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An Atharvanic hymn to night: text-critical and linguistic remarks on the interpretation of Śaunakīya 19.50 = Paippalāda 14.9*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2013

Leonid Kulikov
Leonid Kulikov*
Affiliation:
Ghent University
*
Leonid.Kulikov@UGent.be
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Abstract

This paper offers an analysis and a new translation of an Atharvanic hymn addressed to the goddess of Night, Rātrī, attested in both recensions of the Atharvaveda (AV), in the Śaunakīya, and in the Paippalāda. The translation is accompanied by a philological and text-critical commentary as well as an analysis of some linguistic features of the Vedic language of this period, such as the use of emphatic reflexive pronouns and the periphrastic progressive tense (usually disregarded in standard Vedic grammars).

Keywords

AtharvavedaVedichymnemphatic reflexiveprogressive tense
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 76 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 259 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 2013 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank the participants of the Leiden Seminar on Paippalāda – Alexander Lubotsky, Arlo Griffiths, Marianne Oort and Kristen De Joseph – for important remarks, criticisms and comments on my translation of the Atharvavedic hymns. I am also grateful to Werner Knobl for many valuable suggestions and remarks on earlier drafts of this paper.

References

References

Atharva Veda Sanhita. Ed. Roth, R. und Whitney, W. D.. Zweite verbesserte Auflage besorgt von Max Lindenau. Berlin: Ferd. Dümmler, 1924.Google Scholar
Atharvaveda Samhitâ. With the commentary of Sâyanâchârya. Ed. Pandit, Shankar Pândurang. Bombay: Government Central Book Depôt, 1895–98.Google Scholar
Atharvaveda (Śaunaka) with the Pada-pāṭha and Sāyaṇācārya's commentary. Ed. Bandhu, Vishva et al. Part IV. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, 1962. (Vishveshvaranand Indological Series 16.)Google Scholar
The Paippalāda Saṃhitā of the Atharvaveda. Volume One: Consisting of the first fifteen Kāṇḍas [books I–XV]. Ed. Bhattacharya, Dipak. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1997. (Bibliotheca Indica 319.)Google Scholar
Barret, L.C. 1927. “The Kashmirian Atharva Veda, book fourteen. Edited with critical notes”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 47, 238–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloomfield, Maurice. 1899. The Atharvaveda. (Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde 2, Heft 1.) Strasbourg: Trübner, 1899.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloomfield, Maurice and Edgerton, Franklin. 1934. Vedic Variants. Vol. III. Noun and pronoun inflection. Philadelphia: Linguistic Society of America.Google Scholar
Elizarenkova, Tatjana Ja. (trans.) 1976. Atxarvaveda: izbrannoe [Atharvaveda: selected hymns]. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Geldner, Karl Friedrich. 1951. Der Rig-veda aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche übersetzt… Bd. 1–3. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gonda, Jan. 1955. “Reflections on Sarva- in Vedic texts”, Indian Linguistics 16, 53–71.Google Scholar
Grassmann, Hermann. 1873. Wörterbuch zum Rig-Veda. Leipzig: Brockhaus.Google Scholar
Griffiths, Arlo. 2003. “The textual divisions of the Paippalāda Saṃhitā”, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 47, 5–35.Google Scholar
Griffiths, Arlo. 2009. The Paippalādasaṃhitā of the Atharvaveda. Kāṇḍas 6 and 7: A new edition with translation and commentary. (Groningen Oriental Studies 22.) Groningen: Forsten.Google Scholar
Hettrich, Heinrich. 2010. “tanū́- als Reflexivpronomen im R̥gveda?”, in Fincke, J.C. (ed.), Festschrift für Gernot Wilhelm anläßlich seines 65. Geburtstages am 28. Januar 2010. s.l. ISLET, 175–83.Google Scholar
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Kemmer, Suzanne. 1995. “Emphatic and reflexive -self: expectations, viewpoint, and subjectivity”, in Stein, D. and Wright, S. (eds), Subjectivity and Subjectivisation: Linguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 55–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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König, Ekkehard and Siemund, Peter. 1999. “Intensifiers and reflexives: a typological perspective”, in Frajzyngier, Z. and Curl, T. S. (eds), Reflexives: Form and Function. (Typological Studies in Language.) Amsterdam: Benjamins, 41–74.Google Scholar
