Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 2

2. Praise and prayer to the waters.

[Sindhudvīpa.—pañcarcam. āpyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. viii. The comm. finds it used in Nakṣ. K. 20, in addressing waters brought from streams etc. for a ceremony of appeasement.

Translated: Griffith, ii. 259.

1. Weal to thee [be] the waters from the snowy mountains (hāimavatá), and weal be to thee those from the fountains; weal to thee the running waters, and weal to thee be those of the rain.

Our saniṣyadā́s in c is an emendation, and called for ⌊see Skt. Gram. § 1148. 4. k., near the end⌋; all the mss., and SPP., accent saniṣyádās. Many of the mss. accent té in d. The comm. omits u in b. The pada-mss. make the absurd division sani॰syádāḥ. Ppp. makes the combinations çaṁ tā ”po and -ṣyadā ”paç ç-.

2. Weal to thee [be] the waters of the wastes, weal be to thee those of the marshes; weal to thee the waters of the canals (khanitríma), weal those brought with vessels.

Ppp. has again çaṁ tā ”po dh-; ⌊also -trimā ”paç ç-⌋. TA. (in vi. 4. 1) has a verse and a half similar to these two, and in part accordant with them (reading corruptly anū́kyās): ⌊Poona ed., p. 420, rightly anūkyā̀s⌋. Our i. 6. 4 above is still more closely analogous.

3. Digging for themselves without shovels, keen (vípra), working in the deep (gambhīrá), more healing than the healers (bhiṣáj), the waters we address.

The mss. and SPP. with them, read in b gambhīré apásaḥ, which is good enough to be exempt from emendation; the comm. seems to make a compound, gambhīreapasaḥ. The mss. and SPP. also have in d áchā vad- (p. ácha: vad-); it was altered in our text to achā́vad- (= acha॰ā́vad-) because the Atharvan everywhere else ⌊except iii. 20. 2⌋ reads the latter and not the former. Ppp. reads and combines gambhīrepsā bhiṣagbhyo bhiṣaktarā ”po a-.

4. Of the waters indeed from the sky, of the waters from the streams (srotasyà)—in the forth-washing indeed of the waters, ye become vigorous (vājín) horses.

The last pāda is very literally rendered; anything else would require some alteration of the text; it is identical with i. 4. 4 c. SPP. reads in a divyā̀nām, with very nearly all the mss.; the emendation of accent ⌊divyā́-, as in the Berlin text⌋ is unquestionably to be made. ⌊Error due to srotasyā̀nām?⌋

5. Weal [be] to thee the waters, propitious the waters, effecting freedom from yákṣma the waters; just as joy to one who thirsts, [be] they for thee healers of dislocation.

The translation follows our text, which has numerous emendations. At the beginning, the mss. and SPP. read tā́s for çáṁ te (çāntā́s might be better); the latter was intended to fill up both sense and meter (the Anukr. says nothing of a defective pāda; but this is of very little account). Then they have thrice apás in a, b, instead of ā́pas; but the comm. has āpas both times in a. In c they all give tṛpyate; Ppp. has athāi ’va drçyate mayas. For d, SPP. reads tā́s ta ā́ datta bheṣajī́ḥ, with the comm. ⌊who understands the second word as té or also as te⌋; the mss. mostly have ād uta (p. āt: uta), but they vary to ādutta, ādata, ⌊ādatta, ādruta,⌋ āhuta, with various accentuation. The verse is so corrupt throughout that it offers a free field for conjectural emendation. SPP. combines in b apó ‘yakṣmaṁkár-, which is inadmissible, though found in the mss.; we must change to apò ‘y-, if not to ā́po ‘y-. Ppp. makes in a its usual combinations, tā ”paç çivā ”po ‘y-, and reads for d tvābhyatva bheṣajīḥ.