Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 60

60. For physical abilities.

[Brahman.—dvyṛcam. mantroktavāgādidāivatam. 1. pathyābṛhatī; 2. kakummatī purauṣṇih.]

⌊Prose.⌋ As was noticed above, the hymn is wanting in Pāipp. Hymns 60-63, both text and explication, are lacking in the comm. The comm., at p. 517⁵, assigns only fourteen hymns to this the final anuvāka; ⌊but at p. 552⁹ he numbers the last hymn as the thirteenth, having combined hymns 69 and 70 of the Berlin ed. into one of 5 vss. (pañcamantrātmakaṁ sūktam, p. 548¹): both numbers are at variance with the⌋ eighteen of the mss. ⌊in general: but see under h. 65⌋ and of the Anukr. The hymn is quoted in Kāuç 66. 1 in the savayajña chapter ⌊see table on p. 896⌋; the mss. of Kāuç. read āsyan ⌊like the AV. mss.⌋.

Translated: Griffith, ii. 317.

1. Speech in my mouth, breath in my nostrils, sight in my eyes, hearing in my ears, my hair not gray, my teeth not broken, much strength in my arms.

A similar enumeration is found in TS. (in v. 5. 9²), TA. (x. 72, in supplement: ⌊p. 887 of Poona ed.⌋), and PGS. (in i. 3. 25): vā́n̄ ma āsán (PGS. āsye) nasóḥ prāṇò ‘kṣyóç cákṣuḥ kárṇayoḥ çrótram bāhuvór bálam ūruvór ójó ‘riṣṭā víçvāny án̄gāni (PGS. ‘riṣṭāni me ‘n̄gāni) tanū́s tanúvā me sahá; it covers both verses of our hymn and the beginning of the next. ⌊MGS. i. 4. 4 may be compared.⌋ Nearly all the saṁhitā-mss. read āsyán ⌊like those of Kāuç.⌋ násoḥ; ⌊and the pada-reading is āsyám: násoḥ⌋. Further on, the mss. read akṣóḥ or akṣyoḥ (one of ours and one of SPP's give akṣṇóḥ; our text gives akṣṇóḥ, but it should be akṣyóḥ, as everywhere else in the Atharvan, and as in the parallel texts); yet further, ápalitā kéçā ⌊or keçā́⌋ çóṇaditā báha (or váha) bā́hvor bálam. SPP. follows our emendations (even akṣṇós) throughout; except that he very properly corrects our bāhvòs to bāhvós. Instead of áçoṇā dántāḥ the minor Pet. Lex. suggests áçīrṇā d-, which is decidedly preferable, and is implied in the translation.

2. Force in my thighs, speed in my calves, firm standing in my feet, all things of mine uninjured, myself not down-fallen.

⌊Passing in silence some minor details of variation,⌋ the mss. read ója instead of ójas ⌊but ójaḥ is found in two or three pada-mss.⌋; ⌊about ten authorities⌋ leave jan̄ghayos unaccented; they accent jávas or javás, and pā́dayos or pādáyos; some insert a blundering avasāna between pā́dayoḥ and pratiṣṭhā́; ⌊all accent ariṣṭā́ni instead of ár-;⌋ and end with sárvān mā́ ’tipṛṣṭhāḥ or -ṣṭhā (p. áti॰pṛṣṭhā or -āḥ). SPP. follows our emendations quite closely: but he corrects to ján̄ghayos; accents javás (which is rather to be preferred*); ⌊accents correctly pā́dayos: the accent of the Berlin ed. should be amended accordingly;⌋ leaves the avasāna after pā́dayoḥ; and forgets in saṁhitā-text to combine pratiṣṭhā́ and áriṣṭāni into pratiṣṭhā́ ’ris-; the mss., however, commit the same oversight, although the pada-text reads prati॰sthā́ (not -ā́ḥ). The blunder arises possibly from the transference of the avasāna-sign from its proper place after pratiṣṭhā́ (to which our text restores it) to the place before that word. The metrical definitions of the Anukr. for these two bits of prose are naturally worthless, and the extensive emendations in our text make them still more inapplicable. *⌊In RV. the masc. javá is oxytone, and the neuter jávas is paroxytone; but at iii. 50. 2 and iv. 27. 1 we have the adjective stem javás: cf. Gram. §1 151. 2. e.⌋