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One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1r the vulgate read kans-anas; so also the majority of Shankar Pandit's MSS. The emendation of the Pet. Lex. to kar^anas is now substan- tiated by Saya/za (kanrana^ kr/Vanasaz/zbandhi manik), and a minority of Shankar Pandit's MSS. IV, 12. Commentary to page 19. The purport of this hymn is manifest both from its wording, and its function in the ritual. It is to cure external lesions, and fractures of bones. The Kaui-ika IV, 12. COMMENTARY. 385 deals with it twice, 28, 5. 6, and 28, 14. The practice described in the former place is assigned by Kcrava to the healing of broken bones, wounds, and flow of blood caused by weapons (asthibhange rudhirapravahe j-astrabhighatadau bhaisha^yam). It consists in sprinkling the patient at dawn when the stars fade (with a decoction of the laksha-plant, Kcrava adds), then giving him to drink a so-called przsha- taka 1, a mixture of ghee and milk (so Darila ; cf. Kau^. 49, 15), and finally anointing him with it : 28, 5. rohanuty avanakshatre*vasi#/£ati. 6. przshataka//z payayaty abhy- anakti. At Ka.us. 28, 14 the performance is very similar, lakshalingabhir (sc. rzgbhir) dugdhe pha;//an payayati, 'while reciting the stanzas characterised by the mention of the laksha-plant (according to the commentators, AV. V, 5 in addition to our hymn) he gives the patient to drink a decoc- tion (of the plant) in milk.' Darila distinctly describes this as a cure for wounds (arusho bhaisha^yam), while with Ke^ava the scope of the charm is broader, namely, ' against wounds from knives, clubs, stones, burns, in fact all wounds of the body.' The name laksha, under which the plant addressed in this hymn goes consistently in the ritual books, does not occur in our hymn, but instead arundhati'. In AV V, 5> 7 tne lakshS, is mentioned — apparently a air. Aey. in the Mantras — and it there appears distinctly as an alternate designation of the creeper called arundhati', or sila£i'2, a parasitic plant which grows up on the stems of many trees (V, 5, 5), and wThich is otherwise described in the same hymn ; cf. also Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 67. Since the plant is employed to cure wounds (arus), the student of the Atharvan need hardly be warned that there is a punning symbolic connection between the disease and the simple ; cf. Darila's 1 For pnshataka, see Gobh. Gr/h. Ill, 8, 1 ff. ; Gr/hyasa^graha II, 59, and my note on the same, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XXXV, p. 580. 2 Possibly also r6ham; seethe note on stanza 1. Sayawa at VI, 59, 1 explains arundhati as sahadevi (cf. the text of VI, 59, 2).
2h. Gr/h. Ill, 8, 1 ff. ; Gr/hyasa^graha II, 59, and my note on the same, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XXXV, p. 580. 2 Possibly also r6ham; seethe note on stanza 1. Sayawa at VI, 59, 1 explains arundhati as sahadevi (cf. the text of VI, 59, 2). [42] c c 386 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. statement, arusho bhaisha^yam, at Kaiu. 28, 14, and the doubtless conscious mention of ariis and arundhat? in V, 5> 4- 5 ; cf. also VIII, 7, 6. The word is, however, likely to be a-rundhatf, a feminine present participle with a priva- tive ; so Saya/za at VI, 59> 2- Adalbert Kuhn, Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprach- forschung, XIII, 58 ff. ; 151 fif., has compared the hymn with the Merseburg charm, and a considerable variety of related materials from German, Scandinavian, and English sources. And, having in view more particularly AV. V, 5, 8. 