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Kulikov, Leonid. 2007a. “Reciprocal constructions in Vedic”, in Nedjalkov, Vladimir P. et al. (eds), Reciprocal Constructions. (Typological Studies in Language 71.) Vol. 2. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 709–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulikov, Leonid. 2007b. “The reflexive pronouns in Vedic: A diachronic and typological perspective”, Lingua 117/8, 1412–1433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulikov, Leonid. 2009. “Zametki po vedijskoj morfologii i sintaksisu: k analizu atharvaničeskogo gimna noči (Šaunakija 19.49 = Pajppalada 14.8)” [Notes on the Vedic morphology and syntax: An analysis of the atharvanic hymn to the Night (Śaunakīya 19.49 = Paippalāda 14.8)]. Vostok/Oriens, 2009, 3, 5–16.Google Scholar
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Macdonell, Arthur Anthony. 1916. Vedic Grammar for Students. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Orlandi, C. and Sani, S.. 1992. Atharvaveda. Inni magici, a cura di Orlandi, C. e Sani, S.. Turin: Unione Tipografico – Editrice Torinese.Google Scholar
Pinault, Georges-Jean. 2001. “Védique tanū́- et la notion de personne en indo-iranien”, Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 96/1, 181–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wackernagel, J. 1930. Altindische Grammatik. Bd. III. Nominalflexion – Zahlwort – Pronomen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Whitney, W.D. and Lanman, C.R. 1905. Atharva-Veda Saṁhitā. Translated into English with critical notes and exegetical commentary by Whitney, William Dwight. Revised and edited by Whitney, William Dwight. (Harvard Oriental Series 7–8.) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. 1975. “Why ‘kill’ does not mean ‘cause to die’: the semantics of action sentences”, Foundations of Language 13, 491–528. (Reprinted as Ch. 5 in: A. Wierzbicka. Lingua mentalis. Sydney: Academic Press, 1980).Google Scholar
Witzel, Michael. 1985. “Die Atharvaveda-Tradition und die Paippalāda-Saṁhitā”. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. Supplementband 6. (XXII. Deutschen Orientalistent ag.) 22, 256–71.Google Scholar
Zehnder, Thomas. 1999. Atharvaveda-Paippalāda: eine Sammlung altindischer Zaubersprüche vom Beginn des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. Buch 2. Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar. Idstein: Schulz-Kirchner Verlag. (Wissenschaftliche Schriften: Reihe 3. Beiträge zur Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft; 107.)Google Scholar
Zehnder, Thomas. 2011. Das Periphrastische Kausativ im Vedischen. (Münchner Forschungen zur historischen Sprachwissenschaft 12.) Bremen: Ute Hempen.Google Scholar
Zimmer, H. 1879. Altindisches Leben. Die Cultur der vedischen Arier nach den Saṁhitā dargestellt. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung.Google Scholar
Atharva Veda Sanhita. Ed. Roth, R. und Whitney, W. D.. Zweite verbesserte Auflage besorgt von Max Lindenau. Berlin: Ferd. Dümmler, 1924.Google Scholar
Atharvaveda Samhitâ. With the commentary of Sâyanâchârya. Ed. Pandit, Shankar Pândurang. Bombay: Government Central Book Depôt, 1895–98.Google Scholar
Atharvaveda (Śaunaka) with the Pada-pāṭha and Sāyaṇācārya's commentary. Ed. Bandhu, Vishva et al. Part IV. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, 1962. (Vishveshvaranand Indological Series 16.)Google Scholar
The Paippalāda Saṃhitā of the Atharvaveda. Volume One: Consisting of the first fifteen Kāṇḍas [books I–XV]. Ed. Bhattacharya, Dipak. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1997. (Bibliotheca Indica 319.)Google Scholar
Barret, L.C. 1927. “The Kashmirian Atharva Veda, book fourteen. Edited with critical notes”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 47, 238–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloomfield, Maurice. 1899. The Atharvaveda. (Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde 2, Heft 1.) Strasbourg: Trübner, 1899.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloomfield, Maurice and Edgerton, Franklin. 1934. Vedic Variants. Vol. III. Noun and pronoun inflection. Philadelphia: Linguistic Society of America.Google Scholar
Elizarenkova, Tatjana Ja. (trans.) 1976. Atxarvaveda: izbrannoe [Atharvaveda: selected hymns]. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Geldner, Karl Friedrich. 1951. Der Rig-veda aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche übersetzt… Bd. 1–3. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gonda, Jan. 1955. “Reflections on Sarva- in Vedic texts”, Indian Linguistics 16, 53–71.Google Scholar
Grassmann, Hermann. 1873. Wörterbuch zum Rig-Veda. Leipzig: Brockhaus.Google Scholar
Griffiths, Arlo. 2003. “The textual divisions of the Paippalāda Saṃhitā”, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 47, 5–35.Google Scholar
Griffiths, Arlo. 2009. The Paippalādasaṃhitā of the Atharvaveda. Kāṇḍas 6 and 7: A new edition with translation and commentary. (Groningen Oriental Studies 22.) Groningen: Forsten.Google Scholar
Hettrich, Heinrich. 2010. “tanū́- als Reflexivpronomen im R̥gveda?”, in Fincke, J.C. (ed.), Festschrift für Gernot Wilhelm anläßlich seines 65. Geburtstages am 28. Januar 2010. s.l. ISLET, 175–83.Google Scholar
