Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XVI
Book XVI.
⌊Unity of subject not apparent.⌋
⌊This is the fourth book of the third grand division (books xiii.-xviii.) of the Atharvan collection. By what warrant it has found a place among the books whose distinctive feature is their unity of subject it is hard to say; and the same is in a measure true of the next book, book xvii.: but see Whitney's General Introduction; also Bloomfield's contribution to the Bühler-Kielhorn Grundriss, p. 94. The study of the ritual applications of the book distinctly fails, in my opinion, to reveal any pervading concinnity of purpose or of use.⌋
⌊In the Indische Studien, xiii. 185, Weber has suggested that parts of the book are evening prayers, to be recited before going to rest, and especially for the warding off of evil dreams (see i. 11; 5; 6; 7. 8-11); and 9. 3-4, at the end of the book, may well be taken as the words of them "that watch [have watched] for the morning" and as expressing the "joy" that "cometh in the morning," and are accordingly placed, as is usual and appropriate, at the end of the mantras concerned, in order to indicate the successful accomplishment of the purpose of those mantras. One is half tempted to give to the book the title "Against the 'terror by night'?"⌋
⌊Laying apart book vi., which has received great attention from the translators (see p. 281), it may be noted that this is the first book of the Atharvan saṁhitā of which no translation has as yet been published by the translators of single books. Here again the bhāṣya is lacking.⌋ ⌊☞ For "Paritta" as title of book, see p. 1045.⌋
prājāpatyo ha catuṣkaḥ; pañcaparyāya uttaraḥ
that the name prājāpatya pertains only to the first anuvāka, 'the one of four paryāyas.' It may, however, be added that the prājāpatyasya in the first line of the printed extract below may mean the whole book or else only the first anuvāka.⌋
⌊Quotations from the Old Anukr. are given piecemeal through the mss. of the book. They may here be given in connected form as printed by SPP. in his Critical Notice, p. 23—Line 1 refers to the 'prior' and the 'last' (that is the 'latter') of the two anuvākas of the ' prājāpatyan' book: unless indeed the relation of the first two words is appositive ('of the prior, the prājāpatyan' [anuvāka]: see the preceding paragraph).—At the end of the first anuvāka, 8 of W's mss. say prājāpatyo ha catuṣkaḥ; and at the end of the second is read pañcaparyāya uttaraḥ: the two quotations make a half-çloka which we may expect to find in the text of the Old Anukr., standing between lines 1 and 2 of our extract.—Line 2 refers to the paryāyas of the first anuvāka; and lines 3-6 refer to those of the second.—The numbers in parentheses refer to the paryāyas as counted from the beginning of the anuvāka; and those in brackets refer to the paryāyas as counted from the beginning of the book.
prājāpatyasya pūrvasya paramasya punaḥ çṛṇu:
trayodaçā ”dyaṁ (i. 1) vijānīyād, dvāu (i. 2, 3) ṣaṭkāu, saptakaḥ paraḥ (1.4).
ādyaṁ (ii. 1) daçakaṁ, hy (?) ekādaçakaṁ (ii. 2) [5, 6]
tasmāc ca paraṁ (ii. 3) dvyadhikaṁ vihitam: [7]
ekādaça vāi triguṇāny aparaç (ii.4) [8]
catvāri vāi vacanāni paraḥ (ii. 5). [9]
The quoted bit of the Old Anukr. at the end of paryāya 6 (or ii. 2) is hyekādaçakam (or hyāu-): the fact that the verse is so divided by piecemeal quotation as to bring hi at the beginning of its fragment seems to oppugn the correctness of the reading hi; and the word, as noted below, is not incorporated into the Major Anukr., the Berlin ms. of which, moreover, boggles at this point.—A comparison of the text of the Old Anukr. (above) with that of the Major Anukr. shows that the later text has quoted every word of lines 2-6 of the older, excepting tasmāc ca param and aparaḥ and the questionable hi.⌋
⌊A conspectus of the divisions of the book in tabular form follows. The explanations given on page 771 (which see: in book xv.), apply for the most part also to this table.
