Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 54

54. Praise of time.

[Bhṛgu etc. (as 53).—pañcakam. 2. 3-p. ārṣī gāyatrī; 5 ⌊5 and 6 of the Berlin ed.⌋. 3-av. 6-p. virāḍ aṣṭi.⌋

Properly a part of the same hymn with the preceding, and found with vss. 7-10 of the latter in Pāipp. xii. See under hymn 53.

Translated: Muir, v. 409; Ludwig, p. 191; Scherman, Philosophische Hymnen, p. 80; Deussen, Geschichte, i. 1. 212; Griffith, ii. 311; Bloomfield, 225, 687.—As to the verse-division, see under vss. 2 and 5, and SPP's Critical Notice, vol. i., p. 24.

1. From time came into being the waters; from time [came] the bráhman, fervor, the quarters; by time the sun rises; in time he goes to rest (ni-viç) again.

All the mss. save two ⌊of SPP's⌋ read abhavat at end of a; SPP. also ⌊as well as the Berlin ed.⌋ gives -an, with the comm., and with Ppp. In b, the comm. reads vratatapas for bráhma tápas.

2. ⌊Comm's 2 a, b, c.⌋ By time the wind cleanses (pavate); by time the earth [is] great; the great sky in time [is] set.

A part of the verse is lost in Ppp. The comm. adds the first two pādas of our vs. 3 to this one, and makes then the three remaining verses of four pādas each. This makes a decidedly better division, so far as the sense is concerned; but the mss., the Anukr., and SPP. agree in the division given in our text (except as regards vs. 6), and it is accordingly retained here.

3. ⌊Comm's 2 d, e.⌋ Time, [their] son, generated of old what is and what is to be. ⌊Comm's 3 a, b.⌋ From time the verses (ṛ́c) came into being; the sacrificial formula (yájus) was born from time;—

In the first half-verse, the translation follows the mss. ⌊they read kāló and putró⌋, rather than our emendations ⌊kālé* and mántro⌋, which seem more venturesome than there is reason for; and departs from them only in assuming at the end purā́, instead of púras, as the mss. in general read (purā́ is accepted by both editions, and is supported apparently by Ppp., and to a certain degree by one of SPP's mss. which has púrā). Perhaps púnaḥ ⌊which Whitney's I. actually has⌋ is a yet more plausible substitute for púraḥ. Ppp. has kālena bhūtaṁ janayat: ⌊so Roth's Collation: I take it to mean "kālena bhūtaṁ in a and ‘janayat in b"⌋; and the comm. also has at the beginning kālena ⌊which he glosses with pitrā prerakeṇa: cf. his putras in b, and cf. 53. 4 c⌋; and at the end of b he seems to have read puras ⌊the word does not actually appear⌋, since he gives purastāt for explanation. In c, part of the mss. have abhavat. *⌊As kāló is given by all the mss. collated by W. before publication, kālé was indeed an emendation; but some of SPP's authorities do have kālé.⌋

4. ⌊Comm's 3 c, d.⌋ Time set in motion (sam-īr) the sacrifice, an unexhausted portion for the gods. ⌊Comm's 4 a, b.⌋ In time are set firm the Gandharvas-and-Apsarases; in time the worlds;—

In a, the translation implies kālás, with all the authorities, but āirayat, against nearly all of them; the comm. gives āirayat and SPP. accepts it; ⌊and it is supported by his ms. P. (which has āirayan, p.m., corrected to āirayat) and by Ppp's īrayat. Ppp. reads kālo yajño sam īrayat, and has at the end samāhitāḥ.

⌊5 and 6 of Berlin ed. = 5 of Bombay ed.⌋ ⌊Comm's 4 c, d.⌋ Upon time stand this heavenly An̄giras and Atharvan. ⌊Comm's 5 a, b.⌋ Both this world and the highest world, and the pure (púṇya) worlds and the pure separations—⌊6 of Berlin ed.: Comm's 5 c, d.⌋ all worlds by the bráhman having conquered, this time goes on as highest god.

Verses 5 and 6 of our edition are here combined into one, on the authority of the Anukr. and part of the mss., and in accordance with SPP. Of the mss. compared by us before printing, all made a sixth verse of the last two pādas. In a, the mss. read kāléyám ⌊W's O. has kāleyám⌋ (p. kāleyám or kāléyam) ⌊SPP's pada-ms. Cp., here unaccented, has kāleyam; SPP. emends the pada-text to kālé: ayám, but strangely presents a saṁhitā-text inconsistent with this, namely kālé ‘yám, instead of kālè ‘yám, as our edition reads. All the mss. read divó ‘th- in a-b (p. diváḥ), but SPP., on authority of the comm., emends to devó ‘th-, and the translation follows this; Ppp. also reads devo ‘th-. ⌊At the end of b, the comm. reads tiṣṭhati.⌋ In d a number of the mss. give vídhṛtīṅç ca; the obscure word is passed over lightly by the comm., who simply glosses it with lokadhārakān. The last pāda is identical with 53. 2 d, ⌊save that it has paramó where 53. 2 d has prathamó⌋, and Ppp. combines, as there, sāiyyate. The most natural count of syllables (8 + 8: 11 + 11: 11 + 12 = 61) comes three short of a full aṣṭi: ⌊the jagatī cadence of e suggests that something is missing (read sárvāṅç ca lo-?) in that pāda; and f is to be read (like 53. 2 d, with Ppp. double saṁdhi) as 11 syllables⌋. ⌊Here ends the sixth anuvāka, with 9 hymns, and with 63 verses as they are numbered by the Berlin text and summed up by certain mss.; but the Anukr. counts 9 and 5 verses (instead of 10 and 6) in hymns 47 and 54 respectively, which makes the sum 61 instead of 63.⌋