Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 9

9. To win a woman's love.

[Jamadagni.—kāmātmadāivatam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp., but in ii. (not in xix., like the hymns that precede and follow). Used by Kāuç. (35. 21) with the preceding hymn, for the same purpose.

Translated: Weber, Ind. Stud. v. 264; Florenz, 258 or 10; Griffith, i. 249; Bloomfield, 101, 459.

1. Want (vāñch) thou the body of me, the feet; want the eyes; want the thighs; let the eyes, the hair of thee, lusting after me, dry up with love.

Ppp. puts tanvām (not -am) after pādāu in a, reads vāccha in b, begins c with akṣo, adds oṣṭhāu after keçās, and ends with āṣyatām. Read akṣyāù in c in our text (an accent-sign omitted over the āu). ⌊Delbrück, Vergleichende Syntax, i.386, joins mā́m with kā́mena: so Grégoire, KZ. xxxv. 83.⌋

2. I make thee cling to my arm, cling to my heart; that thou mayest be in my power, mayest come unto my intent.

The second half-verse is the same with iii. 25. 5 c, d, and nearly so with i. 34. 2 c, d ⌊cf. vi. 42. 3, note⌋. Ppp. reads, for a, b, māi tvā dūṣaṇimṛgaṁ kṛṇomi hṛdayaspṛgam; and begins c with mame ’d apa kr-.

3. They whose navel is a licking, in [whose] heart is made conciliation—let the kine, mothers of ghee, conciliate her yonder to me.

The comm. reads amū́s in d, and so is able to understand yā́sām at the beginning as relating to "women" understood, and not a gā́vas; and he explains āréhaṇam by āsvādanīyam 'something to be enjoyed by tasting.' The obscure and difficult first pāda is perhaps corrupt.