Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/451

907 p. 214. Especially important are the nakṣatra-passages, TS. iv. 4. 10 and TB. i. 5. 2 and iii. 1. 1-2: cf. references to asterisms in AV. vi. 110 and notes, ii. 8, xiv. i. 13, etc.—Note, on the one hand, that our series begins, as does that in TS., with the old beginning in Taurus, to wit, with the Kṛttikās or Pleiades, and not (as later: see Whitney, O. and L.S., ii. 421), two asterisms further to the west, in Aries, with açvayujāu or açvinī (🇬🇷 and 🇬🇷 Arietis). Note also, on the other hand, that our series, unlike the series in TS., by including abhijit or Vega, far to the north of the ecliptic, comprises 28 asterisms, as is expressly stated below, at 8. 2 a: but whether 28 or 27 is the original Hindu number is a moot point carefully discussed by Whitney, l.c., pages 409-411.—The names of the asterisms in our hymn differ from those in TS. in a number of minor and major points: most notable among the latter is the TS. name tiṣyà for the 6th (or 8th) asterism, our puṣyá; and TS. has çroṇā́ for the 21st (or 23d), our çrávaṇa.—Bloomfield, in his part of the Grundriss, p. 35, observes that this hymn and the next are repeated in full in Nakṣatra Kalpa 10 and 26; and he infers that the date of the incorporation of these hymns into the text of the Vulgata is posterior to the time of the Nakṣatra Kalpa, because, in the contrary case, they would have been quoted by their pratīkas.⌋ *⌊See especially the second essay, pages 300, 303, 315: at p. 300, Weber gives the deities of the several asterisms.⌋

Translated: Griffith, ii. 265.

1. Seeking favor of the twenty-eight-fold (?) wondrous ones, shining in the sky together, ever-moving, hasting in the creation (bhúvana), I worship (sapary) with songs the days, the firmament (nā́ka).

2. Easy of invocation for me [be] the Kṛittikās and Rohiṇī; be Mṛigaçiras excellent, [and] Ārdrā healthful (çám) be the two Punarvasus pleasantness, Pushya what is agreeable, the Āçleshās light (bhānú), the Maghās progress (áyana) ⌊for me⌋.

The translation again implies in a the emendation me for agne, made in our text, for the improvement both of sense and of meter; SPP. reads agne; and the comm. points out that Agni is invoked here because he is the deity of Kṛttikās, and that the deities also of the other asterisms are to be regarded as included in their invocations—which is quite ingenious. The mss. in b are divided between çám and sám; in c, between púṣyas and puṣyàs; SPP. gives púṣyas, with, as he reports, nearly all his authorities; and this is doubtless the better supported reading. There seems to be no good reason