Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 55

55. To Agni.

[Bhṛgu.—ṣaḍṛcam. āgneyam. trāiṣṭubham: 2. āstārapan̄kti; 5 ⌊i.e. 5 and 6 a, b of the Berlin ed.⌋. 3-av. 5-p. purastājjyotiṣmatī.] ⌊of 6 (= 6 c, d, 7 a, b of Berlin ed.), the definition is lacking: see my note to vs. 6.⌋

Only the first verse is found in Pāipp. (in xx.). The comm. points out that the hymn is plainly meant to be used in the early morning worship of Agni, but quotes no authority. ⌊As to a seventh verse, see SPP's Critical Notice, vol. i., p. 24, and see under vss. 5 and 7.⌋

Translated: Ludwig, p. 363; Griffith, ii. 312.

1. Night after night bringing to him without mixture, as fodder to a horse that stands, let not us, O Agni, thy neighbors, receive harm, reveling with abundance of wealth, with food (íṣ).

The verse corresponds nearly with VS. xi. 75, also with a verse in TS. iv. i. 10¹ and MS. ii. 7. 7. VS. begins a with áhar-ahar (but ÇB. vi. 6. 4¹ ⌊like KÇS. xvi. 6. 2⌋ gives a pratīka with rā́trīṁ-rātrīm instead), TS. reads with us, and MS. has rā́trīṁ-rātrīm ⌊and repeats the pratīka at iii. 1. 9, p. 12¹²⌋. At end of b, all have asmāi unaccented. In d, all put ágne at the beginning, ‘gne mā́ te práti-. In a, all the authorities have áprayātam ⌊an isolated -tum counts for nothing⌋, and so has the text of the comm., according to SPP., who prints áprayātam. But the comm. in his explanation has aprayāvam, which he glosses by apracchidya or sāṁtatyena ⌊which harmonizes well with the sádam ít of iii. 15. 8 a⌋; ⌊the six Yajus texts just cited (both verses and pratīkas) all read áprayāvam, on which the Berlin emendation* rests⌋. ⌊Weber, Ind. Stud. xvii. 251, cites K. xvi. 7 as reading rātrīṁ-rātrīm, with the rest as in VS.; and Knauer, Index to MGS., p. 155, adds K. xix. 10 and Kap. S. xxx. 8.⌋ The second half of our iii. 15.8 above agrees precisely with our c, d here; the first half differs a good deal, ⌊having for a viçvā́hā te sádam íd bharema, and ending b with jātavedaḥ instead of ghāsám asmā́i. Ppp. has in a aprayāmaṁ, at end of b agne for asmāi (as in our vs. 7), and in d ‘gnāi mā te pr- (intending the same as the Yajus texts).

*⌊Griffith's version of áprayāvam is 'with care unceasing' (AV.VS.); and Eggeling's is 'unremittingly' (ÇB.); so also W. at iii. 5. 1 (see the note); and in his Roots he connects -yāvam only with root yu 'separate'; one does not see why he departs from that here: nevertheless, the sense 'mix' is well avouched for the root yu 'unite' with pra by JUB. i. 8, yathā madhunā lājān prayuyād evam (see JAOS. xvi. 88 and 228).—I may add in the proof that even the Anukr. reads aprayātam, but that the Yajus readings, and the sádam it (W. 'constantly') of iii. 15. 8, seem to place the Berlin emendation beyond doubt: and that the Ppp. reading aprayucchan at iii. 5. 1 helps to establish for the Vulgate not only the form áprayāvam as gerund, but also the meaning 'without being careless' or 'unremittingly' as against 'without mixing.'⌋

2. Of thee that art good what arrow [is] in the wind, this is that of thine; therewith be gracious to us. Let not us, O Agni, thy neighbors, receive harm, reveling with abundance of wealth, with food.

The translation follows the text of the mss. rather than our emendations, as the latter afford no more satisfactory sense than does the former. Several authorities, however, read yā́ta instead of vā́ta (one has vā́ca; one ī́ṣuḥ, two éṣuḥ; ⌊and so on⌋): the pada-mss. divide vā́taḥ: íṣuḥ: sā́. The comm's text has iṣa; but how his explanation is related to the text is hard to see: he agne vāsakasya tava yā ’nugrahabuddhir annapradasya yā cā ’nugrahabuddhis tayā ‘smān sukhaya; that is all.

3. Evening after evening [is] Agni our house-lord; morning after morning [is he] giver of well-willing; be thou giver of good to us of every kind; may we, kindling thee, adorn (puṣ) ourselves.

The third pāda is literally 'of good thing after good thing be thou giver of good.' The pada-mss. divide vasu॰dā́naḥ: edhi instead of vasu°dā́ḥ: naḥ: edhi, as is implied by our text; the meter makes us suspect that the true original reading was vasudā́no na edhi. The fourth pāda is v. 3. 1 b etc. (see under that verse). ⌊Cf. vs. 4.⌋

4. Morning after morning [is] Agni our house-lord; evening after evening [is he] giver of well-willing; be thou giver of good to us of every kind; kindling thee, may we thrive (ṛdh) a hundred winters.

