# Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIII/Hymn 3

3. To the sun (with imprecation on the evil-doer).
Of this hymn only one verse is found in Pāipp., namely vs. 10 in iv. Vāit. makes use of no part of it; and Kāuç. ⌊49. 19⌋ only of the first verse. ⌊Caland, p. 173, understands the whole hymn to be intended at 49. 19; and takes 49. 24 and 25 as referring to vss. 6 and 7 of this hymn.⌋ *⌊The definition of vs. 26 (anuṣṭubh) appears to be omitted.—The individual pādas of this hymn are largely of genuine triṣṭubh measure and cadence, occasionally jagatī; and this is possibly the intention of the "trāiṣṭubham" of the Anukr. (for not a single verse foots up as 44 syllables): then, again, if to the verse proper in each case we add the refrain and reckon up the totals, we get the ākṛtis etc. of the Anukr.⌋
Translated: Ludwig, p. 543; Henry, 14, 45; Deussen, Geschichte, i. 1. 226; Griffith, ii. 150.
1. He who generated these two, heaven-and-earth; who clothes himself in existences, making them a garment (drā́pi); in whom abide the six wide directions, toward which he, the flying one, looks all abroad—against that god, angered, [is] this offense (ā́gas); whoso scathes a Brahman that knows thus, do thou, O ruddy one, make him quake, destroy him; fasten on the fetters of the Brahman-scather.
All the mss. agree in the accent of drā́pi (RV. always drāpí). As is their habit, they give of the refrain only the single word tásya except in vss. 1 and 25; and there they set the avasāna not before tásya, but after devásya: in our edition this perversion of the natural division is corrected. The refrain, if we contract yá evám to yāí ’vám, is a regular triṣṭubh; its addition to a preceding verse makes this hymn one of especially long meters; the first verse, 8 pādas of 11 syllables each, is an exact ākṛti. The verse ⌊or the hymn: see introduction⌋ is (though v. 12. 9 has the same pratīka) doubtless the one quoted in Kāuç. 49. 19, with xiii. 1. 28 and xvi. 6. 1, to accompany the laying on of fetters; and Bloomfield suggests that the whole hymn (or anuvāka) is intended also in 63. 21, one does not see why.
2. From whom the winds in their season go purifying (pū), out of whom the oceans flow forth—against that god etc. etc.
With b compare 1. 42 d. The verse (10 + 11: 44 = 65) has one more syllable than a regular aṣṭi, as the Anukr. notices. ⌊The longer grammatical equivalent of vā́tās would improve the rhythm.⌋
3. Who causes to die [and] causes to breathe; from whom all existences breathe—against that god etc. etc.
An exact aṣṭi (9 + 11: 44 = 64).
4. Who gratifies heaven-and-earth with breath; who fills the belly of the ocean with respiration—against that god etc. etc.
The meter is correctly enough described by the Anukr. The omission of either apānena or samudrasya would rectify the meter of b.
5. In whom is set (çritá) Virāj, the most exalted one, Prajāpati, Agni Vāiçvānara with the series (pan̄ktí); who took to himself the breath of the lofty one, the brilliancy of the loftiest one—against that god etc. etc.
We had nearly the same combination of divine personages above in viii. 5. 10 c, d; and the pan̄kti here perhaps corresponds to the 'all the seers' there. The verse, of very irregular meter (12 + 12: 15: 44 = 83), is very nearly a prakṛti (84 syll.).
6. Upon whom are set (çritá) the six wide [spaces], the five quarters, the four waters, the three syllables (? akṣára) of the sacrifice; who, angered, looked with his eye between the two firmaments (ródaṣī)—against that god etc. etc.
All our mss. read at end of b akṣárā (not -rāḥ), doubtless under the influence of the ordinary use of akṣára as neuter. The omission in c of cākṣuṣā would better both sense and meter. The verse as best read (12 + 12: 14: 44 = 82) lacks two syllables of a full prakṛti, but could easily be filled up by resolution. ⌊For the transition -t after yásmin, cf. Prāt. ii. 9 note.⌋ ⌊Caland, p. 173, understands this vs. and the following to be intended at Kāuç. 49. 24, 25, for use in the ceremony of the "water-thunderbolts": cf. introd. to x. 5.⌋
7. Who became food-eater, lord of food, and also Brahmaṇaspati (lord of worship); who is and shall be lord of existence—against that god etc. etc.
