# Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XI/Hymn 2

2. To Rudra, especially as Bhava and Çarva.
Found also in Pāipp. xvi.—*⌊Verses 9 and 28 are triṣṭubh, the remaining 29 being exceptions!⌋
⌊The pratīka coincides with that of xi. 6. 9, bhavāçarvā́v idám brūmaḥ, and that of iv. 28, bhávāçarvāu manvé vām: see introduction to the latter. The only quotation in Vāit. is at 29. 10, where the hymn accompanies an offering to Rudra: and it is accordingly reckoned to the rāudra gaṇa (note to Kāuç. 50. 13). Verse 31 is reckoned to the abhaya gaṇa (note to Kāuç. 16. 8). Further citations in Kāuç. are as follows: the hymn is used (129. 3) with an oblation in deprecating an evil omen; Dārīla understands it as meant at 28. 8 (see introd. to iv. 28); Keçava and the comm. hold that it is to be used with a dozen other hymns in a rite (50. 13-14) for safety on a business journey; Keçava (not the comm.) takes it to be intended with v. 6 at 51. 7 in a rite for the safety of the cattle.—According to Caland's interpretation of yuktayos at 50. 17, it is to be used (with vi. 128) in the rite there prescribed for keeping snakes etc. from house and field; but perhaps iii. 26 and 27 are rather intended (see my introduction to iii. 26).⌋
Translated: Muir, iv. 334; Ludwig, p. 549; Henry, 103, 139; Griffith, ii. 57; Bloomfield, 155, 618.—Cf. also Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 157; and von Schroeder, Tübinger Kaṭha-hss., p. 14-15, where the text corresponding to our verses 1-9 and 13 and 16 is given.
1. O Bhava-and-Çarva, be gracious; do not go against [us]; ye lords of beings, lords of cattle, homage to you! [the arrow] that is fitted, that is drawn, do not let fly; do not harm our bipeds nor quadrupeds.
The comm. first explains mā́ in a as if it were mā, object of abhí yātam, and then, alternatively, in its proper sense. ⌊For ā́yata, see note to vi. 65. 1.⌋
2. Make ye not bodies for the dog, the jackal, for the buzzards (? alíklava), the vultures, and them that are black [and] greedy (aviṣyú); let thy flies, lord of cattle, let thy birds not find themselves at food.
'Bodies' (çarīra) must be taken here in the sense of 'dead bodies.' The accent of kártam is, though rather strange, not indefensible, as in the former of two parallel clauses; the comm. reads instead kartum. Atíklava is found only here and in 9. 9, and is rendered purely conjecturally; the comm. reads instead aviklabebhyas, and Ppp. ariklavebhyas. All the pada-mss. separate mā́vidanta at the end into mā́: avidanta; SPP., in his pada-text, makes, with the comm., the necessary emendation to vid-. The construction and sense of d are obscure and doubtful; Ppp. has a wholly different reading: viçase mā viçyantu.
3. Unto thy noise (? kránda), [thy] breath, and what pangs (? rópi) are thine, O Bhava—homage we pay to thee that art thousand-eyed, O Rudra, immortal one.
The comm. glosses krandāya with krandanāya çabādya, and ropayas with ropayitryo mohayitryas tanvaḥ; he reads at the end amartyas, explaining it as used for a dative.
4. We pay thee homage in front, above, also below; forth from the sphere of the sky, homage [be] to thine atmosphere.
The comm. explains abhīvargá as = avakāçātmaka ākāçaḥ. The verse is mostly wanting in Ppp.
5. To thy face, O lord of cattle; the eyes that thou hast, O Bhava; to [thy] skin, form, aspect, to thee standing opposite [be] homage.
Or 'to thy mouth,' instead of 'face.' The comm. paraphrases pratīcīnāya with pratyagātmarūpiṇe.
6. To thy members, belly, tongue, thy mouth, to thy teeth, smell, [be] homage.
Ppp. (omitting the first te) combines an̄gebhyo ’darāya and jihvāyā ”syāya ⌊and reads ca for te at end of b⌋.
