Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 22

22. Homage to parts of the Atharva-Veda.

[An̄giras.—ekaviṅçati. mantroktadevatyam. 1. sāmny uṣṇih; 3, 19. prājāpatyā gāyatrī; 4, 7, 11, 17. dāivī jagatī; 5, 12, 13. dāivī triṣṭubh; 2, 6, 14-16, 20. dāivī pan̄kti; 8-10. āsurī jagatī; 18. āsury anuṣṭubh (1-20. 1-av.); 21. 4-p. triṣṭubh.]

⌊Verses 1-20, prose.⌋ ⌊Not found in Pāipp.⌋ The comm. quotes from Nakṣatra Kalpa, 17, 18, to the effect that this hymn and the following (together called samāsa) are to be used in the great appeasement-ceremony called ān̄girasī, by one who seeks success as practising or suffering witchcraft. ⌊Cf. introd. to next hymn.⌋

Translated: Griffith, ii. 279; vs. 21 also by Ludwig, p. 219.

1. With the first five anuvākás of the Ān̄girasas, hail!

It is very strange that the instrumental case is used here, instead of the dative, which is used everywhere else through this hymn and the next. ⌊Conversely, note the use of the abl.-dat. form mādbhyás, below, 27. 2 c, where we expect the instrumental, as in the other pādas.⌋

2. To the sixth, hail!

3. To the seventh-and-eighth, hail!

4. To the black claws, hail!

5. To the green ones, hail!

Two of our mss. (O.D.) accent with our text háritebhyas; SPP. reads haritébhyas, with (apparently) all his authorities and nearly all of ours.

6. To the petty ones, hail!

7. To them of the paryāyas, hail!

8. To the first conchs, hail!

9. To the second conchs, hail!

10. To the third conchs, hail!

In 9 and 10, SPP. accents, with all the mss., dvitīyébhyas and tṛtīyébhyas; we have not hesitated to make the necessary emendations to -tī́ye-. ⌊The false accent is perhaps a blundering assimilation to that of prathamébhyas: cf. notes to vss. 13 and 14, and especially to xviii. 3. 47.—Two of W's later collated mss., D.L., have rightly -tī́ye-.⌋

11. To the next to the last ones, hail!

12. To the last ones, hail!

13. To the further ones, hail!

SPP. again follows the mss. in accenting uttarébhyas; ⌊again a blundering assimilation to the accent of uttamébhyas, vs. 12⌋.

14. To the seers, hail!

Here also we emended the accent ⌊to ṛ́ṣibhyas, which W's D.L. indeed give⌋; but SPP. has, with the mss., ṛṣíbhyas. ⌊For the rationale of the blunder (due to çiṣíbhyas, vs. 15), of. notes to vss. 10 and 13 and note to xviii. 3. 47.⌋

15. To the peaked ones (? çikhín), hail!

Here the mss. vary between çikhíbhyas and çiṣíbhyas.

16. To the gaṇás, hail!

17. To the great gaṇás, hail!

18. To all the gaṇá-knowing (??) An̄girases, hail!

It is altogether likely that vidagaṇá either never meant anything or is a corrupt reading; the translation is given merely in order not to leave the word untranslated.

19. To the two thousands severally, hail!

20. To the bráhman (?), hail!

SPP. reads brahmáṇe, and mentions no disagreement among his authorities; all but one or two of ours have the same, and our text might probably have been better left to read so; but the accentuation of the mss. is wholly unauthoritative, and the distinction here also of no manner of importance. The comm. understands brahmáṇe. ⌊I think bráhmaṇe is to be preferred for the reason given at p. 932, line 7.⌋ Tlie numbers of syllables in the verses agree throughout with those demanded by the definitions of the Anukr.

It is a great disappointment to find that the designations given in this hymn to the various parts or elements of the Atharvan text are just as much a puzzle to the commentator as they are to us, so that he does not even venture to conjecture a meaning for them. He understands the authors rather than the mantras to be meant as the recipients of the homage. His whole comment follows: atra viṅçatikāṇḍātmikāyām asyāṁ çākhāyāṁ vidyamānānuvākasūktagaṇaviçeṣādisaṁjñārūpāiḥ çabdāir anuvākādidra. ṣṭāra etannāmāna ṛṣayaḥ pratipādyante: nīlanakhādisūktaviçeṣāṇām prasiddhatvāt tāni viçeṣato na pradarçitāni: brahmaṇe svāhe ’ti brahmaçabdena viṅçatikāṇḍātmakavedavācakena tasya draṣṭā brahmākhya ṛṣiḥ pratipādyate: anyat sarvaṁ nigadavyākhyātam. It sounds like a bad joke that he calls nīlanakha etc. 'familiarly known.' That anuvāka is used in vs. 1 in the same sense as in the present division of the text seems very unlikely.

21. Heroisms [were] gathered with the bráhman as chief; the bráhman as chief in the beginning stretched the sky; the Brahman was born as first of creatures; therefore (téna) who is fit to contend with the Brahman?

Or (in d) 'with that (téna) Brahmán' SPP's text of the verse agrees with ours save that he accents in d bráhmaṇā with the mss., and has in c prathamó ’tá (p. -máḥ: utá, though the pada-mss. read -mā́: utá); the text of the comm. has -mo ’ta here, but -mo ‘tha in the verse repeated as 23. 30; the emendation in our text to -mó ha is plainly the easiest way out of the difficulty. The pada-mss. divide at the beginning, with remarkable absence of intelligence, bráhma: jyeṣṭhā, or jyeṣṭhā́; half the saṁhitā-mss. also accent jyeṣṭhā́; finally, the pada-mss., with incredible folly, divide at the end spárddhi: tuṁkáḥ! SPP. holds that the verse must have originally had brahmán throughout (four times), and gives in his note a text of it in that form (but with prathamó ‘tha in c); but it is far from improbable that bráhman was used in the first verse and brahmán in the second, as in our text. Indeed, in a corresponding verse in TB. (ii. 4. 7¹⁰), bráhman ⌊more appropriately, it would seem, if I am right in supposing that vss. 29 and 30 of hymn 23 refer to the Brahmaveda: cf. p. 932, l. 3⌋ is used every time: bráhmajyeṣṭhā (its commentary takes this as vocative) vīryà sámbhṛtāni bráhmā ’gre jyéṣṭham dívam ā́ tatāna: ṛtásya bráhma prathamó ’tá (! its comment paraphrases by simply prathamám) jajñe ténā ’rhati bráhmaṇā spárdhituṁ káḥ. Our comm. gives a second explanation of brahmajyeṣṭhā as = brahmaṇā jyeṣṭhena, the case-ending of the former word being omitted, as well as the in part of that of the second!