Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 108 (113)

108 (113). Against enemies: to Agni.

[Bhṛgu.—dvyṛcam. āgneyam. trāiṣṭubham: 1. bṛhatīgarbhā.]

Wanting in Pāipp. Used by Kāuç. (48. 37) in a witchcraft rite with hymns 31, 34, and 59 (see under 31); and both verses separately are reckoned to the duḥsvapnanāçana gaṇa (note to 46. 9).

Translated: Ludwig, p. 517; Henry, 42, 118; Griffith, i. 380.

1. Whoever seeks to harm us in secret, whoever us openly—us, O Agni, one of our people, knowingly, or a stranger—to meet them let the toothed áraṇī go; let there be of them no abode (vā́stu), O Agni, nor offspring.

The comm. explains araṇī as ārtikāriṇī rākṣasī 'a pain-causing she-demon'; by its form it should be a fem. to áraṇa 'strange.' Again (as at iv. 16. 1) SPP. unaccountably reads (with the comm., who explains it as an antarhitanāman) in a nas tāyát (instead of na stāyát), and in pada-text tāyát, although every known pada-ms. ⌊begins the word with s- and⌋ stāyát alone has etymological justification. Some of the saṁhitā-mss. (including our W.I.) read āví sv- in a-b. The mss. also vary between tā́n and tā́m (our Bp. and all our saṁhitā-mss. have the latter; both editions give the former). ⌊One does not easily see how the Anukr. justifies its definition.⌋

2. Whoever shall assail us asleep or waking, standing or moving, O Jātavedas, in accord with Vāiçvānara as ally, do thou meet and burn them out, O Jātavedas.

All SPP's pada-mss., and one of ours (D.), read suptā́m in a, by a frequent error. Ludwig suggests vāivasvatena for vāiçvānareṇa in c; it would certainly be an improvement to the sense.