The translation implies bhaviṣyán instead of -yát in c; either this emendation or that of bhūtás to bhūtám (which Ludwig and Henry assume in their versions) seems unavoidable. Our saṁhitā-mss. are divided between -dó ánnapatir and -dó ‘nna- in a. The verse (11 + 8: 12: 44 = 75) is very near a regular atidhṛti (76 syll.). ⌊Cf. note to vs. 6 for use by Kāuç.⌋
8. He who measures out the thirteenth month, fabricated (vi-mā) of days-and-nights, having thirty members—against that god etc. etc.
The verse (6 × 11 = 66) lacks two syllables of a full atyaṣṭi (68 syll.).
9. Black the descent, the yellow eagles, clothing themselves in waters, fly up to the sky; they have come hither from the seat of righteousness—against that god etc. etc.
The first three pādas are RV. i. 164. 47 a-c, found also twice above, as vi. 22. 1; ix. 10. 22. The verse (7 × 11 = 77) is accurately described by the Anukr. It, with a good part of those that follow (11-16, 18-21, 23, 25), appears to have nothing to do with the refrain.
10. What of thee, O Kaçyapa, is bright (candrá), full of shining (rocanā́vant), what that is combined (saṁhitá), splendid (puṣkalá), of wondrous light, in which seven suns are set (ā́rpita) together—against that god etc. etc.
One of our mss. (T.: ⌊and perhaps also M.⌋) ⌊and one of SPP's⌋ accent púṣkalam (like púṣkara) in b. All ⌊of W's and of SPP's⌋ agree in the anomalous and probably incorrect accent saṁhitám. ⌊C.f., however, Gram. § 1085 b. Perhaps the case of saṁskṛtám at xi. 1. 35 is not parallel.⌋ Ppp. has (as noticed above) this verse, reading in a kaçyapo ro-, combining in c suryā ”rpitās sapta, and ⌊without avasāna after sākam⌋ having, as was to be expected, a wholly different apodosis: tasmin rajānam adhi vi çraye ’mam (cf. our ix. 5. 4 d), for which the refrain of this hymn is a senseless substitute. The verse is found also in K. xxxvii. 9. Our Bp. omits, by accident, the division-sign of rocaná॰vat in a.
11. The bṛhát dresses itself in him in front; the rathaṁtará accepts [him] behind: [both] clothing themselves always in light unremittingly—against that god etc. etc.
12. The bṛhát was his wing on the one side, rathaṁtará on the other, [both] of like strength, of like motion (? sadhryàñc), when the gods generated the ruddy one—against that god etc. etc.
This verse counts 77 syllables, as required, but is irregular (9 + 13: 11: 44).
13. This Agni becomes Varuṇa in the evening; in the morning, rising, he becomes Mitra; he, having become Savitar, goes through the atmosphere; he, having become Indra, burns (tap) through the midst of the sky.—Against that god etc. etc.
Or (a) 'he becomes Varuṇa at evening [and] Agni' (so Henry: cf. Ludwig). The verse is very irregular, but can be made to count a vikṛti (92 syll.).
​14. A thousand days' journey are expanded the wings of him, of the yellow swan flying to heaven; he, putting all the gods in his breast, goes viewing together all existences.—Against that god etc. etc.
The verse proper here is a repetition of x. 8. 18 and xiii. 2. 38; it is written in full in all the mss., because they have no other way of indicating the attachment here of the refrain. It is properly an ākṛti (8 × 11 = 88 syll.).
15. This is that god within the waters, the thousand-rooted, many-powered (?) Atri; he who generated all this existence—against that god etc. etc.
Henry makes in b the naturally-suggested emendation to puruçā́khas, 'many-branched'; ⌊cf. Bloomfield, AJP. xii. 436, and, per contra, Deussen, p. 228, note⌋. The verse is most naturally read as (9 + 11: 11: 44 = 75) a nicṛd atidhṛti, in accordance with the description of the Anukr.
16. Swift-running yellow [horses] draw the bright one (çukrá), the god shining with splendor in the sky, whose lofty bodies heat the sky; hitherward with well-colored gleams (? paṭará) he shines forth.—Against that god etc. etc.
Our edition ought to give in c tanvàs, since that is the pada-reading, and it is only by accident that nearly all the saṁhitā-mss. (all save R.K.) unite in protracting the à to ā̀. The verse reads most naturally as a bhurig ākṛti (12 + ll: l1 + 11: 44 = 89).
