Skyscript Astrology Forum

I have often mentioned the complete list of nakshatras given in Atharva Veda 19.7. As Mark has remarked, this can be confusing to one who is not familiar with that text. Here, then, is an English translation. It was done by Ralph Griffith, and the language is somewhat Victorian. Also, Griffith worked much too fast and isn't always as reliable as he should be, but it's the only complete English version of the AV that you can get. In former times, it was believed that the AV was later than the other Vedas, but I have never seen it dated later than 700 BCE. Asko Parpola of the University of Helsinki now places it around 1000 BCE, the same as the Rgveda, but representing a different tradition.


The brilliant lights shining in heaven together, which through
the world glide on with rapid motion.
And Days, and Firmament with songs I worship, seeking the
Twenty-eight-fold for its favour.
Krittik?s, Rohin? be swift to hear me! Let Mrigasiras bless me,
help me ?rdr?!
Punarvasu and S?nrit?, fair Pushya, the Sun, Aslesh?s, Magh?
lead me onward!
My bliss be Sv?ti and benignant Chitr?, my right First Phalgunis
and present Hasta.
R?dhas, Vis?khas, gracious Anur?dh?, Jyeshth? and happy-
starred uninjured M?la.
Food shall be earlier Ash?dhas grant me; let those that follow
bring me strength and vigour;
With virtuous merit Abhijit endow me! Sravana and Sravishth?s
make me prosper.
Satabhishak afford me ample freedom, and both the Proshtha-
padas guard me safely.
Revati and the Asvayujas bring me luck, and the Bharanis
abundant riches!

I have no idea what Sunrita means, nor any explanation as to why Citra and Svati are out of sequence -- unless it has something to do with the meter of the poem, which I cannot verify because I don't have the Devanagari text. "Food shall be" is probably a typo for "Food shall the." Sravishthas is another name for Dhanishta, still occasionally in use, and the Proshthapadas are the Bhadrapadas. Asvayujas is Asvini -- you can see the original noun "asva," meaning "horse," in both forms. As for seemingly anomalous plurals, like "the Bharanis," I have come across this in several early texts. I am not sure why that format is used; perhaps Martin knows.

Kenneth Johnson wrote:I have no idea what Sunrita means, nor any explanation as to why Citra and Svati are out of sequence -- unless it has something to do with the meter of the poem, which I cannot verify because I don't have the Devanagari text.

The Sanskrit text in devanagari script is available here (pp. 183-184). Monier-Williams says that S?n?t? is 'a daughter of Dharma and wife of Utt?nap?da'.

As for seemingly anomalous plurals, like "the Bharanis," I have come across this in several early texts. I am not sure why that format is used; perhaps Martin knows.

Not really, but I suppose the plural forms just refer to the stars as a group rather than as a unified constellation. Again according to MW, Bhara?? in the singular or plural is a name 'of the 7th nak?atra (containing 3 stars and figured by the pudendum muliebre)'. (Seventh??)

In the hindi translation by Dr. Ganga Sahay Sharma(Sanskrit Sahitya Prakashana), I do not see the mention of the number-twenty-eight.
sunritaa is translated as O! Aditi .

Whitney on p907 implies that turmisham should be ashtavimsham ( 28 )
-conjectural emendation.
I like that Whitney and Lanman's atleast explain their interpretation.

http://archive.org/details/atharvavedasamhi02whituoft

Thanks for drawing attention to the AV of Whitney and Lanman. It is much harder to find than Griffith, but it is the better translation of the two. Originally the Griffith trans had copious notes, but they have been omitted from all the online version, and in any case Whitney was a much more careful scholar than Griffith.

Pandit Kshemakarana das Trivedi published the bhashya of all the 20 Kandas of Atharvaveda in with the 19th Kanda in 1919 AD in Sanskrit and Hindi.
Here is the original 19.7 from that book the meaning and the word splitting:

(AV?_19,7.1a) citr???i s?k?? div? rocan??ni sar?sr?p???i bh?vane jav??ni |
(AV?_19,7.1c) turm??a? sumat?m ich?m?no ?h?ni g?rbh?? sapary?mi n??kam ||1||

I will attempt to translate that in my limited english.

citr???i = various/strange
s?k?? = mutual
div? = in the sky
rocan??ni = stars shining brightly
sar?sr?p???i = moving zig zag
bh?vane = in the world
jav??ni = fast moving

re-arranged as:

in the sky -in this world-strange(amazing)-mutually- moving zig zag-moving fast-stars shining brightly.

turm??a? = speed of sound
sumat?m = (with)wisdom
ich?m?no =(I)wanting/wishing
?h?ni = every day
g?rbh?? = with vedic chants
sapary?mi =to god happily
n??kam = I worship

re-arranged as:

with the speed of sound - and with wisdom- wishing for-every day-with vedic chants- happily to god- I pray.

