Atharva Veda 18.4.71: Kanda 18, Anuvaka 1, Sukta 4, Mantra 71

Sukta 4

Sanskrit (Devanagari)

अ॒ग्नये॑ कव्य॒वाह॑नाय स्व॒धा नमः॑

IAST Transliteration

agnáye kavyavā́hanāya svadhā́ námaḥ

English Translation (Griffith/Whitney)

To Agni, the Bearer of the Fathers’ oblation—svadhā! reverence.

Translation

പിതൃകൾക്കുള്ള കവ്യ (ഹവിഷ്) വഹിക്കുന്ന കവ്യവാഹനനായ അഗ്നിക്കു—സ്വധാ; നമസ്കാരം.

Ask anything about this verse...Ask

Word by Word

• अग्नये: to Agni
• अग्नये: सम्प्रदान
• Type: Noun
• Root: अग्नि- (प्रातिपदिक)

• कव्यवाहनाय: to the carrier of the oblation (kavya)
• कव्यवाहनाय: सम्प्रदान
• Type: Noun (epithet/title)
• Root: कव्यवाहन- (प्रातिपदिक; समास: कव्य + वाहन)

• स्वधा: svadhā! (ritual call/oblation-formula)
• स्वधा: —
• Type: Indeclinable (ritual exclamation) / Noun used adverbially
• Root: स्वधा (प्रातिपदिक)

• नमः: salutation, homage
• नमः: कर्म
• Type: Noun (used as salutation)
• Root: नमस्- (प्रातिपदिक)

Attribution

Rishi: Traditionally Atharvanic/Āṅgirasa transmission for AV 18 funerary corpus (specific r̥ṣi not explicit in the provided excerpt)

Devata: Agni (as Kavyavāhana)

Chandas: Yajus-like formulaic prose/short pāda (often treated as an anuṣṭubh-fragment in recensional counting)

Mantra Rasa

Primary: shanta

Secondary: karuna