Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 99

99. For safety: to Indra.

[Atharvan.—āindram: 3. sāumyā sāvitrī ca. ānuṣṭubham: 3. bhurig bṛhatī.]

[Partly prose, "vs." 3.⌋ Found also in Pāipp. xix. No use of the hymn is made by Kāuç. except in connection with its two predecessors, as explained under hymn 97. But Vāit. has it in the agniṣṭoma, as whispered stotra (18. 16).

Translated: Grill, 18, 168; Griffith, i. 299; Bloomfield, 123, 510.

1. Unto thee, O Indra, on account of width, thee against (purā́) distress I call; I call on the stern corrector, the many-named, sole-born.

In spite of its wrong accent (cf. aṇimatás, sthavimatás*) várimatas is probably an adverb in tas. The comm. interprets it, doubtless correctly, "for the sake of width" (urutvād dhetoḥ): i.e., of free space, opposed to distress or narrowness. ⌊The derivatives of aṅh and uru are in frequent antithesis, as, e.g., at RV. v. 24. 4.⌋ 'Sole-born,' i.e. 'unique.' Ppp. ends b with aṅhúraṇebhyaḥ. *⌊MS. iii. 10. 4, p. 135, 1. 4.⌋

2. The hostile (? sénya) weapon that goes up today, desiring to slay us—in that case we put completely about us Indra's two arms.

Ppp. reads at the beginning yo ‘dya, and at the end pari dadmahe, which rectifies the meter of d. The pada mss. strangely read jighāṅsam in b; both editions make the necessary emendation to -san, which the comm. also has. The comm. further has the better reading dadhmas, as have three of our mss. (Bp.M.T.); and this ⌊which, in connection with the Ppp. reading, suggests the emendation dadhmahe⌋ is adopted in our text, though not in SPP's. The metrical irregularity of the verse should not have been overlooked by the Anukr. ⌊Cf. i. 20. 2 a, b.⌋

3. We put completely about the two arms of Indra the savior; let him save us. God Savitar! king Soma! make thou me well-willing, in order to well-being.

In this verse, only our Bp.M. read dadhmas, but it is adopted in our text. The comm. again gives it. Ppp. has dadmān; and in d it reads, for kṛṇu, kṛṇutam, which is preferable for sense, though it makes the verse still less metrical. The verse is bṛhatī only by count.