Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 49 (51)
49 (51). To the spouses of the gods.
[Atharvam.—dvyṛcam. mantroktadevapatnīdevatākam. 1. ārṣī jagatī; 2. 4. p. pan̄kti.]
Not found in Pāipp. The verses are RV. v. 46. 7, 8, also in TB. iii. 5. 121 and MS. iv. 13. 10. Not used in Kāuç. (unless included in patnīvanta gaṇa: see under hymn 47). Vāit. has it (4. 8: not ix. 7. 6, comm.) in the parvan sacrifice, with one of the patnīsaṁyāja offerings.
Translated: Henry, 17, 75; Griffith, i. 349.
1. Let the spouses of the gods, eager, help us; let them help us forward unto offspring (? tují), unto winning of booty (vā́ja); they that are of earth, they that are in the sphere (vratá) of the waters—let those well-invoked goddesses bestow on us protection.
The translation implies the accent devī́s in d. The other texts read accordantly devīḥ suhavāḥ and yachata; ours substitutes yachantu and adapts suhávās to it, but absurdly leaves devīs vocative. The comm. reads yacchatu at the end; he explains tujáye by tokāyā ’patyāya.
2. And let the women (gnā́) partake (vī), whose husbands are gods—Indrāṇī, Agnāyī, Açvinī the queen; let Ródasī, let Varuṇānī listen; let the goddesses partake, [at] the season that is the wives'.
The other texts offer no variants, save that the RV. pada-text unaccountably reads in c ródasī íti, as if the word were the common dual, instead of a proper name. The verse can be read as of 40 syllables.