9, he believes that the creeper was used primarily to heal the fractured limbs of horses — a construction which seems to me too narrow. Any kind of genetic connection between the Hindu and the German charm is none too certain, since the situation may have suggested the same expressions independently. Yet as a strongly-marked line in the folk-psychological character of the peoples in question, the parallels are extremely valuable and instructive. The hymn has also been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 508, and Grill2, pp. 18 and 125 ff. ; cf. also Hillebrandt, Vedachrestomathie, p. 48. The Anukrama/zi designates the hymn as vanaspatyam, ' devoted to Vanaspati,' its author being Rzbhu (cf. st. 7). Stanza 1. a, b. I take it that the three occurrences of the word roha/zi in the stanza are intended to convey the same word in at least a double meaning. The plant is a creeper growing upon trees, as is stated distinctly in AV. V, 5, 3, vrzksha/^-wzksham a rohasi, ' every tree thou doest ascend.5 The poet is very likely to have in mind this meaning of the root ruh in addition to the more direct one, ' cause to grow,' at least in connection with the first occurrence of the word. It seems necessary to construe one of the two roham in the first Pada as a proper name ; Ludwig in his translation goes farther than that, and seems to take one of them as vocative, * Roha/zi[, die wachsen macht,] bist du, o Roha;zi, &c.' The passage with its three identical nomi- natives has a parallel in the traditional text of XIX, 35, 1, IV, 12. COMMENTARY. 387 giihg\d6*si gahgldo rakshita*si gahgidak (so the MSS. ; the edition corrects to angira asi gahgida, &c).
3du, o Roha;zi, &c.' The passage with its three identical nomi- natives has a parallel in the traditional text of XIX, 35, 1, IV, 12. COMMENTARY. 387 giihg\d6*si gahgldo rakshita*si gahgidak (so the MSS. ; the edition corrects to angira asi gahgida, &c). The tempta- tion in both cases is to change at least one of the nomi- natives to a vocative ; see the note on XIX, 35, 1. Grill translates the two roham in Pada a by two synonymic expressions, 'Verheilung wirkst du, ja du heilst.' This simply veils the difficulty. It may be worth noting that the MSS. of the Kaorika in quoting the hymn at 28, 5 read unanimously rohi/zi ; this is the reading of Saya/za, and of the Paippalada for all three occurrences of the word, and it suggests ' red,' a quality which is borne out by certain epithets of the plant, hira/zyavar/za, ' golden-coloured/ in V, 5, 6. 7 ; suryavar/za, ' sun-coloured,' in V, 5, 6 ; .mshma, ' fiery/ in V, 5, 7. The name of the plant, laksha, ' lac-dye ' — cf. the Pet. Lex. s. v. 2 — also suggests ' red,' and this may be a third thought which runs through the mind of the versifex while composing the stanza. I attach no text- critical significance to the metre of the stanza (gayatri), which differs from that of sts. 2-5 on the one hand, and 6 and 7 on the other; cf. e.g. RV. VII, 103 ; AV. II, 4 ; VI, 111, &c. Stanza 2. b. I have reluctantly refrained from emending asti to asthi 1i ' bone/ The rather superfluous copula at the begin- ning of the Pada is suspicious, and the translation of pesh- /ram by * bone ' is not at all certain. Both the related pmta and pes? mean ' flesh/ and that, not ' bone/ may be the meaning of peshzram. This fits here as well as at AV. VI, 37, 3, the only other place where the word occurs, and Hillebrandt in the vocabulary of his Vedachrestomathie states a similar view, * losgeschlagenes stuck fleisch, fleisch- fetzen/ although his derivation from the root pish, ' crush/ separates needlessly our word from pi^ita and pe.n. With this change, Padas a, b should be translated ' what bone and flesh in thy person has been injured and burst, (may Dhatar, 1 By way of illustrating the easy confusion of these two words we may mention that Saya«a at IV, 10, 7 a, reads asti for asthi. C C 2 388 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. &c.).' Note, too, the parallelism which is thus established with Padas c, d in st. 3 (asthi in both stanzas, and pesh/ram = ma^sasya). Saya#a comments upon presh^am instead of p^shfram. c, d. dhata in alliteration with dadhat. Stanza 3.