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550
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
VII, 52. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 136. This hymn is catalogued in the gana or series called sâmmanasyâni in Kaus. 12, 5, and is accompanied by the practices described at AV. III, 30. It is rubricated further at Kaus. 9, 2, in the series designated by the Ganamåla, Ath. Paris. 32, 26, as the great sântigana. The first stanza of the hymn is found, with variants, Maitr. S. II, 2, 6 ; Tait. Br. II, 4, 4, 6. The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 428 (cf. also p. 344); Grill?, pp. 31, 181 ff.; Henry, Le livre VII de l'Atharva-véda, pp. 19, 79. The Anukramanî designates it as sâmmanasyam åsvinam.
Stanza 1. The first stanza is described by the Anukramanî as kakummaty anushtubh, but the irregularity vanishes, if we read suébhiah ... áranebhiah. The Tait. Br.—but not the Maitr. S.--substitutes the classical forms svaih and áranaih, thus disguising the metre still further.
Stanza 2. a. Cf. the parallel Pada, RV. X, 30, 6 c.
b. The text as it stands 1 yields the following translation : 'may we not struggle with one another in fateful spirit.' But a suggestion of Grill seemed to me too fascinating to resist, he emends mánasâ daívyena to mánasádaivyena=mánasa adaivyena, and our translation presupposes this text. At RV. II, 23, 12 we have, ádevena mánasâ yó rishanyáti ...glghâmsati, "he who attacks in a spirit displeasing to the gods ... (and) desires to murder.' Prof. Henry's rendering, 'ne point lutter contre l'esprit divin,' though possible grammatically, imposes upon mánas
Shankar Pandit, with Sâyana and many MSS., reads yushmahi for yutsmahi. Sâyana, mâ viyukta bhūma. Another variant yukhmahi is nothing but a misspelling of yutsmahi; cf. Kausika, Introduction, p. Ixi, and variant forms like kaputsala and kapukhala (Böhtlingk's Lexicon).
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