Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 62 (64)
62 (64). To Agni: against enemies.
[Kaçyapa Mārīca.—āgneyam. jagatī.]
Found also, almost without variant, in Pāipp. xx. Kāuç (69. 7) uses it, with xii. 2, in the preparation of the house-fire, with scattering of holy water. In Vāit. (29. 9) it appears in the agnicayana.
Translated: Henry, 24, 88; Griffith, i. 357.
1. This Agni, lord of the good, household priest, conquered them of increased virility (?), as a chariot-warrior [conquers] footmen; set down on earth in the navel, brightly shining, let him put under foot them who desire to fight [us].
Our pādas a, c, d are b, c, d of a verse that is found in VS. xv. 51, TS. iv. 7. 133, MS. ii. 12. 4 with the following first pāda: ā́ vācó mádhyam aruhad bhuraṇyús; they also read cékitānas for vṛddhávṛṣṇas, and, at beginning of c, pṛṣṭhé pṛthivyā́s, and TS. has kṛṇute in d. Ppp. has in c pṛthivyā(s), which is better. The new version of our text so decidedly calls for an accus. in a that the translation implies vṛddhávṛṣnyān, or else the understanding of -vṛṣṇas as accus. pl. of -ṣan, which is perhaps not impossible, though against usage in composition. The comm. reads -ṇyas, also patnīm in b (having to labor hard to make out a sense for the latter). The mss. vary between patnī́n and pattī́n (our Bp.P.M.W.E.I, have the former). The first pāda is triṣṭubh.