Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 22 (23)

22 (23). To the sun (?).

[Brahman.—dvyṛcam. lin̄goktadevatyam. 1. 2-p. l-av. virāḍgāyatrī; 2. 3-p. anuṣṭubh.]

Found also in Pāipp. xx. Both verses form a single long verse in SV. (i. 458). Appears in Kāuç. (66. 14), in the savayajñas, with vi. 31, on giving a spotted cow. In Vāit. (13. 8) it follows, in the agniṣṭoma, next after hymn 14.

Translated: Henry, 9, 61; Griffith, i. 338.

1. This one [is] a thousand for our seeing, thought of the poets, light in extent.

The translation is only mechanical, the real sense being wholly obscure. SV. reads ā́navo dṛçáḥ (for ā́ no dṛçé); Ppp., ā na ṛṣiṣ; and aditir for matir. SV. ends with vídharma. The comm. divides the verses differently, ending the first with sam āirayan, against the mss., the Anukr., the SV., and the evident connection ⌊but apparently with Ppp.⌋. The metrical definitions of the Anukr. are bad; each verse is 12 + 8, the second having an added pāda of 11 syllables.

2. The ruddy one sent together the collected dawns, faultless, like-minded, most-furious, in the gathered stall of the cow.

Even to make a mechanical version it has been necessary to read āirayat, with SV., which has further, at the end, manyumántaç citā́ góḥ; Ppp. gives īraya, and citayo goḥ.

The second anuvāka, ending here, has 9 hymns and 22 verses; the Anukr. quotation says dve dvitīye tu vidyāt.

⌊In the head-line of p. 150 of the Berlin edition, correct the misprinted kāṇḍa-number 6 to 7.⌋