17. By whom the yellow steeds draw the Ādityas together; by what sacrifice go many foreknowing; which, sole light, shines forth variously—against that god etc. etc.
Yajñéna 'sacrifice' in b looks as if it needed emendation, and the irregularity of the pāda suggests corruption. Our mss. read at the end ví bhāti and the pada-text has ví॰bhāti*; our text makes a change of accent to vibhā́ti. The verse (11 + 14: 11: 44 = 80) counts up a precise kṛti.
*⌊A similar pada-reading, impossible with the accentless verb-form, we met at vi. 74. 2 (see the note thereto) and at vi. 114. 2 (see note). And here, as at vi. 74. 2, a suspicion arises that an error has come in from confusion with a similar form near by, here with the ending of vs. 16 proper, where ví bhāti is called for. All SPP's authorities have ví bhāti, except his P$^2$, which has vi॰bhā́ti. This reading he also adopts.—The rationale of the blunder at xiv. 2. 59 (see note) appears to be Similar. Cf. also the accent of sarvé at xiii. 4. 21, and note.⌋
18. Seven harness a one-wheeled chariot; one horse, having seven names, draws [it]; of three naves [is] the wheel, unwasting, unassailed, whereon stand all these existences.—Against that god etc. etc.
We had the verse (which is RV. i. 164. 2) above as ix. 9. 2. The mss. all give it in full here (as in the case of vs. 14 above).
19. Harnessed eight-fold draws the formidable draft-horse (váhni), father of gods, generator of prayers (mati); measuring with the mind the line of righteousness, Mātariçvan goes cleansing (pū) to all the quarters.—Against that god etc. etc.
Or perhaps 'he goes as Mātariçvan,' identifying the action of sun and of wind. Mimā́nas in c should be emended to mímānas, which is read only by D. The Anukr. notices this time the redundant syllable in a.
20. A united (saviyáñc) line along all the directions, within the gāyatrī́, the womb (embryo?) of the immortal.—Against that god etc. etc.
'Line' here is accus., as taking up and carrying on the idea of 19 c. The verse lacks two syllables of being a full atyaṣṭi (68 syll.).
21. Three settings, dawnings also three; three welkins, skies verily three: we know, O Agni, the birth-place of thee threefold; threefold the births of the gods we know.—Against that god etc. etc.
The verse is regular if tredhā́ in c (not in d) is made, as often elsewhere, trisyllabic.
22. He who in birth (jā́yamāna) opened out the earth, [who] set the ocean in the atmosphere—against that god etc. etc.
The meter is the same as that of vs. 20.
23. Thou, O Agni, impelled by powers (krátu), by lights (ketú), didst shine up, a kindled song (? arká) in the sky; unto what did the Maruts, having the spotted one for mother, sing, when the gods generated the ruddy one?—Against that god etc. etc.
Pischel (Ved. Stud. i. 26) takes arká as 'sun'; the connection with abhy ārcan in c is strongly opposed to this. The last pāda is the same with 12 c above. The verse (12 + 12: 12 + 11: 44) counts properly 91 syllables, one short of a full vikṛti.
24. He who is self-giving, strength-giving, of whom all, of whom [even] the gods wait upon the direction, who is master of these bipeds, who of quadrupeds—against that god etc. etc.
The verse proper is identical with the first three pādas of iv. 2. 1 (found also in other texts: see the notes to that hymn). Bp. here reads (doubtless by accident) asya in c. Two more syllables are needed to make a full kṛti (80 syll.).
25. The one-footed strode out more than the two-footed; the two-footed falls upon the three-footed from behind; the four-footed acted within the call of the two-footed ones, beholding the series (pan̄tí), drawing near (upa-sthā).—Against that god etc. etc.
The first two pādas are identical with 2. 27 a, b, and the whole verse corresponds to RV. X. 117. 8. RV. reads in a bhū́yo dvipádo, in b dvipā́t tripā́dam, in c eti (for cakre) dvipádām, in d pan̄ktī́r up-. The accentuation dvípāt and trípāt (only in these verses) was noticed under 2. 27. Here we lack two syllables of a full vikṛti.
26. The white son of the black [mother], the young of night, was born; he ascends upon the sky; the ruddy one ascended the ascents.
⌊Here ends the third anuvāka, with 1 hymn and 26 verses. The quoted Anukr. says ṣaḍviṅçat (ṣaḍviṅça?).⌋