Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 96 (101)

96 (101). For quiet kidneys (?).

[Kapiñjala.—prākṛtam ⌊?⌋; vāyasam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found in Pāipp. xx. Occurs in Kāuç. (48. 41) just after the preceding hymn, but in a different rite against an approaching enemy, who is made to drink a preparation. *⌊Berlin ms. prāg uktam.⌋

Translated: Henry, 39, iii; Griffith, i. 376.

1. The kine have sat in their seat; the bird has flown to its nest; the mountains have stood in their site; I have made the (two) kidneys stand in their station.

Instead of the unsatisfactory and questionable* vṛkkāú, the comm. reads vṛkāu, and understands it to mean "the he-wolf and the she-wolf"; they are to be made to stay in an enemy's house. He also reads in c a sthāne, regarding ā as prefix to asthuḥ. SPP. combines again (cf. 95. 3 d) in his text, with the minority of his authorities, asthuḥ sth-. Atiṣṭhipan at the end in our text is a misprint for -pam. Ppp. appears to read avīvamam instead. The second half-verse is nearly identical with vi. 77. 1 c, d. ⌊Bp. has vṛkvāú; O., vṛkvā́v; E. and SPP's D., vṛkā́v: this last is, to be sure, not vṛ́kāu 'wolves.' But has not the phraseology of vs. 2 of the preceding hymn (atiṣṭhipaṁ vṛ́kāu) something to do with the placing of this one here?⌋