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Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 16 (17)

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1488908Atharva-Veda SamhitaBook VII, Hymn 16 (17)William Dwight Whitney

16 (17). Prayer to Savitar (or Brihaspati).

[Bhṛgu.—sāvitram. trāiṣṭubham.]

Not found in Pāipp., but occurs as VS. xxvii. 8, and in TS. (iv. i. 73) and MS. (ii. 12. 5). Used by Kāuç. (59. 18) in a kāmya rite with hymn 2 etc.: see hymn 2; but to it alone seems to belong (so also comm.) the added direction "wakens a Vedic student ⌊found asleep after sunrise (abhyudita)⌋"; since in Vāit. (5. 9), in the agnyādheya ceremony, one awakens with it priests who may have fallen asleep. Both applications seem to imply (as Henry suggests) the reading bodhaya in a.

Translated: Henry, 7, 58; Griffith, i. 335.


1. O Brihaspati, Savitar, increase thou him; enlighten him unto great good-fortune; however sharpened, sharpen him further; let all the gods revel after him.

The other texts make b and c exchange places; in a, they read savitar without accent (as does also the comm.; it suits better with the singular verbs that follow), and bodháya for vardháya; in (our) b, they give vardháya for jyotáya (the comm. dyotaya); in (our) c, VS.TS. read saṁtarā́m; in d, MS. inserts ca after víçve.