Meaning:

Like the way the stars, by mutual attraction and moving with speed benefit the world, likewise, the humans, by singing the greatness of gods with vedic hymns and mutual understanding , speed and wisdom should keep doing their duty.

My own simplified meaning:

Like the stars moving around in the sky with speed bless the world.So should we, with mutual understanding and singing the vedic hymns in glory of the god,keep doing our duty.

My own take, as if I were a Samaveda era pandit

Like stars which appear to be speedily moving in a zig-zag manner but with coherence are able to bestow goodness on us and give direction. Same way, the humans should do their duty of worshipping the lord with mutual understanding and singing the hymns of vedas (which originate in the sound the of movememnt) .

Pretty benign and very different interpretation.
Amazing how different the interpretation could be if you are culturally different.

PD

pankajdubey wrote:Amazing how different the interpretation could be if you are culturally different.

Or if you don't understand the words properly.

Martin Gansten wrote:

pankajdubey wrote:Amazing how different the interpretation could be if you are culturally different.

Or if you don't understand the words properly.

that goes for any religion

the last bit of interpretation for the modern secular God.

pankajdubey wrote:that goes for any religion

the last bit of interpretation for the modern secular God.

I'm not sure what that means, but the translation you posted is simply wrong. The Hindi word-for-word seems largely correct, though the running Hindi translation isn't. The English is off even in the word-for-word (the last two words, anyway).

Martin Gansten wrote:

pankajdubey wrote:that goes for any religion

the last bit of interpretation for the modern secular God.

I'm not sure what that means, but the translation you posted is simply wrong. The Hindi word-for-word seems largely correct, though the running Hindi translation isn't. The English is off even in the word-for-word (the last two words, anyway).

Thanks
The last two got swapped during typo.
sapary?mi =to god happily=>I worship

This could be better even after typo

n??kam = I worship =>to God who is embodiment of happiness(?Indra)

Others, I would leave as such.
The reason I posted this hindi translation was to show that not every commentator has seen the need to change turm??a? to 28 even though later on Abhijit is included to make 28 nakshatras.

PD

PD

pankajdubey wrote:The last two got swapped during typo.
sapary?mi =to god happily=>I worship

This could be better even after typo

n??kam = I worship =>to God who is embodiment of happiness(?Indra)

Others, I would leave as such.

Yes, I can see that Trivedi translates n?kam as sukhsvar?p param?tm? (more literally, 'the supreme self whose nature is happiness'), building on a fanciful traditional etymology for n?ka as 'where unhappiness is not'. But even if you accept the etymology, that still isn't what n?ka means. It means 'sky', 'vault of heaven', not God or the supreme self.

The reason I posted this hindi translation was to show that not every commentator has seen the need to change turm??a? to 28 even though later on Abhijit is included to make 28 nakshatras.

Fair enough. It's a problematic word, though -- metrically, as far as I can see (though I'm no expert in Vedic metres), and it also seems to be a hapax (?).

Is it true that the Epic sanskrit was quite liberal grammatically and the authors would use ungrammatical construct to fit with the metre ?

I happened to get hold of Oberlies- A Grammar of Epic Sanskrit and he quotes Hopkins(1901)-

metre surpasses grammar

.the grammatical irregularities are very often found at metrically relevant position of the stanza.

PD

pankajdubey wrote:Is it true that the Epic sanskrit was quite liberal grammatically and the authors would use ungrammatical construct to fit with the metre ?

No, I think putting it like that would be overstating the case. But the Sanskrit epics (which are many centuries later than the Vedic hymns discussed earlier in this thread, so comparing them is similar to comparing Beowulf with Shakespeare) did originate as oral, bardic poetry and may contain occasional turns of phrase that do not conform to standard grammatical rules.

the grammatical irregularities are very often found at metrically relevant position of the stanza.

I'm not sure what that means -- which position in a stanza would not be metrically relevant?