Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

V. 1- BOOK V. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAMHITA. 222
The verse is a RV. one, from a mystic and obscure liymn (x. 5.6); RV. puts id after
^kam in b, and in c accents upamdsya nidd, whicli alone is acceptable ; all our mss.
give iipamasya, wliich our edition follows ;
and all save one (D.) read nide without
accent, which we emended to nidd.
Ppp. gives in b tasam anekam, and omits, probably
by an oversight, the second half-verse. " The life of mankind is compared to a racetrack,
on which the gods have marked many (seven) stations;
each generation (yuga)
reaches only one such goal, getting as far as the place where the next begins ;
road terminates." R.
there its
7. Also, of immortal spirit, vowed {} vrdta), I go performing; spirit,
soul, of the body then (1 tdt) with kine (} suniddgii) ; and either the
mighty one {qakrd) assigns treasure, or as the oblation-giver pursues
{} sac) with refreshment.
This verse and vs. 5 [_4 ?J
are the most utterly hopeless of the hymn ;
even the conjectures
of the comm. respecting them would be welcome. Ludwig renders sumddgu by
"erfrent gegangen." For b, Ppp. reads asuras pittas svadhaya samadgu ; in c, vd
jyestho ratnd. Va in c in our text is a misprint for va. The verse lacks only one
syllable of being a full tristubh, and that deficiency might be made up by reading either
fakrds or rdtnam as trisyllabic. |_A barytone vrdta is unknown elsewhere.J
8. Also son prays (.' Id) father for dominion ; they called for well-being
him of the chief bourn (.') ; may they see now, O Varuna, those that are
thy shapes (visthd) ; mayest thou make wondrous forms of the one much
rolling hither.
The translation implies emendation in b to the com-po\xTiA jyesthdmaryadam,* i.e. 'him
who has received the best domain.' In d our avdrvrtatas is for the -rvrat- of all the
mss. ; it can hardly be that the text of this pada is not further corrupt. The verbs in
C, d are augmentless forms, and may, of course, be rendered indicatively. Ppp- begins
the verse \)\'Ca putro vd yat pit-, and ends b with svasti. The Kaug. use of this verse
and the next is apparently founded on the occurrence in them of " son " and " father "
and "half." The second pada is properly ya^a/f. •|_No ms. has -dd>n.\
9. Half with half milk thou mixest {^. pre) ; with half, O Asura (.'), thou
increasest [thy] vehemence (.-'). We have increased the helpful {gagntiya)
companion, Varuna, lively {isird) son of Aditi ;
poet-praised wondrous
forms have we spoken for him— the (two) firmaments {rddasi) of true
speech.
This translation implies several emendations (or, at least, alterations) :
in b, (tismam,
which Ppp. has, instead of the vocative gusma, and asura, again with Ppp. (perhaps
better amiira * ' not foolish ' ? cf. 1 1 .
5, below) ;
in c, dvlvrdhdttia, which also Ppp. gives,
while one or two of our mss. offer dvi°vrdhdma (D.) and avivrdhdma (Kp.). In f
ought to be accented dvocdinaj the pada-m%^., as elsewhere in such cases, mark the
pada-division after the word, thus reckoning it to e, which is obviously wrong. Some of
our mss. (O.D.K.) accent in a prndksi, which is
the better reading, the case being one
of antithetical accent. Ppp. further has qavasd iox payasd in a, vardhayase 'sura in b,
aditer in d, and -vdcau at the end. The verse (i i -M i : 1 1 + 1 1 : 10 (9 ?)+ 1 1 =65 [64 ?])
is more nearly an asH than an atyasti. * I This is given by some of SPP's authorities. J