Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 71

71. For various blessings.

[Brahman.—ekarcam. gāyatrīdāivalam. 3-av. 5-f. atijagatī.]

Wanting in Pāipp. The comm. is unable to quote any authority as to its use; but he declares it to belong to the worship of the Veda that one has studied, or of the gāyatrī.

Translated: Zimmer, p. 204; Griffith, ii. 320.

1. Praised by me [is] the boon-giving Veda-mother. Let them urge on the soma-hymn of the twice-born. Having given to me life-time, breath, progeny, cattle, fame, property, Vedic splendor, go ye to the brahma-world.

A corresponding verse is found in the supplement (p. 915 of the Calc. ed.) ⌊p. 855 of the Poona ed.⌋ to TA. x. 36, reading thus: stuto mayā varadā vedamātā pracodayantī pavane dvijātā: āyuḥ pṛthivyāṁ draviṇam brahmavarcasam mahyaṁ datvā prajātum brahmalokam (the accentuation is only partial, and worthless); its variants hardly help the interpretation of our verse. The translation given above makes no pretense to being an intelligent one; it merely endeavors to make what sense it can, with least divergence from the manuscript readings. For a it implies stutā́ máyā varadā́ vedamātā́, which agrees throughout with the mss., save that they accent vedamātā in several different ways; the pada-mss. give varadā without division. For b is implied prá codayantām pāvamānī́ṁ dvijā́nām (with our edition); the mss. accent pracodáyantām; and ⌊excepting W's P.M.W., which give pāvamānī́m⌋ they read pāvamānī́, which SPP. adopts. In the second division, SPP. reads paçúm, with ⌊about⌋ half the authorities, and with the comm.; the remaining authorities favor our paçū́n, giving that or paçū́ṁ. The comm. explains varadā by iṣṭakāmapradātrī, and vedamātā by vedasya rgādirūpasya mātā, signifying the sāvitrī, and standing as subject to pra codayantām, which is pluralis majestaticus, as is also vrajata. ⌊Weber discusses varadā and the TA. passage at Ind. Stud. ii. 194 (as Whitney notes in the margin), and resolves stuto into stutā u.⌋