Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 28

28. For various blessings: with an amulet of darbhá.

[Brahman (sapatnakṣayakāmaḥ).—daçakam. mantroktadarbhantaṇidevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

The hymn is found also in Pāipp. xiii., with very few variants. The comm. finds it ⌊or rather the whole triad of hymns, 28, 29, 30⌋ used by the Nakṣ. K. ⌊17, 19⌋ in a mahāçānti ceremony called āindrī, with binding on of a darbha amulet, by one desiring victory and the like.

Translated: Griffith, ii. 285.

1. I bind for thee this amulet, in order to long life, to brilliancy—the darbhá, damager of rivals, burner (tápana) of the heart of the hater.

Nearly all the mss. accent dárbham. Ppp. reads in b varcase, and in c -jambhanā.

2. Burner of the heart of the hater, causing to burn the mind of foes, do thou, O darbhá, burn together like heat (gharmá) against all the evil-hearted.

The mss., and hence SPP., read for a dviṣatás tāpáyan hṛdáḥ, as if hṛdás could be an accus. sing.; and the comm. has the same, and glosses hṣdas with hṛdayam. ⌊By some oversight, SPP. says on p. 384, note 3, that the text of the comm. reads sarvaṅs tvaṁ; and on p. 385, note 1, "Sāyaṇa's text too has sarvaṁ."⌋ The comm. explains as if the ⌊questionable⌋ word were simply sarvam, 'the evil-hearted one's everything.' In d, the mss. and SPP. read ivā ’bhī́nt saṁtāpáyan (one of ours abhī́t, another abhāút: mere accidental variations), the pada-text presenting abhī́n: sam॰; the comm. has the same, and explains thus: abhīn abhayān saṁtāpayan bhinddhi ⌊iti sambandhaḥ: connecting the phrase with the bhinddhi of vss. 3, 4, 5⌋. Our abhisáṁtāpaya is heroic surgery, but very plausible; abhī́ ’t s- (i.e. abhí: ít: s-) would save a little more of the original, and ít is elsewhere added to reinforce abhí: cf. viii. 4. 21; xi. 1. 6; Ppp. has very nearly this reading, namely, gharme ’vā ’bhī ’t saṁtāpayaṁ. The comm. glosses gharmas first with ādityas, then (on authority of TA. v. 1. 5) with pravargyas. The Anukr. takes no notice of the redundancies caused in 2 d and 3 a and d and 4 c if iva is not abbreviated to ’va; in at least two of the cases, 2 d and 3 d, Ppp. combines to suit the meter, gharme ’va, indrāi ’va. ⌊The first pāda is wanting in Ppp.⌋

3. Burning against [them] like heat, O darbhá, burning down the haters, O amulet, split thou our rivals to the heart, like Indra breaking apart Vala.

The translation implies emendation in d to valám, as made in our edition; SPP. follows the mss. and comm. in accepting balám, in spite of its false accent. Nearly all the mss. read virujám (p. vi॰rujám), but the comm. -jan, which, of course, is alone admissible; SPP. very strangely compromises by reading virujáṁ in saṁhitā, but vi॰ruján in pada! In c, SPP. gives, with ⌊five of his authorities⌋, -dáḥ sapátnānām bhinddhi; even the pada-mss. vary between sa॰pátnān: ā́: bh- and sa॰pátnānām: bh-; the comm. has -nānām, and so has Ppp.; the translation above implies -nān ā́,* in spite of the separation of ā́ from hṛdás. ⌊Ppp. gives indrāi ’va in d, as noted under vs. 2.⌋ *⌊This reading is given by eight of SPP's mss. and one of W's. In sapátnānām we may have a case of faulty assimilation from 4 a: SPP's Dc., which is usually carefully corrected, here carries the blunder half way prima manu, giving sapátnānā́m (accents! so perhaps also W's O.D.L.), and completes it secunda manu, giving sapátnānām.⌋

4. Split, O darbhá, the heart of our rivals, of our haters, O amulet; make their head fly apart, as the rising [sun] does the skin of the earth.

The comm. reads and explains ni pātaya in d (though the ms. gives vi p-). The obscure and perhaps corrupt third pāda is thus explained: udyann ūrdhvaṁ gacchan bhujādipradeçam adhitiṣṭhan tvam bhūmyās tvacam [iva] tṛṇagulmāuṣadhyādyadhiṣṭhānabhūtāṁ yathā takṣaṇena nipātayati gṛhādinirmāṇārthaṁ loke.

5. Split, O darbhá, my rivals; split those that fight against me; split all my enemies (durhā́rd); split my haters, O amulet.

In the following fourteen verses, of this hymn and the one that follows it, only the verb in each pāda is changed. In c, Ppp. blunderingly reads chindhi, anticipating the next verse.

6. Sever, O darbhá, my rivals; sever those etc. etc.

7. Hew down (vraçc), O darbhá, my rivals; hew down those etc. etc.

8. Cut, O darbhá, my rivals; cut those etc. etc.

In verses 6, 8, 9, 10 of this hymn, also in 29. 2 below, a part of the mss. read durhā́rdān instead of -das in c; and SPP. strangely follows them in 28. 6, 8.

9. Carve (?), O darbhá, my rivals; carve those etc. etc.

The Pet. Lex. (under root piṣ) proposes to emend in this verse pinçá to piṅsá. As, however, we have root piṣ below in 29. 6, there seems to be no sufficient reason for substituting it here. One of SPP's mss. reads here pīṅṣá p.m. ⌊piṅçá s.m.⌋.

10. Pierce, O darbhá, my rivals; pierce those etc. etc.

The mss. vary here between vídhya and vidhyá. ⌊Ppp. reads viddhi.⌋