Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/157

613 have given thee birth; do thou confirm to this woman wealth with all heroes.

4. Kindled, O Agni, be thou kindled with kindling (samídh); mayest thou bring hither, knowing, the worshipful gods; for them cooking (çrā) the oblation, O Jātavedas, make thou this man to ascend to the highest firmament (nā́ka).

5. Threefold is set down the share that is yours of old—of gods, of Fathers, of mortals; know ye the portions (áṅça); I share them out to you; that one that is the gods' shall set this woman across.

6. O Agni, powerful, overcoming, thou overcomest; put down (ni-ubj) [our] hating rivals; let this measure (mā́trā), being measured, and measured, make [thy] fellows tribute-bringers to thee.

7. In company with thy fellows, be thou united with milk; urge her up unto great heroism; ascend aloft to the summit (viṣṭáp) of the firmament (nā́ka), which they call by the name heavenly world.

8. Let this great one (mahī́) accept the hide, the divine earth, with favoring mind; then may we go to the world of the well-done.

9. Join thou on the hide these two allied stones; split apart the shoots (aṅçú) successfully for the sacrificer; smiting down, smite them that would fight her; bearing up thy progeny aloft, lift up.

The feminine participles in c, d indicate that the verse is addressed to the wife of the sacrificer, though the comm. understands the first half as for the priest. Aṅçu he regards as applied by a figure to the rice, as grāvāṇāu 'soma-pressing-stones,' means mortar and pestle. 'Smite down' and 'lift up' are the alternate movements of the pestle, each viewed as symbolical. Imām is redundant in c as regards both meter and sense;