Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 79
79. For abundance at home.
[Atharvan.—saṁsphānadevatyam. gāyatram: 3. 3-p. prājāpatyā jagatī.]
⌊"Verse" 3 is prose.⌋ Found also in Pāipp. xix.; and in TS. iii. 3.82-3. Kāuç. uses the hymn in a rite ⌊21. 7⌋ for prosperity (for fatness in grain, comm.), and it is reckoned (note to 19. 1) to the puṣṭika mantras. Vāit. (31. 4) has it in the sattra, on the ekāṣṭakā day, with offerings to the two deities mentioned.
Translated: Griffith, i. 288; Bloomfield, 141, 499.
1. Let the lord of the cloud (nábhas) here, the fattener, protect us, [grant] unequalledness (?) in our houses.
For the obscure ásamāti in c, the minor Pet. Lex. conjectures ásamarti 'unharmedness,' which TS. has in the corresponding pāda, making an anuṣṭubh of the verse, with gṛhā́ṇām ásamartyāi bahávo no gṛhā́ asan for second half; the comm. explains it as 'absence of division (pariccheda)* of the grain lying in our storehouses'; Ppp. is defaced, but appears to have read something different. TS. further has nábhasā purás for -saspátis in a. Most of our saṁhitā mss. (except E.H.s.m.O.) read ṇaḥ after gṛhéṣu; SPP. reports nothing of the kind from his authorities. The comm. regards Agni as intended by the "fattener." *⌊I think the comm. intends rather 'absence of determination or measure': i.e. "may the grain be abundant beyond measure."⌋
2. Do thou, O lord of the cloud, maintain for us sustenance (ū́rj) in our houses; let prosperity, let good (vásu) come.
TS. prefixes sá at the beginning, and has, for b, ū́rjaṁ no dhehi bhadráyā, then running off into an entirely different close. The comm. regards Vāyu as addressed.
3. O divine fattener, thou art master of thousand-fold prosperity; bestow upon us of that; assign to us of that; of that from thee may we be sharers.
In the first clause, Ppp. corrupts to sahasrapoçiṣe; it omits tasya no rāsva, and has bhakṣīmahi for bhaktivāṅsaḥ syāma. TS. has sahasrap-, and, after the division-mark, sā́ no rāsvā́ ’jyānim etc. (an entirely different close). The last part of the verse is found in K. v. 4, which reads at the end bhaktivāno bhūyāsma; and TB. iii. 7. 57 has the last phrase with ⌊tásyās te⌋ bhakṣivā́ṇaḥ syāma: a curious set of variants, all irregular or anomalous. The verse, according to the comm., is addressed to the sun.