In d the mss. read çatáṁhimās (p. çatám॰himāḥ); the comm. takes it as two words, çataṁ himās, ⌊ignoring the accent⌋. ⌊With pāda d, cf. RV. i. 64. 14 d.⌋ ⌊Cf. vs. 3.⌋

5. May I be one not falling short of food; to the food-eating lord of food, to Agni [as] Rudra be homage.

Here also there is discordance as to the verse-division; the Anukr. ⌊and comm.⌋ further add to vs. 5 what in our edition is 6 a, b, and then make one verse of what remains of the hymn; and SPP. follows them. The translation adheres to our text (which represents all the mss. till that time known to us), especially because its division seems better suited to the sense. At the beginning, all the authorities, and SPP., have ápaçcādagdhā́nnasya, divided by the pada-text into ápaçcā: dagdhá॰annasya (or -gdha॰án-); ⌊but Whitney's W. has daghānt-; his M. has dagdhvānn-; and his P. has dagghvānt- or possibly dagdhvānt-, it is not clear which: at any rate, in P. and M. there is a pada before the ā;⌋ the comm. understands apaçcādagdhā ’nnasya, and solemnly explains it as meaning: annasyā ’paçca[dagdhā] paçcādbhāge ‘dagdhā sthālīpṛṣṭhabhāge dagdhānnarahitaḥ! The correctness of our conjectural emendation to ápaçcādaghvā́ ’nnasya is put beyond question by the occurrence of a corresponding phrase, ápaçcāddaghvā́ ’nnam bhūyāsam, in MS. iii. 9. 4, p. 120¹⁷, and also in Āp. vii. 28. 2.* Part of the mss. accent bhūyāsam. In b, all SPP's authorities ⌊save one⌋, and most of ours, give annādāyo ‘nn (variously accented: p. anna॰adáyaḥ), apparently a case of misunderstanding of āyā as yo after the Bengāli method of writing o;† but two of our mss., P.M., have annādā́yā́ ’nn-, which is the reading of our text; the comm. likewise understands -dāya, and SPP. also accepts it in his text. *⌊The phrase á-paçcād-daghvane náre occurs at RV. vi. 42. 1; TB. iii. 7. 10⁶; Āp. xiv. 29. 2; compare apaçcā-daghvane naraḥ at SV. i. 352, ii. 790. It may be worth noting that the comm. to TB. brings the epithet into connection with food, explaining the phrase as 'a man devoid of brightness (i.e. dull) after his meal, unable to digest what he has eaten,' paçcād bhakṣottarakālaṁ dīptirahitāya, bhakṣitaṁ jarayitum asamarthāya. He seems to connect a-..-daghvan (= dīptirahita) with dah; but BR. and W., with Sāyaṇa on RV., derive it from dagh: cf. RV. i. 123. 5 c; vii. 56. 21 b.⌋ †⌊Cf. SPP's notes to xviii. 4. 48; xix. 32. 10; 48. 1; 56. 3.⌋

6. O thou of the assembly, protect my assembly (sabhā́), and [them] who are of the assembly, sitters in the assembly; having much invoked thee, O Indra, may they attain their whole life-time.

The translation is to be taken simply for what it is worth, as it does not follow the mss., nor either printed text. At the beginning, the mss. ⌊except several of W's, which have the impossible sabhyá⌋, SPP., and the comm., read sabhyás, which might well enough have been left by us unchanged, save for accent (viii. 10. 5 sábhyas). But the mss. read sabhyás again later ⌊save two of W's, which have sabhyā́s⌋, this time SPP. emends to sabhyā́s (should be sábhyās, with us?), since the comm. has this. In c, the mss. in general give tvám indrā (or índrā) puruhūtya (p. puru॰hūtya); the comm's text offers tvām ⌊his exposition: tvam⌋ indra puruhūta; and SPP. adopts tvám indrā (p. indra) puruhūta; our conjecture, tváyé ’d gā́ḥ puruhūta, seems too violent, and the translation implies tvā́m indra purū́huya, with açnavan at the end, while the mss., and SPP., have açnavat (the comm. has the same, unblushingly explaining it as = prāpaya, a mere substitution of one person for another!), and our text emended to -vam, an ungrammatical but not wholly unprecedented form. ⌊The London ms. of the Anukr. adds as the pratīka of its vs. 6 tvam indrā puruhūtye ’ti (our 6 c: note the reading), but gives no metrical definition: the Berlin ms. does not even give the pratīka.⌋

7. Day after day taking tribute to thee, O Agni, as fodder to a horse that stands [, let not us, O Agni, thy neighbors, receive harm, reveling with abundance of wealth, with food (íṣ)].

None of the mss. have the second half-verse; it was added because it seemed called for by the first half, as in vss. 1 and 2. That the comm. and part of the mss., and so also SPP., in agreement with the Anukr., make only six verses in the hymn, was explained above under vs. 5. A majority of the mss. accent bálim in a (including all those used by us before publication), and so the error has got into our text; SPP. has correctly balím; some leave hárantas without accent; the comm. and a ms. or two have ítye for ít te (= prāptavye gṛhe vartamānāyā ’gnaye, comm.). All the mss. have in b jātám instead of ghāsám; but the comm. has the latter, and it is therefore read in SPP's text as well as in ours.