7. With the blue-locked archer, the thousand-eyed, vigorous, with Rudra, the half-smiter (?)—with him may we not come into collision (sam-ṛ).
Ardhaka-ghātin, in c, is met with only here, and is of obscure meaning; the comm. says senāyā ardhaṁ hantuṁ çīlam asya, i.e. 'able to destroy half an army at once.' No variant is reported from Ppp. ⌊in the Collation: but in his Notes, Roth does report adhvaga-⌋; the minor Pet Lex. says "Ppp. adhvaga-" and itself conjectures andhaka-. ⌊Cf. the notes of Henry, Griffith, Bloomfield. The Kaṭha reading, however, should now be taken into account; and that has in fact adhvaga-: see Kaṭha-hss., p. 15$^5$.⌋ Ppp. has at the end samarāmasi.
8. Let this Bhava avoid us on every side; as fire the waters, let Bhava avoid us; let him not plot against us; homage be to him.
Ppp. reads āpāi ’vā ’gniṣ pari in b, and combines no abhi in c. The comm. has in c the regular form maṅsta; but long ā in this tense occurs a couple of times in other texts also.
9. Four times ⌊catús⌋ homage, eight times, to Bhava; ten times, O lord of cattle, be homage to thee; thine are shared out these five creatures (paçú)—cows, horses, men, sheep and goats.
All the mss. agree in the inconsistent readings aṣṭakṛ́tvas and dáça kṛ́tvas (cf. Prāt. iv. 27); SPP. regards the comm. as having daçakṛtvas as a compound, but I do not see on what ground. Ppp. reads in d gāvo ‘çvāṣ puruṣāṅd aj-.
10. Thine are the four directions, thine the heaven, thine the earth, thine, O formidable one, this wide atmosphere, thine is all this that has life (ātmán), that is breathing upon (ánu) the earth.
Ppp. omits tava pṛthivī, thus rectifying the meter; and it has for d yad ejad adhi bhūmyām.
​11. This wide vessel, holder of good things, is thine, within which are all these beings; do thou be gracious to us, O lord of cattle; homage to thee; away let the jackals, the portents (abhibhā́), the dogs go, away the weepers of evil with disheveled hair.
The comm. identifies the vessel (koça) with the aṇḍakaṭāha, the shell of the world-egg. He takes abhibhā́s as = abhibhavitāras, and epithet of kroṣṭāras, and agharudas as = aman̄galaṁ yathā bhavati tathā rodanaṁ kurvatyaḥ; ⌊but see viii. i. 19 and references⌋. ⌊The meter of b would be rectified by reading víçvāni in place of imā́ víçvā.⌋
12. Thou bearest a yellow golden bow, a thousand-slaying, hundred-weaponed, O tufted one; Rudra's arrow goes, a god-missile; to that be homage, in whichever direction from here.
SPP. reads in b sahasraghní, with the majority of his authorities; none of ours have it, but P.M.W. have -ghnyám, with two of SPP's mss., and with the comm. ⌊cf. note to x. 4. 7 and Henry's note⌋; Ppp. gives -ghni. The comm. has çikhaṇḍi at end of b.
13. He who, attacked (abhi-yā), hides himself, [who] tries to put thee down, O Rudra, him from behind thou pursuest, like the tracker (? padanī́) of one that is pierced.
With the last pāda compare x. 1. 26 b; the expression is apparently a familiar or proverbial one: ⌊cf. Manu viii. 44, 'as the hunter follows the track (padaṁ nayati) of a deer by the drops of blood'; also Dhammapada, vss. 179, 180⌋. Ppp. reads ugra instead of rudra in b.
14. Bhava-and-Rudra, allied, in concord, both go about, formidable, unto heroism; to them be homage, in whichever direction from here.
Ppp., instead of repeating vs. 12 d, reads tayor bhūmim antarikṣaṁ svar dyāus tābhyāṁ namo bhavamatyāya ⌊cf. vs. 19 a?⌋ kṛṇva. The comm. explains vīryāya ⌊altematively⌋ by svavīryaprakaṭanārtham, which is doubtless correct.
15. Homage be to thee coming, homage be [to thee] going away; homage to thee, O Rudra, standing; to thee sitting also [be] homage.
