Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 17

17. For protection: to various gods.

[Atharvan.—daçakam. pratyṛcam mantroktadevatyam. jāgatam: 5, 7, 10. atijagatī; 6. bhurij; 9. 5-p. atiçakvarī.]

⌊Prose.⌋ ⌊Not found in Pāipp.⌋ This hymn and the next are used, the comm. points out, in the same ceremony as 16, with other hymns, as detailed in Pariçiṣṭa 4. 4; both are also prescribed in Par. 19. 1 (see note to Kāuç. 140. 9), in a ceremony against danger from the various quarters. ⌊See introd. to next hymn.⌋ ⌊Note that the vss. of this hymn group themselves in 5 dyads (comm., paryāya-dvayas), one for each cardinal point and a fifth for the 'fixed and upward points'; and that those of h. 18 do likewise and are so grouped by the comm. also.⌋

Translated: Griffith, ii. 276.

1. Let Agni with the Vasus protect me on the east: in him I step, in him I take refuge (çri), to that stronghold I go forward; let him defend me, let him guard me; to him I commit myself: hail!

The comm. first understands and explains krame and çraye as nouns in the locative, qualified by tasmin! then he again makes them verbs, quoting from vs. 6 tāsu krame tāsu çraye, to support this understanding of them; no one less superficial and blundering could possibly suggest the former explanation, against the accent and the sense.

2. Let Vāyu with the atmosphere protect me from that quarter: in him I etc. etc.

3. Let Soma with the Rudras protect me from the southern quarter: in him I etc. etc.

4. Let Varuṇa with the Ādityas protect me from that quarter: in him I etc. etc.

The comm. quotes AÇS. ii. 11. 12 to show that elsewhere also Soma is associated with the Rudras and Varuṇa with the Ādityas.

5. Let the sun with heaven-and-earth protect me from the western quarter: in him I etc. etc.

6. Let the waters with (-mant) the herbs protect me from that quarter: in them I...; let them defend...; to them I etc. etc.

7. Let Viçvakarman with the seven seers protect me from the northern quarter: in him I etc. etc.

8. Let Indra with (-vant) the Maruts protect me from that quarter: in him I etc. etc.

The comm. quotes Bhagavad-Gītā x. 6 (rather futilely) to support the association of the seven seers with Viçvakarman as highest self (paramātman), and (most superfluously) RV. viii. 85 (96). 7 and AB. iii. 20. 1 (part) to show that Indra and the Maruts go together.

9. Let Prajāpati, possessing generative powers (prajánanavant), together with firm support (pratiṣṭhā́), protect me from the fixed quarter: in him I etc. etc.

Many of the mss. give various other accents to prajánanavān; all read pratiṣṭhā́yā (p. ॰sthā́yāḥ), which SPP. accordingly retains,* although it is a palpable corruption; the comm. makes no difficulty of it, viewing it simply as a case of the substitution of genitive for instrumental; he adds, however, another interpretation, supplying prajananena for sahá to govern, and making pratiṣṭhā́yās an adjective qualifying diçás. *⌊W's B. and all of SPP's authorities appear to accent pratíṣṭāyā, p. pratí॰sthāyāḥ, and this is in fact the accentuation and reading in SPP's text, although I do not see what is to be made of it.⌋

10. Let Bṛihaspati with all the gods protect me from the upward quarter: in him I etc. etc.

The comm. calls these prose "verses" and those of the next hymn paryāyas; and the metrical definitions of the Anukr. are of course worthless, although it is possible to read out something like the numbers of syllables required by that treatise.