| Pary.n° in anuv. | i. 1 | i. 2 | i. 3 | i. 4 | ii. 1 | ii. 2 | ii. 3 | ii. 4 | ii. 5 | Sums |
| " " book | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| Gaṇas | 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| Gaṇāvasānarcas | 6 | 8 | 14 | |||||||
| Vacanāni | 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| Paryāyāvasānarcas | 13 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 13 | 25 | 53 |
Note that the "ten" (6 + 4) and the "thrice eleven" (8 + 25) assigned by the Old Anukr. to paryāyas 5 (or ii. 1) and 8 (or ii. 4) represent non-coördinate divisions, as noticed and explained above, p. 771, and p. 772, ¶4.—Some mss. sum up the avasānarcas of the first anuvāka as 32 (correctly). Those of the second are summed up as follows: paryāya-avasānarcas, 53 (correctly); gaṇa-avasānarcas, 14 (correctly); avasānarcas "of both kinds," 68 (! but by D. correctly as 67). The 67 with the 4 vacanas make 71 (so Bs. correctly). And 71 + 32 make 103 for the whole book, and so one ms. at least sums them up.⌋
⌊Since the book consists wholly of paryāya-sūktas, there is no difference between the two editions in respect to the hymn-numbers: compare pages 611 and 770.—The division into decads is wanting.⌋ ⌊See pp. clxi, cxxx end, cxxxvii top, clx.⌋
⌊Differences between the two editions in the division of the paryāyas. The differences occur (as above, p. 771) only in the gaṇa-paryāyas 5 (or ii. 1) and 8 (or ii. 4). In these, SPP. has, as the Old Anukr. requires, 10 and 33 divisions respectively (as against 6 and 27 of the Berlin edition). The explanation is as on pages 628-629 and on page 772: namely, that, in a sequence of refrains, the refrain is given in full and counted as a separate avasāna only for its first and last occurrence in that sequence.—In paryāya 5 there are properly 6 gaṇas, each with 3 subdivisions: therefore we have 2 gaṇas (the first and last), each with 3 subdivisions, making 6; while in each of the remaining 4, the refrains (b, c) are counted as one with a (thus a-b-c), making 4; and so, in all, we have 10.—In like manner, in paryāya 8, there are properly 27 gaṇas, each with 4 subdivisions: therefore we have 2 gaṇas (the first and last), each with 4 subdivisions, making 8; and (27-2=) 25, each counted as one (a-b-c-d), making 25; and so, in all, we have 33.⌋
[The book is mainly prose: Whitney, Index, p. 5, excepts verses 1. 10, 12, 13; 4. 2, 6; 6. 1-4, 11; 9. 1, 2.⌋
In Pāipp. (xviii.) are found only fragments of the book, namely 1. 1-3; 4. 7 (beginning with mo ’pa), the first words of 5. 1, then 8. 1, and finally 9. 4, the concluding verse. This looks as if the whole book were acknowledged as part of the text, but its complete presentation deliberately declined for some reason. ⌊The fragments in question follow immediately the fragment of book xv. cited in the note to xv. 2. 1.⌋ ⌊☞ See pages 1015-6.⌋
⌊In the Vāit, the book is noticed only twice: see under 2. 6 and 9. 3. And in the Kāuç., it is noticed only about a dozen times: see under 1. 1; 2. 1, 6; 3. 1; 4. 1; 5. 1; 6. 1; 9. 3, 4.⌋
| Hymn- number |
Page | ||
| Book XVI.—Paritta. Seer: Prajāpati [?] | |||
| 1 | Paryāya the first | or xvi. 1. 1 | 794 |
| Paryāya the second | or xvi. 1. 2 | 795 | |
| Paryāya the third | or xvi. 1. 3 | 796 | |
| Paryāya the fourth | or xvi. 1. 4 | 797 | |
| 2 | Paryāya the fifth | or xvi. 2. 1 | 798 |
| Paryāya the sixth | or xvi. 2. 2 | 798 | |
| Paryāya the seventh | or xvi. 2. 3 | 800 | |
| Paryāya the eighth | or xvi. 2. 4 | 801 | |
| Paryāya the ninth | or xvi. 2. 5 | 803 | |