SPP's text has in a te ‘stv, with about half of his authorities. The verse is repeated as 4. 7, below, with prāṇa for rudra in c; Ppp. reads prāṇa in both places. The first half-verse is found in AÇS. i. 12. 34 and Āp. ix. 2. 9, in both with rudra for astu in b.
16. Homage in the evening, homage in the morning, homage by night, homage by day; to Bhava and to Çarva, to both have I paid homage.
17. With the thousand-eyed one, seeing across in front, with Rudra, hurling in many places, inspired one, may we not come in collision, as he goes about (ī́ya-) with the tongue.
The comm. paraphrases atipaçyám with atiçayenā ’tikramya vā paçyati (the word is omitted in both Pet. Lexx.), and connects purastāt either with it or with asyantam; jihváyé ”yamānam he explains as jihvāgreṇa kṛtsnaṁ jagad vyāpnuvantam bhakṣaṇārthaṁ lihantam, which is rather absurd; perhaps jihvayā (so Ludwig) belongs rather to 'we': 'we, by what we say.'
​18. We go forward (pū́rva) to meet him of dark horses, black, swarthy, killing, fearful, making to fall the chariot of the hairy one (keçín); homage be to him.
The comm. understands the connection as here given, making keçín the name of an Asura; Ludwig takes ratham as object of pratī ’mas and the other words as its epithets. ⌊Ppp. reads çyāvāsyaṁ at the beginning, and has, in b, bhīmo and pārayantam.⌋
19. Do not let fly at us the club (? matyà), the god-missile; be not angry at us, O lord of cattle; homage to thee; elsewhere than [over] us shake out the heavenly bough.
The bough, namely (so it would seem), from which the portents that fall from the sky appear to be shaken by a hostile divinity. The comm. reads martyam instead of matyam in a. He recognizes that srās (i.e. srā[kṣ]s) is from root sṛj ("= vi sṛja "). Ppp. has srā m. devahitam in a.
20. Do not harm us; bless us; avoid us; be not angry; let us not come into collision with thee.
Ppp. omits nas before brūhi in a, and has at the end arāmasi (as in vs. 7).
21. [Be] not [greedy] for our kine, our men; be not greedy for our goats and sheep; elsewhere, O formidable one, roll forth [thy missile]; smite the progeny of the mockers (píyāru).
The insertion in c seems unavoidable; the comm. ⌊in a passage restored by SPP.?⌋ supplies tava hetim; Ludwig, deinen Pfeil. ⌊Ppp. inserts ‘çveṣu before goṣu.⌋
22. Of whom the takmán, the kā́sikā, goes as one weapon, like the noise of a stallion horse, to him, leading out in succession, be homage.
The verse is very obscure, and the translation mechanical; Ppp. reads, in a-b, eka ’çvasya, and this reading is followed; the comm. supplies, to ekam, apakāriṇam puruṣam, and makes it object of eti = prāpnoti. Ludwig understands nirṇayate as 'extracting arrows from the quiver.' ⌊As for vṛ́ṣaṇas, cf. JAOS. x. 534, 524.⌋
23. He who stands propped up in the atmosphere, killing the non-sacrificing, the god-mockers—to him be homage with the ten clever ones (çákvarī).
The 'ten clever ones' are probably the fingers: cf. v. 28. 11; the comm. glosses the word with an̄gulibhis, as = karmasu çaktābhiḥ. Ppp. begins yas tiṣṭhati viçvabhṛto antarikṣe ‘yajvanaṣ pra-.
24. To thee are assigned the forest animals ⌊paçú⌋, the wild beasts in the woods, the geese (haṅsá), eagles, hawks, birds; thine, O lord of cattle, is the monster (? yakṣá) within the waters; for thine increase flow the waters of the heaven.
25. The dolphins (çiṅçumā́ra), boas (ajagará), purīkáyas, jashás, fishes, rajasás, at which thou hurlest: there is no distance for thee nor hindrance for thee, O Bhava; at once thou loolcest over the whole earth; from the eastern thou smitest in the northern ocean.
