# Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 22

22. Homage to parts of the Atharva-Veda.
⌊Verses 1-20, prose.⌋ ⌊Not found in Pāipp.⌋ The comm. quotes from Nakṣatra Kalpa, 17, 18, to the effect that this hymn and the following (together called samāsa) are to be used in the great appeasement-ceremony called ān̄girasī, by one who seeks success as practising or suffering witchcraft. ⌊Cf. introd. to next hymn.⌋
Translated: Griffith, ii. 279; vs. 21 also by Ludwig, p. 219.
1. With the first five anuvākás of the Ān̄girasas, hail!
It is very strange that the instrumental case is used here, instead of the dative, which is used everywhere else through this hymn and the next. ⌊Conversely, note the use of the abl.-dat. form mādbhyás, below, 27. 2 c, where we expect the instrumental, as in the other pādas.⌋
2. To the sixth, hail!
3. To the seventh-and-eighth, hail!
4. To the black claws, hail!
5. To the green ones, hail!
Two of our mss. (O.D.) accent with our text háritebhyas; SPP. reads haritébhyas, with (apparently) all his authorities and nearly all of ours.
6. To the petty ones, hail!
7. To them of the paryāyas, hail!
8. To the first conchs, hail!
9. To the second conchs, hail!
10. To the third conchs, hail!
In 9 and 10, SPP. accents, with all the mss., dvitīyébhyas and tṛtīyébhyas; we have not hesitated to make the necessary emendations to -tī́ye-. ⌊The false accent is perhaps a blundering assimilation to that of prathamébhyas: cf. notes to vss. 13 and 14, and especially to xviii. 3. 47.—Two of W's later collated mss., D.L., have rightly -tī́ye-.⌋
11. To the next to the last ones, hail!
12. To the last ones, hail!
13. To the further ones, hail!
SPP. again follows the mss. in accenting uttarébhyas; ⌊again a blundering assimilation to the accent of uttamébhyas, vs. 12⌋.
​14. To the seers, hail!
Here also we emended the accent ⌊to ṛ́ṣibhyas, which W's D.L. indeed give⌋; but SPP. has, with the mss., ṛṣíbhyas. ⌊For the rationale of the blunder (due to çiṣíbhyas, vs. 15), of. notes to vss. 10 and 13 and note to xviii. 3. 47.⌋
15. To the peaked ones (? çikhín), hail!
Here the mss. vary between çikhíbhyas and çiṣíbhyas.
16. To the gaṇás, hail!
17. To the great gaṇás, hail!
18. To all the gaṇá-knowing (??) An̄girases, hail!
It is altogether likely that vidagaṇá either never meant anything or is a corrupt reading; the translation is given merely in order not to leave the word untranslated.
19. To the two thousands severally, hail!
20. To the bráhman (?), hail!
SPP. reads brahmáṇe, and mentions no disagreement among his authorities; all but one or two of ours have the same, and our text might probably have been better left to read so; but the accentuation of the mss. is wholly unauthoritative, and the distinction here also of no manner of importance. The comm. understands brahmáṇe. ⌊I think bráhmaṇe is to be preferred for the reason given at p. 932, line 7.⌋ Tlie numbers of syllables in the verses agree throughout with those demanded by the definitions of the Anukr.
It is a great disappointment to find that the designations given in this hymn to the various parts or elements of the Atharvan text are just as much a puzzle to the commentator as they are to us, so that he does not even venture to conjecture a meaning for them. He understands the authors rather than the mantras to be meant as the recipients of the homage. His whole comment follows: atra viṅçatikāṇḍātmikāyām asyāṁ çākhāyāṁ vidyamānānuvākasūktagaṇaviçeṣādisaṁjñārūpāiḥ çabdāir anuvākādidra. ṣṭāra etannāmāna ṛṣayaḥ pratipādyante: nīlanakhādisūktaviçeṣāṇām prasiddhatvāt tāni viçeṣato na pradarçitāni: brahmaṇe svāhe ’ti brahmaçabdena viṅçatikāṇḍātmakavedavācakena tasya draṣṭā brahmākhya ṛṣiḥ pratipādyate: anyat sarvaṁ nigadavyākhyātam. It sounds like a bad joke that he calls nīlanakha etc. 'familiarly known.' That anuvāka is used in vs. 1 in the same sense as in the present division of the text seems very unlikely.
21. Heroisms [were] gathered with the bráhman as chief; the bráhman as chief in the beginning stretched the sky; the Brahman was born as first of creatures; therefore (téna) who is fit to contend with the Brahman?