Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/551

381 comm.). Tásya at beginning of c in our text is a misprint for yásya. ⌊The Anukr. refuses to sanction the contraction ye ’mām.⌋

2. Offered to art thou, offered unto; thou art the weapon of the seers (ṛṣi); partaking (pra-aç) first of the vow (vratá), be thou a hero-slayer, O girdle.

3. Since I am death's student (brahmacārín), soliciting from existence (? bhūtá) a man (púruṣa) for Yama, him do I, by incantation (bráhman), by fervor, by toil, tie with this girdle.

4. Daughter of faith, born out of fervor, sister of the being-making seers was she; do thou, O girdle, assign to us thought (matí), wisdom; also assign to us fervor and Indra's power.

5. Thou whom the ancient being-making seers bound about, do thou embrace me, in order to length of life, O girdle.

1. Let this thunderbolt gratify itself with right (? ṛtásya), let it smite down his kingdom, away his life; let it crush [his] neck, crush up his nape, as Cachīpati of Vritra.

Ppp. reads vratena instead of ṛtasya in a, meaning perhaps mṛtena, which would be a welcome improvement, suggesting emendation of our text to -tām mṛtásya 'on the dead man,' anticipating the result of the action imprecated in the next pāda. Ludwig translates as if it were amṛtasya, which is to be rejected. The comm. renders it simply