Ppp. begins siçumārā 'jagarāḥ purīṣayā jagā mat-. The comm. has pulīkayās (like MS.); he takes rajasā́ (p. -sā́ḥ) as if it were the instr. sing, rájasā; he passes jaṣā́s and mátsyās without mention, but defines çiṅçumāra as 'a kind of crocodile (nakra)' and ajagara as 'a kind of serpent.' For jaṣā́s, some of the mss. (including our Bp.P.M.W.) have jakhā́s, one or two (including our I.) have jaghā́s, and one of SPP's jhaṣā́s; doubtless it is the sea-monster called later jhaṣa. Nearly all the mss. have sárvān in d (only our B. ⌊and D.Kp.?⌋ and two of SPP's sárvāṁ), and SPP's text accordingly admits it, though it seems an evident error, and the comm. reads -vām. Most of the pada-mss. resolve pariṣṭhā́sti into -sthā́: ásti (instead of asti). We are surprised to find a 'northern' ocean spoken of, and set over against the 'eastern' one ⌊cf. xi. 5. 6⌋, but úttara cannot well mean anything else. Consistency requires the reading -smint sam- in e, but the t is accidentally omitted in our text, and SPP's also leaves it out.
26. Do not, O Rudra, unite (sam-sṛj) us with the takmán, not with poison, not with the fire of heaven; elsewhere than [on] us make that lightning fall.
The comm. again correctly paraphrases saṁ srāḥ with saṁ sṛja.
27. Bhava is master (īç) of the heaven, Bhava of the earth; Bhava has filled the wide atmosphere; to him be homage, in whichever direction from here.
All our mss., and nearly all SPP's, strangely read tásyāi at beginning of c, as if governed by the example of vs. 12 d. SPP. emends to tásmāi in his text, with the comm. and less than a quarter of his authorities; ⌊and the translation implies the change⌋. Ppp- has a different c: tasya vā (with nā written over it) prāpad duchunā kā cane ’ha; it also combines bhavā ”papra ⌊urv⌋ in b.
28. O king Bhava, be gracious to the sacrificer, for thou hast become cattle-lord of cattle; whoever has faith, saying "the gods are," be thou gracious to his bipeds [and] quadrupeds.
29. Not our great one, and not our small, not our carrying one, and not those that will carry, not our father and mother do thou harm; our own self (tanū́), O Rudra, do not injure.
The verse occurs also as RV. i. 114. 7; VS. xvi. 15; TS. iv. 5. 10$^2$; TA. x. 52, with úkṣantam and ukṣitám for váhantam and vakṣyatás in b; vadhīs for hiṅsīs and mó ’tá mātáram for mātáraṁ ca in c; and, for d, mā́ naḥ priyā́s (TS.TA. priyā́ mā́ nas) tanvò rudra rīriṣaḥ. The comm. has vakṣatas in b. ⌊Ppp. has, for b, mā na kṣīyanta uta mā no akṣata.⌋
​30. To Rudra's howl-making, unhymned-swallowing (?), great-mouthed dogs I have paid this homage.
The obscure asaṁsūktagilá (Ppp. -girebhyas) is paraphrased by the comm. with asamīcīnam açobhanavacanaṁ gṛṇanti bhāṣante. How asaṁsūkta should come to mean 'unmasticated,' as given in the Pet. Lexx., does not appear. The translation given conjectures 'not having a hymn with it.' The comm. reads elavak- in a.
31. Homage to thy noisy ones, homage to thy hairy ones, homage to those to whom homage is paid, homage to the jointly-enjoying—homage, [namely], O god, to thine armies; welfare [be] to us, and fearlessness to us.
The adjectives are fem., as belonging to senābhyas. Ppp. disagrees with our text in the last two thirds of the verse, but is corrupt. The comm. reads cana at the end. ⌊The vs., as noted above, is quoted in the first abhaya gaṇa (note to 16. 8).⌋
⌊Here ends the first anuvāka, with 2 hymns and 68 verses. The quoted Anukr. says tathāi ’va rāudre ‘pi parās tu viṅçateḥ, designating the hymn as a "Rudra-hymn."⌋