Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 59 (61)

59 (61). Against cursers.

[Bādarāyaṇi.—arināçanamantroktadevatākam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xx. (as part of our hymn vi. 37). This verse has the same pratīka as vi. 37. 3; but the comm. ⌊on vi. 37, page 70, line 2⌋, doubtless with reason, regards vi. 37. 3 as intended at Kāuç. 48. 37 ⌊Bloomfield there gives both⌋; this hymn, then, is left without ritual use. ⌊In fact, the comm. on this hymn, at p. 418, line 4, does cite yo naḥ çapāt for use in the same rite for which he cited it in his comment on vi. 37.⌋

Translated: Henry, 23, 86; Griffith, i. 355.

1. Whoever shall curse us not cursing, and whoever shall curse us cursing, like a tree smitten by a thunderbolt, let him dry up from the root.

The first half-verse is vi. 37. 3 a, b, and is found in other texts* as there referred to. Ppp. has the whole verse as our vi. 37. 3, and it combines in c, as often, vṛkṣāi ’va. The Anukr. seems to ratify the contraction vṛkṣe ’va. *⌊See also Kaṭha-hss. p. 74.⌋

The fifth anuvāka ends here; it has 8 hymns and 25 verses; the Anukr. quotation for the verses is pañcai ’vo ”rdhvaṁ viṅçateḥ pañcame syuḥ, and, for the hymns, pañcamo ‘ṣṭāu.

Here ends also the sixteenth prapāṭhaka.