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1r the vulgate read kans-anas; so also the majority of Shankar Pandit's MSS. The emendation of the Pet. Lex. to kar^anas is now substan- tiated by Saya/za (kanrana^ kr/Vanasaz/zbandhi manik), and a minority of Shankar Pandit's MSS. IV, 12. Commentary to page 19. The purport of this hymn is manifest both from its wording, and its function in the ritual. It is to cure external lesions, and fractures of bones. The Kaui-ika IV, 12. COMMENTARY. 385 deals with it twice, 28, 5. 6, and 28, 14. The practice described in the former place is assigned by Kcrava to the healing of broken bones, wounds, and flow of blood caused by weapons (asthibhange rudhirapravahe j-astrabhighatadau bhaisha^yam). It consists in sprinkling the patient at dawn when the stars fade (with a decoction of the laksha-plant, Kcrava adds), then giving him to drink a so-called przsha- taka 1, a mixture of ghee and milk (so Darila ; cf. Kau^. 49, 15), and finally anointing him with it : 28, 5. rohanuty avanakshatre*vasi#/£ati. 6. przshataka//z payayaty abhy- anakti. At Ka.us. 28, 14 the performance is very similar, lakshalingabhir (sc. rzgbhir) dugdhe pha;//an payayati, 'while reciting the stanzas characterised by the mention of the laksha-plant (according to the commentators, AV. V, 5 in addition to our hymn) he gives the patient to drink a decoc- tion (of the plant) in milk.' Darila distinctly describes this as a cure for wounds (arusho bhaisha^yam), while with Ke^ava the scope of the charm is broader, namely, ' against wounds from knives, clubs, stones, burns, in fact all wounds of the body.' The name laksha, under which the plant addressed in this hymn goes consistently in the ritual books, does not occur in our hymn, but instead arundhati'. In AV V, 5> 7 tne lakshS, is mentioned — apparently a air. Aey. in the Mantras — and it there appears distinctly as an alternate designation of the creeper called arundhati', or sila£i'2, a parasitic plant which grows up on the stems of many trees (V, 5, 5), and wThich is otherwise described in the same hymn ; cf. also Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 67. Since the plant is employed to cure wounds (arus), the student of the Atharvan need hardly be warned that there is a punning symbolic connection between the disease and the simple ; cf. Darila's 1 For pnshataka, see Gobh. Gr/h. Ill, 8, 1 ff. ; Gr/hyasa^graha II, 59, and my note on the same, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XXXV, p. 580. 2 Possibly also r6ham; seethe note on stanza 1. Sayawa at VI, 59, 1 explains arundhati as sahadevi (cf. the text of VI, 59, 2).
2h. Gr/h. Ill, 8, 1 ff. ; Gr/hyasa^graha II, 59, and my note on the same, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XXXV, p. 580. 2 Possibly also r6ham; seethe note on stanza 1. Sayawa at VI, 59, 1 explains arundhati as sahadevi (cf. the text of VI, 59, 2). [42] c c 386 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. statement, arusho bhaisha^yam, at Kaiu. 28, 14, and the doubtless conscious mention of ariis and arundhat? in V, 5> 4- 5 ; cf. also VIII, 7, 6. The word is, however, likely to be a-rundhatf, a feminine present participle with a priva- tive ; so Saya/za at VI, 59> 2- Adalbert Kuhn, Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprach- forschung, XIII, 58 ff. ; 151 fif., has compared the hymn with the Merseburg charm, and a considerable variety of related materials from German, Scandinavian, and English sources. And, having in view more particularly AV. V, 5, 8. 