Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 89 (94)
89 (94). To Agni and the waters.
[Sindhudvīpa.—caturṛcam. āgneyam. ānuṣṭubham: 4. 3-p. nicṛtparoṣṇih.]
⌊Partly prose—"verse" 4.⌋ The first three verses are found also in Pāipp. i. Various use is made of the hymn and of its several verses in the sūtras. In Kāuç. it is addressed to the holy water (42. 13) on occasion of the Vedic student's return home, and (42. 14) vss. 1, 2, 4 accompany his laying of fuel on the fire after sunset; with vs. 3 (57. 24) his hands are washed in the upanayana ceremony, and with vs. 4 (57. 27) he partakes of hot food; two phrases occurring in the latter (edho ‘si, tejo ‘si) appear (6. 12, 13) in the parvan sacrifice, but are hardly to be regarded as quotations from it (the comm., however, considers them such); and the schol. (note to 46. 17) and comm. reckon the hymn as intended by the snānīyās, or verses to be recited at the bath taken after the death of one's teacher. In Vāit. (3. 18), vss. 1-3 accompany in the parvan sacrifice the priests' cleansing; vs. 1 (or more?) in the agniṣṭoma (24. 6) is repeated on approach to the āhavanīya fire; with vs. 3, the sacrificer's wife is decked in the cāturmāsya sacrifice (8. 20); with vs. 4, fuel is laid on the fire in the parvan sacrifice (4. 1).
Translated: Henry, 36, 106; Griffith, i. 373.
1. The heavenly waters have I honored (cāy); with sap have we been mingled; with milk, O Agni, have I come; me here unite with splendor.
2. Unite me, O Agni, with splendor, with progeny, with life-time; may the gods know me as such; may Indra know, together with the seers (ṛ́ṣi).
The verse is repeated below as ix. i. 15 and x. 5. 47. It is RV. i. 23. 24; RV. reads, in c, asya unaccented, as the comm. also defines our word to be; and one or two of our mss. (Bp.K.R.s.m.) so give it. The comm. explains me asya by enam mām (supplying pūtam), or, alternatively, etādṛçasya me (supplying abhimataphalaṁ sādhayitum). Ppp. reads, for b, prajayā ca bahuṁ kṛdhi, and combines in d saharṣ-. ⌊Perhaps the Anukr. scans c, d as 7 + 9.⌋
3. O waters, do ye carry forth both this reproach and what is foul
(mála), and what untruth I have uttered in hate, and what I have sworn fearlessly (?).
The majority of our mss. (all but R.T.) accent ā́pas in a, and SPP. reports that three of his mss. also do the same: both texts emend to āpas. Ppp. omits abhi in c, and combines in d çepe ‘bhī-. The verse is found, with pervading differences of reading, as RV. i. 23. 22, and also, less discordant, in VS. vi. 17, ĀpÇS. vii. 21. 6, LÇS. ii. 2. 11. VS. differs from our text only by accenting abhīrúṇam; Āp. has vā for ca in c and d; LÇS. agrees throughout. The RV. text is this: idáṁ āpaḥ prá vahata yát kíṁ ca duritám máyi: yád vā ’hám abhidudróha yád vā çepá utā́ ’nṛtam. The sense of our abhī́ruṇam at the end is extremely questionable; very possibly it may contain abhi and have nothing to do with the root bhī; it occurs only in this verse. The comm. explains it as abhi and ruṇa for ṛṇa 'debt.'
4. Fire-wood (édhas) art thou, may I be prosperous (edh); fuel (samidh) art thou, may I altogether prosper (sam-edh); brightness art thou, put thou brightness in me.
⌊Prose.⌋ This address to the pieces of kindling-wood or fuel piled on the sacred fire, punning on the similarity of the roots idh 'burn' and edh 'prosper,' is found also in VS. xxxviii. 25, K. ix. 7, xxxviii. 5, AÇS. iii. 6. 26, LÇS. ii. 12. 12, ÇGS. ii. 10. VS. and ÇGS. have all three parts, only omitting sám edhiṣīya in the second*; LÇS. has only the first two addresses, and reads in each edhiṣīmahi; AÇS. reads as LÇS., but has also our third address prefixed as its first, with the variant me dehi. The Anukr. scans 8 + 9: 10 = 27. ⌊MGS. has the first two addresses at i. 1. 16 (cf. p. 149, 156); then follows apo adyānv acāriṣam; and tejo ‘si is at ii. 2. 11 (cf. p. 150).⌋ *⌊And reading edhiṣīmáhi in the first.⌋