Hock, Hans H. 2006. “Reflexivization in the Rig-Veda (and beyond)”, in Tikkanen, B. and Hettrich, H. (eds), Themes and Tasks in Old and Middle Indo-Aryan Linguistics. Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference. Vol. 5. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 19–44.Google Scholar
Insler, Stanley. 1970. “Sanskrit táskara- and text criticism to AV. xix 47–50”. Die Sprache 16/2, 38–48.Google Scholar
Kemmer, Suzanne. 1995. “Emphatic and reflexive -self: expectations, viewpoint, and subjectivity”, in Stein, D. and Wright, S. (eds), Subjectivity and Subjectivisation: Linguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 55–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
König, Ekkehard and Gast, Volker. 2006. “Focused assertion of identity: a typology of intensifiers”, Linguistic Typology 10/2, 223–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
König, Ekkehard and Siemund, Peter. 1999. “Intensifiers and reflexives: a typological perspective”, in Frajzyngier, Z. and Curl, T. S. (eds), Reflexives: Form and Function. (Typological Studies in Language.) Amsterdam: Benjamins, 41–74.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Adalbert. 1864. “Indische und germanische segenssprüche”, Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der deutschen, griechischen und lateinischen [KZ] 13, 49–74, 113–57.Google Scholar
Kulikov, Leonid. 2000. “RV 1.120.11: a note on the Vedic reflexive”, in Ofitsch, M. and Zinko, C. (eds), 125 Jahre Indogermanistik in Graz. Festband ⋯. Graz: Leykam, 231–8.Google Scholar
Kulikov, Leonid. 2007a. “Reciprocal constructions in Vedic”, in Nedjalkov, Vladimir P. et al. (eds), Reciprocal Constructions. (Typological Studies in Language 71.) Vol. 2. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 709–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulikov, Leonid. 2007b. “The reflexive pronouns in Vedic: A diachronic and typological perspective”, Lingua 117/8, 1412–1433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulikov, Leonid. 2009. “Zametki po vedijskoj morfologii i sintaksisu: k analizu atharvaničeskogo gimna noči (Šaunakija 19.49 = Pajppalada 14.8)” [Notes on the Vedic morphology and syntax: An analysis of the atharvanic hymn to the Night (Śaunakīya 19.49 = Paippalāda 14.8)]. Vostok/Oriens, 2009, 3, 5–16.Google Scholar
Kulikov, Leonid. 2010. “Atharvaveda-Śaunakīya 19.49.1 = Atharvaveda-Paippalāda 14.8.1: An etymological note on Vedic rā́trī- ‘night’”, in Nikolaeva, T.M. et al. (eds), Issledovanija po lingvistike i semiotike. Sbornik statej k jubileju Vjač. Vs. Ivanova [Studies in linguistics and semiotics: Festschrift for Vjač. Vs. Ivanov]. Moscow: Jazyki slavjanskix kul'tur, 174–9.Google Scholar
Ludwig, A. 1878. Der Rigveda oder die heiligen hymnen der Brâhmana. Bd. III. Die mantraliteratur und das alte Indien als Einleitung zur Uebersetzung des Rigveda. Prague: F. Tempsky.Google Scholar
Macdonell, Arthur Anthony. 1916. Vedic Grammar for Students. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Orlandi, C. and Sani, S.. 1992. Atharvaveda. Inni magici, a cura di Orlandi, C. e Sani, S.. Turin: Unione Tipografico – Editrice Torinese.Google Scholar
Pinault, Georges-Jean. 2001. “Védique tanū́- et la notion de personne en indo-iranien”, Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 96/1, 181–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wackernagel, J. 1930. Altindische Grammatik. Bd. III. Nominalflexion – Zahlwort – Pronomen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Whitney, W.D. and Lanman, C.R. 1905. Atharva-Veda Saṁhitā. Translated into English with critical notes and exegetical commentary by Whitney, William Dwight. Revised and edited by Whitney, William Dwight. (Harvard Oriental Series 7–8.) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. 1975. “Why ‘kill’ does not mean ‘cause to die’: the semantics of action sentences”, Foundations of Language 13, 491–528. (Reprinted as Ch. 5 in: A. Wierzbicka. Lingua mentalis. Sydney: Academic Press, 1980).Google Scholar
Witzel, Michael. 1985. “Die Atharvaveda-Tradition und die Paippalāda-Saṁhitā”. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. Supplementband 6. (XXII. Deutschen Orientalistent ag.) 22, 256–71.Google Scholar
Zehnder, Thomas. 1999. Atharvaveda-Paippalāda: eine Sammlung altindischer Zaubersprüche vom Beginn des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. Buch 2. Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar. Idstein: Schulz-Kirchner Verlag. (Wissenschaftliche Schriften: Reihe 3. Beiträge zur Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft; 107.)Google Scholar
Zehnder, Thomas. 2011. Das Periphrastische Kausativ im Vedischen. (Münchner Forschungen zur historischen Sprachwissenschaft 12.) Bremen: Ute Hempen.Google Scholar
Zimmer, H. 1879. Altindisches Leben. Die Cultur der vedischen Arier nach den Saṁhitā dargestellt. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung.Google Scholar