# Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XI/Hymn 4

4. Extolling the breath (prāṇá).
Found also in Pāipp. xvi. The whole hymn (together with a considerable number of others) is quoted by its opening words in Kāuç. 55. 17; 58. 3, 11, but not in a way to cast the least light upon its meaning and value. ⌊The hymn is reckoned to the āyuṣya gaṇa (note to Kāuç. 54. 11); the comm. quotes further uses from Nakṣatrakalpa 19, Çāntikalpa 15, and a Pariçiṣṭa.⌋
Translated: Muir, v. 394 (the greater part); Scherman, p. 69 (nearly all); Deussen, Geschichte, i. 1. 301 (with a general introduction); Henry, iii, 147; Griffith, ii. 64; Bloomfield, 218, 622.—The hymn to Prāṇa, introduced into the second praçna of the Praçna Upanishad, contains reminiscences of this hymn: cf. vs. 19, and Deussen, Upanishads, p. 562.
1. Homage to breath (prāṇá) in whose control is this All, who hath been lord of all, in whom all stands firm.
2. Homage, O breath, to thy roaring, homage to thy thunder; homage, O breath, to thy lightning, homage to thee raining, O breath.
Ppp. reads in c ‘stu for prāṇa.
3. When breath with thunder roars at the herbs, they are impregnated (pra-vī), they receive embryos, then they are born many.
Ppp. makes up the material of our vss. 3 and 4 differently, giving first 4 a, b and 3 c, d, and then 3 a, b and 4 c, d. It reads garbhaṁ in c, and vi jāyate in d. The comm. paraphrases pra vīyante with garbhaṁ gṛhṇanti ⌊cf. xii. 4. 37⌋. ⌊For "many" one might better say 'in great numbers.'⌋
4. When, the season having come, breath roars at the herbs, then all is delighted, whatever is upon the earth.
In d in our text, kiṁ is a misprint for kíṁ. With c, d is to be compared the similar half-verse RV. v. 83. 9 c, d.
5. When breath hath rained with rain upon the great earth, then the cattle are delighted: "verily there will be greatness for us."
⌊Cf. vs. 17 below.⌋ Ppp. has, for a, b: yadā prāṇo abhyakrandīd varṣeṇa stanayitnunā. ⌊Pāda d doubtless means precisely the same thing as the English slang, 'that'll be great for us!'⌋
​6. The herbs, being rained on, have talked with breath: "verily thou hast extended our life-time; thou hast made us all fragrant."
Ppp. reads in b avāciraṁ, and in c acīcarat.
7. Homage be to thee coming, homage be to [thee] going away; homage to thee, O breath, standing; to thee sitting also [be] homage.
Compare 2. 15 above, which differs only in the vocative used. Ppp. puts the verse after our 8, and reads te ‘stu in a, and namo ‘stu in b; a few of SPP's authorities make the same combinations.
8. Homage to thee breathing, O breath; homage be to [thee] making expiration; homage to thee turned away, homage to thee turned toward [us]; to the whole of thee [be] this homage.
Ppp. reads in b namo ‘stu, and makes parācīnāya and pratīcīnāya change places in c, d.
9. The dear body that is thine, O breath, and the dearer one that is thine, O breath, likewise what remedy is thine, assign thou of it to us in order to life (jīvás).
For yó in b (to be read yā́ u) the comm. has yāu, regarding it as dual.
10. Breath clothes (anu-vas) human beings (prajā́), as a father a dear son; breath is lord of all, both what breathes and what does not.
Ppp. combines prajā ’nu in a, and in d reads twice yas for yat. Prāṇáti in d remains undivided in pada-text by Prāt. iv. 57.
11. Breath [is] death, breath takmán; breath the gods worship (upa-ās); breath may set the truth-speaker in the highest world.
Ppp. has for a prāṇo mṛtyuṣ prāṇo amṛtaṁ ⌊cf. RV. x. 121. 2⌋, which is less devoid of sense; at the end it reads lokaṁ dadhat.
12. Breath is virā́j, breath the directress; breath all worship; breath is the sun, the moon; breath they call Prajāpati.
Ppp. reads prāṇo sarvam ⌊sandhi!⌋ for prāṇaṁ sarve in b, and its c is prāṇo ‘gniç candramās sūryaṣ. The comm. explains deṣṭrī as = svasvavyāpāreṣu sarveṣām prerayitrī paradevatā.
13. Breath-and-expiration are rice-and-barley; breath is called the draft-ox; breath is set in barley; expiration is called rice.
Ppp. combines prāṇā ”hito in c. Our P.M.W. read yávena for yáve ha in c.
14. A man breathes out (ápānati), breathes (prā́ṇati) within the womb; when, O breath, thou quickenest, then he is born again.
Ppp. reads, in b and beyond: garbhe antaḥ: yā vā tvaṁ prāṇa jinvaḥ sa damba vāyase tvat. The comm. has atho in d.
15. Breath they call Mātariçvan; breath is called the wind; in breath what has been and what will be, in breath is all established (prátiṣṭhita).
Ppp. has at the end samāhitāḥ.
