Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 64 (66)

64 (66). Against evil influence of a black bird.

[Yama.—dvyṛcam. mantroktadevatyam uta nāirṛtam. 1. bhurig anuṣṭubh; 2. nyan̄husāriṇī bṛhatī.]

Found also, with very different text, in Pāipp. xx. Used by Kāuç. (46. 47), in a rite to avert the evil influence of a bird of ill omen.

Translated: Grill, 41, 186; Henry, 25, 88; Griffith, i. 357; Bloomfield, 167, 555.

1. What here the black bird, flying out upon [it], has made fall—let the waters protect me from all that difficulty, from distress.

Ppp. reads thus: yad asmān kṛṣṇaçakunir niṣpatann ānaçe: ā. m. t. enaso d. p. viçvataḥ. The second half occurs also in LÇS. ii. 2. 11, which (like Ppp.) has viçvataḥ at the end.* Prāt. iv. 77 appears to require as pada-reading in b abhi-niḥpátan; but all the pada-mss. give -niṣp-, and SPP. also adopts that in his pada-text: abhinipatan would be a decidedly preferable reading. The second half-verse is found again as x. 5. 22 c, d. The comm. says that the bird is a crow. *⌊And enaso in c.⌋

2. What here the black bird hath stroked down with thy mouth, O perdition—let the householder's fire release me from that sin.

Ppp. has instead: yadi vā ’mṛkṣata kṛṣṇaçakunir mukhena nirṛte tava: agniṣ tat sarvaṁ çundhatu havyavān̄ ghṛtasúdanaḥ, which is the same with ĀpÇS. ix. 17. 4 (only this begins yad apā ’mṛkṣac chakunir, rectifying the meter, and has -vāḍ in d). The second half-verse is found without variant in AÇS. ii. 7. 11. The comm. takes amṛkṣat from root mṛç, as the translation does; cf. TS. iii. 2. 6², yát kṛṣṇaçakunáḥ...avamṛçét...yác chvā́ ’vamṛçét. ⌊See the note of Henry or Griffith.⌋ Such a verse (8 + 11: 8 + 8) is elsewhere called by the Anukr. an urobṛhatī.