Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

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V. 17- BOOK V. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAMHITA. 250
15. A white, black-eared [horse] does not make a show l^mahly),
harnessed to his [chariot-] pole, in whose etc. etc.
16. Not in his field [is] a lotus-pond, the bulb (J.bisa) of the bulbbearing
lotus is not produced {jan), in whose etc. etc.
Compare iv. 34. 5, and note ;
andtka and blsa are perhaps rather to be rendered independently.
17. Not for him do they who attend to (itpa-ds) her milking milk out
the spotted [cow], in whose etc.
etc.
In b, P. begins ^K^ 'syd, l.H. y^'sya.
18. Not his [is] a beautiful milch-cow, [his] draft-ox endures not the
pole, where a Brahman stays a night miserably {papaya) without a wife
l^-jdni).
Ppp. reads for a na tatra dhettur dohena. |_See BR. vi. 1023.
18. The Brahman's cow.
\Mayobhu. — pahcadafakam. brahmagavidevatyam. dnustuhham : 4,^,8, g, 13. tristubh
(4. bhurij).^
Found also in Paipp. ix. (except vs. 7 ; in the order i, 2, 4, 13, 5, 6, 14, 3, 15, 9, 8,
10-12). Not noticed in Vait., but quoted in Kaug. 48.13 with the next hymn (as
the "two Brahman-cow" hymns), just after hymn 17, in a witchcraft rite.
Translated: Muir, i^ 284 ; Ludwig, p. 447 ; Zimraer, p. 199; Grill, 41, 148 ; Griffith,
i. 215 ; Bloomfield, 169, 430 ; Weber, xviii. 229.
1. Her the gods did not give thee for thee to eat, O lord of men
{nrpdti); do not thou, O noble, desire to devour {gJias) the cow of the
Brahman, that is not to be eaten.
An accent-mark under the nya of rajanya in c has been lost.
2. A noble hated of the dice, evil, self-ruined {-pdrdjita) — he may
eat the cow of the Brahman "
: let me live today, not tomorrow."
I.e., if such is his wish. Ppp. reads, for b, papatmam apardjitah. [_Cf. Isaiah
xxii. 13 ; I Cor. xv. 3 2. J
3. Like an ill-poisonous adder enveloped with [cow-] hide, this cow
of the Brahman, O noble, is harsh, not to be eaten.
That is (a, b) a poisonous serpent in disguise. At beginning of c, ma in our text is
an error for sa.
4. Verily it conducts away his authority, smites his splendor ; like fire
taken hold of it burns up all ; he who thinks the Brahman to be food, he
drinks of Timatan poison.
Or 'she' (the cow), or 'he' (the Brahman), instead of 'it,' in a, b. Ppp. reads in b
alabdhah prtannota rdstath, and has a wholly different second half-verse, nearly agreeing
with our 13 c, ^•. yo brdhmanam devabandhum hinasti tasya pitfndm apy etu