Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 53 (55)
53 (55). For some one's health and long life.
[Brahman.—saptarcam. āyuṣyam uta bārhaspatyam; āçvinam. trāiṣṭubham: 3. bhurij; 4. uṣṇiggarbhā ”rṣī pan̄kti; 5-7. anuṣṭubh.]
Verses 1-4 and 7 are found also in Pāipp.: 1 in xx.; 2-4 also in xx., but not with 1; 7 in v. In Kāuç. (besides the separate use of vs. 7, which see), addressed* with i. 9, 30; iii. 8, etc. by the teacher to the pupil in the ceremony of initiation (55. 17). And the comm. quotes it from Nakṣ. K. should be Çānti⌋ (18) with hymn 51 (which see). *⌊According to the comm., p. 40212, only vss. 1-6.⌋
Translated: Muir, v. 443; Grill, 15, 182; Henry, 20, 80; Griffith, i. 351; Bloomfield, 52, 551.
1. When thou, O Brihaspati, didst release [us] from Yama's otherworld existence, from malediction, the Açvins bore back death from us, O Agni, physicians of the gods, mightily.
'Other-world existence,' lit. 'the being yonder.' The verse is VS. xxvii. 9, and is found also in TS. iv. 1. 74, TA. x. 48 (Appendix), and MS. ii. 12. 5, the four texts nearly agreeing: they read ádha for ádhi in a (Ppp. appears to do the same); for b, bṛ́haspate abhíçaster ámuñcaḥ; in c, asmā́t for asmát (and MS. ūhatām). SPP. reads, for b, bṛ́haspater abhíçaster amuñcaḥ; the mss. are greatly at variance; half SPP's authorities read bṛ́haspate, which he ought accordingly to have adopted, since bṛ́haspates is ungrammatical, being neither one thing nor another; the comm., to be sure, has no scruple about taking it as a vocative: he bṛhaspateḥ! Our Bp. reads bṛ́haspáteḥ; P. has -pate ‘bhi-, which we followed in our text, but wrongly, as it is found in no other authority. For ámuñcas SPP. finds no authority; but it is given by our P.R.T., and, considering the necessity of the case, and the support of the other texts, that is enough. The pāda, then, should be made to agree with that of the parallel texts (changing our ‘bhí- to abhí-). Ppp. has a different text, bṛhaspatir abhiçastyā ’muñcat; its c, also, is peculiar: prati mṛtyum ahatām açvinā te. ⌊W. usually renders abhíçasti by 'imprecation.'⌋
2. Walk (kram) ye (two) together; leave not the body; let thy breath and expiration be here allies; live thou increasing a hundred autumns; [be] Agni thy best over-ruling shepherd.
Ppp. makes the second halves of this verse and of 4 exchange places, and in place of c, d reads saṁrabhya jīva çaradas suvarcā ’gniṣ etc. The change from 2d pers. in a to third in b is sudden beyond the usual liberal measure. ⌊In the Berlin ed., an accent-sign is missing under the ça of çatám.⌋
3. Thy life-time that is set over at a distance—[thy] expiration, breath, let them come again—Agni hath taken that from the lap of perdition; that I cause to enter again in thy self.
With a, b compare the similar half-verse xviii. 2. 26 a, b. The comm. explains átihitam as from either of the roots hi or dhā. Ppp. begins differently: yat tā ”yur; in b it reads prāṇo yūva te paretaḥ; and it leaves off te at the end. Prāt. ii. 46 notes ā ’hār in c ⌊render it rather 'brought hither or back'?⌋.
4. Let not breath leave this man; let not expiration, leaving him low, go away; I commit him to the seven sages (ṛ́ṣi); let them carry him happily (svastí) unto old age.
Ppp. fills out the meter of a by reading mā tvā prāṇo hāsīd yas te praviṣṭo, and begins its b thus: mā tvā ’pāno ‘v-; in c and d (its 2 c, d) it has dadhvahe and nayantu. Part of the mss. accent apānó ‘va- in b. SPP. reads, with the small majority of his mss., saptarṣíbhya in c (against our saptaṛṣ-); our mss. vary, as usual. With a, b compare the nearly equivalent xvi. 4. 3 a, b. The Anukr. apparently scans the first line as 7 + 11, but the pada-mss. mark the division after apānas (as 11 + 7). Henry fills the meter conjecturally by adding mó vyānó.
5. Enter ye in, O breath and expiration, as (two) draft-oxen a stall; let this treasure of old age increase here unharmed.
The first half-verse is also iii. 11. 5 a, b. In c, perhaps rather 'let this man, a treasury of old age' (so Henry).
6. We impel hither thy breath; I impel away thy yákṣma; let Agni here, desirable one, assign us life-time from all sides.
A corresponding verse is found in TS. i. 3. 144 and AÇS. ii. 10. 4, but with great difference of text: thus, ā́yuṣ ṭe viçváto dadhad ayám agnír váreṇyaḥ: pünas te prāṇá ā́ ’yati (AÇS. ā yātu) párā yākṣmaṁ suvāmi te.
7. Up out of darkness have we, ascending the highest firmament, gone to the sun, god among the gods, highest light.
This verse (with a different second pāda, jyótiṣ páçyanta üttaram, which Ppp. also gives) is RV. i. 50. 10, and found also in a whole series of other texts: VS. xx. 21 et al. (with svàḥ for jyótiṣ in b), TS. iv. 1. 74 (with páçyanto jyótir in b), TB. ii. 4. 49* (as TS.), TA. vi. 3. 2 (as TS.), MS. ii. 12. 5 et al. (with jyótiḥ p- in b), LÇS. ii. 12. 10 (with jyotiḥ p. u. svaḥ p. n. for b), ChU. iii. 17. 7 (as MS., but jyotiṣ p-).† It is used by Kāuç. (24. 32) in the āgrahāyaṇī ceremony, with the direction ity utkrāmati 'with this he steps upward'; and the schol. adds it (note to 55. 15) in the ceremony of initiation of a Vedic scholar, as one looks at the sun and asks his protection for the boy; and further (note to 58. 18), in the nirṇayana, or infant's first carrying out of doors. In Vāit. (24. 4) it accompanies the coming out of the bath in the agniṣṭoma. *⌊And ii. 6. 64: the d of ii. 4. 49 has uttaram.⌋ †⌊Also K. xxxviii. 5.⌋