Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 81

81. For successful pregnancy: with an amulet.

[Tvaṣṭar.—mantroktadevatyam utā ”dityam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Applied by Kāuç. (35. 11) in a rite for conception of a male, with the direction iti mantroktam badhnāti; and the schol. (note to 35. 26) quotes it also in a women's rite.

Translated: Weber, Ind. Stud. v. 239; Ludwig, p. 477; Griffith, i. 289; Bloomfield, 96, 501.—Cf. Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 153.

1. Thou art a holder, thou boldest (yam) the two hands, thou drivest away the demons. Seizing (grah) progeny and riches, this hath become a hand-clasp (parihastá).

In Ppp., the a of abhūt in d is elided. The comm. reads kṛṇvānas in c; he understands Agni to be addressed in a, b.

2. O hand-clasp, hold apart the womb, in order to placing of the embryo; O thou sign (? maryā́dā), put in a son; him do thou make to come, thou comer (? ā́gamā).

The obscure words maryādā and āgamā are apparently epithets of the parihasta; the comm. understands the ⌊first⌋ of the woman: maryādā = marya + ā-dā 'taken possession of by men'; ⌊and he takes āgame as = āgamane sati 'when sexual approach takes place,' which would be acceptable if it did not wholly disregard the accent⌋. One might conjecture maryadās 'giver of a male.' Ppp. has at end -gamaḥ.

3. The hand-clasp that Aditi wore [when] desiring a son—may Tvashṭar bind that on for her, saying "that she may give birth to a son."

Ppp. reads suvāt in d. For Aditi desiring a son, compare xi. 1. 1.