a hundred, thy turners this way a thousand; with them get for us again.

Ppp. has, for d, tābhir enaṁ ni vartaya, thus defining the object of all this recovering action to be some male person or thing. The comm. interprets it all through as a woman who has escaped or wants to escape. RV. x. 19 is aimed at kine. Pādas b and c are found in VS. xii. 8, which also ends with púnar no naṣṭám ā́ kṛdhi púnar no rayím ā́ kṛdhi. Santi would be a better reading in b.