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read duhitraú (cf. Amer. Journ. Phil. V, p. 27). Similarly
d may be perfected by reading pitrah.
d. For the appeal to the Fathers for help, cf. II, 12, 4.
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Stanza 2.
a. For vidmá of the Saunakîya school the Paippalâda reads véda vaí, and Grill and Hillebrandt adopt this version for metrical reasons. But the metre is not really improved by the change.
b. narishta, mirth' (cf. XI, 8, 24), refers to the social not the political side of the sabhâ, which, in addition to being the meeting of the council, is also the occasion and place for gaming (cf. AV. XII, 3, 46), and social intercourse (cf. RV. VI, 28, 6). The word, too, perhaps conveys a double entente, nar, 'man,' and sthâ, 'place,' or suggests a quasi-superlative, 'most favourable to men.' Thus the variant form narishthâ, Vâg. S. XXX, 6, presents the effect of this kind of folk-etymology upon the word. Sâyana (as if the word were a compound na-ríshtâ), ahimsitâ parair anabhibhâvyâ.
VII, 13. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 93.
According to Kaus. 48, 35-36, the hymn is spoken against the enemies that are to be deprived of power, the second stanza while fixing one's regard upon them. Cf. also Sântikalpa 151. The hymn has been rendered by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 241; Grill, pp. 23, 179; Henry, Le livre VII de l'Atharva-véda, pp. 5, 56. The Anukramanî, saumyam.
Stanza 2.
Cf. Ludwig, 1. c., p. 265. That the sun takes away the strength of those who are asleep while it rises or sets, is a notion abundantly elaborated in connection with all holy practices. Such persons are designated as sûryâbhyudita, and sûryâbhinimrukta (-mlukta, -mlupta), and they are
1 Quoted erroneously by Sâyana as Nakshatrakalpa.
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