9, he believes that the creeper was used primarily to heal the fractured limbs of horses — a construction which seems to me too narrow. Any kind of genetic connection between the Hindu and the German charm is none too certain, since the situation may have suggested the same expressions independently. Yet as a strongly-marked line in the folk-psychological character of the peoples in question, the parallels are extremely valuable and instructive. The hymn has also been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 508, and Grill2, pp. 18 and 125 ff. ; cf. also Hillebrandt, Vedachrestomathie, p. 48. The Anukrama/zi designates the hymn as vanaspatyam, ' devoted to Vanaspati,' its author being Rzbhu (cf. st. 7). Stanza 1. a, b. I take it that the three occurrences of the word roha/zi in the stanza are intended to convey the same word in at least a double meaning. The plant is a creeper growing upon trees, as is stated distinctly in AV. V, 5, 3, vrzksha/^-wzksham a rohasi, ' every tree thou doest ascend.5 The poet is very likely to have in mind this meaning of the root ruh in addition to the more direct one, ' cause to grow,' at least in connection with the first occurrence of the word. It seems necessary to construe one of the two roham in the first Pada as a proper name ; Ludwig in his translation goes farther than that, and seems to take one of them as vocative, * Roha/zi[, die wachsen macht,] bist du, o Roha;zi, &c.' The passage with its three identical nomi- natives has a parallel in the traditional text of XIX, 35, 1, IV, 12. COMMENTARY. 387 giihg\d6*si gahgldo rakshita*si gahgidak (so the MSS. ; the edition corrects to angira asi gahgida, &c).
3du, o Roha;zi, &c.' The passage with its three identical nomi- natives has a parallel in the traditional text of XIX, 35, 1, IV, 12. COMMENTARY. 387 giihg\d6*si gahgldo rakshita*si gahgidak (so the MSS. ; the edition corrects to angira asi gahgida, &c). The tempta- tion in both cases is to change at least one of the nomi- natives to a vocative ; see the note on XIX, 35, 1. Grill translates the two roham in Pada a by two synonymic expressions, 'Verheilung wirkst du, ja du heilst.' This simply veils the difficulty. It may be worth noting that the MSS. of the Kaorika in quoting the hymn at 28, 5 read unanimously rohi/zi ; this is the reading of Saya/za, and of the Paippalada for all three occurrences of the word, and it suggests ' red,' a quality which is borne out by certain epithets of the plant, hira/zyavar/za, ' golden-coloured/ in V, 5, 6. 7 ; suryavar/za, ' sun-coloured,' in V, 5, 6 ; .mshma, ' fiery/ in V, 5, 7. The name of the plant, laksha, ' lac-dye ' — cf. the Pet. Lex. s. v. 2 — also suggests ' red,' and this may be a third thought which runs through the mind of the versifex while composing the stanza. I attach no text- critical significance to the metre of the stanza (gayatri), which differs from that of sts. 2-5 on the one hand, and 6 and 7 on the other; cf. e.g. RV. VII, 103 ; AV. II, 4 ; VI, 111, &c. Stanza 2. b. I have reluctantly refrained from emending asti to asthi 1i ' bone/ The rather superfluous copula at the begin- ning of the Pada is suspicious, and the translation of pesh- /ram by * bone ' is not at all certain. Both the related pmta and pes? mean ' flesh/ and that, not ' bone/ may be the meaning of peshzram. This fits here as well as at AV. VI, 37, 3, the only other place where the word occurs, and Hillebrandt in the vocabulary of his Vedachrestomathie states a similar view, * losgeschlagenes stuck fleisch, fleisch- fetzen/ although his derivation from the root pish, ' crush/ separates needlessly our word from pi^ita and pe.n. With this change, Padas a, b should be translated ' what bone and flesh in thy person has been injured and burst, (may Dhatar, 1 By way of illustrating the easy confusion of these two words we may mention that Saya«a at IV, 10, 7 a, reads asti for asthi. C C 2 388 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. &c.).' Note, too, the parallelism which is thus established with Padas c, d in st. 3 (asthi in both stanzas, and pesh/ram = ma^sasya). Saya#a comments upon presh^am instead of p^shfram. c, d. dhata in alliteration with dadhat. Stanza 3.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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