Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

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iii. 4- BOOK III. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SASIHITA. 90
4. Let the (two) A9vins thee first, — let Mitra-and-Varuna both, let all
the gods, the Maruts, call thee ;
of good things ;
then put (kr) thy mind unto the giving
from thence, formidable, share out good things to us.
With c compare RV. i. 54. 9 d, which rectifies the meter by reading krsva. The
second half-verse is quite different in Ppp. : sajatdnam madhyamesthe ^ha masyd (cf.
ii. 6. 4 c ; iii. 8. 2 d) sve ksetre savite vi raja. The third pada is made bhurij by the
change of krsva to krnusva.
5. Run forth hither from the furthest distance; propitious to thee be
heaven-and-earth both ; king Varuna here saith this thus ; he here hath
called thee;
Ltherefore (sd)\ do thou come to this place.
Ppp. has babhutdm for nbhe stdm at end of b, and ahvat svenam ehi at end of d.
SPP. reports all his/art'a-mss. as reading aha instead of aha in c; no such blunder has
been noted in ours.
His ms. of the comm. also appears to have ahz'at in d, but doubtless
only by an oversight of the copyist (under the next verse it gives ahvat in an identical
phrase of exposition). MS. (ii. 2. 1 1
; p. 24. 3) gives a pratika reading a prihi
paramdsyah pardvdt'ah, while no corresponding verse is found in its text — or elsewhere,
so far as is known, unless here.
6. Like a human Indra, go thou away ; for thou hast concurred {sam-
Jftd) in concord with the castes (.') ; he here hath called thee in his own
station ; he shall sacrifice to the gods, and he shall arrange the people
(vi^as).
The translation of this obscure and difficult verse implies much and venturesome
emendation in the first half: namely, in a, indra iva jnanusydh, and in b vdrnais.
Weber also takes manusyas as meant for a nom. sing., and renders it " menschengestaltet
" ; the other translators understand manusyh vlqas, as does the Pet. Lex. The
Ppp. version, indro idam manusya pre 'hi, suggests -syah, and is decidedly better in
prehi (to be resolved into pr-e-hi, whence perhaps the corruption to parehi'); the
repeated vocative indraoindra (so the pada-text) is not to be tolerated. For b, Ppp.
has sam hi yajhiyds tvd varunena sarhvidanah, which is too corrupt to give us aid
the emendation to vdrnais is
a desperate and purely tentative one, as there is no evidence
that vdrna had assumed so early the sense of ' caste.' Weber suggests that
varuna here is equal to varana ' elector '
; Zimmer takes it as virtually for devdis : both
entirely unsatisfactory. Ppp. ends the verse with so kalpaydd di^ah. To the comm.
there is no difficulty ; the repeated vocative is out of reverence {ddardrtham) ; manusyas
is a Vedic irregularity for -sydn, or else qualifies prajds understood ; the plural
varundis is plur. majestaiicus for varunena ; kalpaydt, finally, is svasvavydpdresu
niyunktdm. The Anukr. passes without notice the /(igv?//' pada d, it being easy to read
the verse into 44 syllables.
7. The wealthy roads, of manifoldly various form, all, assembling,
have made wide room for thee ; let them all in concord call thee ; to the
tenth [decade of life]
abide here formidable, well-willing.
Pathyd revatts, divinities of good roads and welfare, are explained by the comm. as
patho 'napetd mdrgahitakdrinya etatsathjnd devatdh; or else pathyds is pathi sadhavah,
and revatis is dpas. Both editions read in d vaqe 'hd, but the comm., with
SPP's qrotriyas V. and K., read vase 'hd, and the translation implies this. Ppp. offers