​16. They of the Atharvans, they of the An̄girases, they of the gods, also those born of men—the herbs are generated (pra-jā), when thou, O breath, quickenest.
Ppp. has ca yās instead of uta at end of b, and, for c, sarvā pra modanty oṣadhīḥ. The adjectives are feminine, denoting the herbs.
17. When breath hath rained with rain on the great earth, the herbs are generated, likewise whatever plants [there are].
Compare vs. 5 above, of which this is an imitation; Ppp. makes it yet closer, by reading modante for jāyante in c. Some of the saṁhitā-mss. read jāyante ‘tho (losing the accent of átho) in c-d.
18. He who knoweth this of thee, O breath, and in whom thou art established—to him shall all bring tribute in yon highest world.
Ppp. separates prāṇa idaṁ in a.
19. As, O breath, all these human beings (prajā́) are tribute-bearers to thee, so shall they bring tribute to him who shall hear thee, O thou of good report (suçrávas).
Ppp. has for d yas tvā çuçrāva çuçruvaḥ; and the comm. also reads çuçruvaḥ. ⌊With this vs., cf. Praçna Upanishad, ii. 7.⌋
20. He moves, an embryo, within the divinities; having come into being (? ā́bhūta), having been (bhūtá), he is born again; he, having been, entered with might (çácībhis) what is to be, what will be, [as] a father a son.
The understanding of this very obscure verse is not helped by the comm., and Ppp. offers no variants. The comm. reads bhūtam instead of bhavyam in c. A part of the mss. read viveça (not -çā) in d.
21. The swan (haṅsá), ascending, does not extract (ut-khid) one foot from the sea; verily, if he should extract that, there would not be today nor tomorrow; there would not be night nor day; at no time soever would it dawn (vi-vas).
Ppp. reads utpapadam at end of b, and goes on thus: imaṁ sa tum utkhide ahnāivācya naḥ çyo na rātrī nna ha syā hnaṣ prajñā tu ki cana. The comm. explains the verse first as relating to the sun, for which it appears to be really intended, and then as applied to breath, to which it may be conceived to belong as being for the microcosm what the sun is to the macrocosm. ⌊Cf. my note to viii. 7. 24. Here one would indeed be reluctant to translate haṅsa by 'goose.'⌋
22. The eight-wheeled [thing, neut.] rolls, having one rim, thousand-syllabled, forth in front, down behind; with a half it has generated all existence; what its [other] half [is]—which sign is that?
23. He who is lord of this that has every (víçva) [kind of] birth, of every stirring thing—to thee being such, O breath, having a quick bow among the unexhausted (? ánya), be homage.
The very rare ánya is rendered, at a venture, with the Pet. Lexx. ⌊see BR. under ányā, and OB. i. 66 a, end⌋; ⌊and the parallelism of the next vs., with its átandra, favors this rendering⌋. The wholly obscure pāda in which it occurs is explained by the comm. to mean prāṇiçarīreṣu kṣipraṁ gacchate vyāpnuvate: he takes ánya from the root an 'breathe,' and -dhanvan from dhav 'go.' Ppp. has no variants to help us.
24. He who is lord of this that has all (sárva) [kinds of] birth, of all that stirs, unwearied, wise by bráhman—let breath go after (anu-sthā) me.
Ppp. has at the end the easier reading mām abhi rakṣatu. ⌊W. interlines "attend" as a rendering of anu-sthā.⌋
25. Upright among the sleeping he wakes; by no means (nanú) does he fall down horizontal (tiryán̄); no one soever has heard of his sleeping among the sleeping.
The comm. reads in a jāgara and understands it as impv. 2d sing. Ppp. has in c ⌊? or in a?⌋ svapneṣu. The combination of suptám and asya seems to make it necessary to take the former in the sense of svapna, or of svāpa, as the comm. glosses it. The activity of the breath while the other powers and senses of the body are asleep is a theme of wonder elsewhere also. For supéṣú in a, read suptéṣu (an accent-mark slipped over the wrong syllable).
26. O breath, turn not about from me; not another than I shalt thou be; like the embryo of the waters, in order to life (jīvás), I bind thee to me, O breath.
The obscure second pāda is by the comm. explained to mean mayā saha tādātmyāpanna eva vartase. Some mss. (including our O.) accent mát both times, and SPP. follows them in his text: compare xii. 3. 46.
⌊The quoted Anukr. says "prāṇāya."⌋
⌊Here ends the second anuvāka, with 2 hymns and 82 verses, according to the count of the Berlin edition: that is 1 paryāya-sūkta with 3 paryāyas and 56 verses and 1 artha-sūkta with 26 verses. But some mss. sum up the anuvāka as containing 136 "verses of both sorts," that is the no avasāna-rcas of our h. 3 (see p. 632, top, and p. 629, top) and the 26 ṛcas of our h. 4.⌋
⌊The following quotation from the Old Anukr. seems to be put after the end of h. 4 as pertaining to the anuvāka: trayas "tasyāu ’dano" bhavet. Does this mean that we have no right to count the "tasyāudana" as less than 3 hymns? Cf. p. 611, ¶ 4.⌋