Hymns of the Atharva-Veda — SBE Vol. 42 (Clarendon Press, 1897) — second scan

Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.

1text, but sisratam as a third singular middle imperative is problematic, and perhaps Roth's emen- dation (sisntam) is to be adopted. Possibly some deriva- tive of sraws stood in place of the word (sfsrasat, ' may she cause the child to fall ' ?). Stanza 2. d. The editio princeps reads taw vyur/mvantu sutave ; Shankar Pandit, following the minority of his MSS. and Saya;za, reads taw, which was also proposed by Roth, 1. c, p. 15, and adopted by Weber, 1. c, p. 405. I have trans- lated taw, because the womb and not the foetus (cf. AV. IV, 2, 8) is opened at birth. Stanza 3. a. We shall, in all probability, never be able to unravel the tangle of mixed, punning notions which have given rise here to the air. Aey., the proper name Sushan. Ludwig is impressed with it so much as to endow the entire hymn with the title Sushan. In the first place it is a modification of Pushan, suggesting the future or desiderative of the root su, 'beget;' cf. sushyanti, RV. V, 78, 5. Then, there is surely an allusion to usha(/z) vyur/zvati' in RV. I, 92, it, that is, susha is dimly felt to be su + usha, ' beautiful Ushas ;' cf. Tait. S. IV, 7, 3, 2. Sayafza plainly and mechanically offers this as one of three explanations, ^obhana usha^ susha. And again the words su 'well' and san 'obtain' may also have flitted before the eyes of the versifex, cf. susha^e in Pada c. Saya/za offers two explanations in addi- tion to the above, susha savitri pra^anayitri devata, and suvaw sanoti*ti susha. The Pada is catalectic, but scarcely stands in need of emendation ; cf. Oldenberg, Die Hymnen des Rigveda, pp. 34 ff. I, II. COMMENTARY. 245 b. Cf. RV. V, 78, 5 ; Ait. Br. V, 15, 4. c. Susha//e (ct7r. Aey. as sush£ in P&da a) may be a voca- tive from either susham or susha^a Saya^a, he susha//e, suva;^ sanoti praya^^ati . . . sukhaprasavak&ri/zi devat&. d. Still more problematic is bishkale. Saya^a explains it as either from bishka, an imitative word, and the root la * take ' or ' make,' or else from a combination of the roots vish * permeate* and kal 'go!' According to the 5abda- kalpadruma, bishkala is the domestic sow (gramya^ukara^) called bahv-apatya, ' having abundant offspring/ on account of its prolificness. Stanza 4. Cf. Par. Grih. I, 16, 2; Hir. Grzh. II, 3, 3. Saya/za, supported by some MS. authority, reads ma^sena, as does P&raskara. Saya;/a quotes from an unquotable Vedic text (nigam&ntaram) another form of this mantra, svavity (!) avapa- dyasva na ma/^seshu na snavasu na baddham asi ma^asu. c. vSevalam is problematic.

2Saya/za, supported by some MS. authority, reads ma^sena, as does P&raskara. Saya;/a quotes from an unquotable Vedic text (nigam&ntaram) another form of this mantra, svavity (!) avapa- dyasva na ma/^seshu na snavasu na baddham asi ma^asu. c. vSevalam is problematic. The scholiast to Paraskara renders it ' moist, slimy,' and the Petersburg lexicon s sus- picion that this is a purely etymological rendering based upon the name of the water-plant .raivala is fully borne out by Saya^a's statement, ^evalam ^alasyoparisthit&yaivalavat antaravayavasa/^baddham. Roth, I.e., p. 16, suggests kevalam, 4 alone ; ' cf. for the interchange between s and k, Bloomfield and Spieker in the Proc. Amer. Or. Soc. for May, 1886 (Journ., vol. xiii, p. exxi). Stanza 5. Cf. Tait. S. Ill, 3, 10, 1 ; AV. I, 3, 6. Saya/za, gavinike yone^ par^vavartinyau nirgamanapratibandhike nadyau. Stanza 6. Cf. RV. V, 78, 7-8; Sat. Br. XIV, 9, 4, 22; V^f. S. VIII, 28; Nirukta III, 15; Hir. Grih. II, 3, 1; Apast. Mantrabr. II, 11, 15; Bhar. Grih. I, 21; Baudh. Grih. Parmsh/a II, 2. 246 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. I, 12. Commentary to page 7. The history of the interpretation of this hymn is of uncommon interest, because it illustrates forcibly the par- ticular closeness of relation between the hymns of the Atharvan and the practices reported in connection with them. Professor Weber, Indische Studien, IV, p. 405, translated the hymn under the caption fGegen hitziges fieber,' 'and, guided especially by the more immediate meaning of ^arayii^a^, 'the product of the placenta, after- birth,' he thought that the hymn referred to puerperal fever, or the fever of a child. Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, p. 343, surmised that the hymn was directed against inflam- mation, and Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 390, refers to it in connection with the word vata in the first stanza, which he would translate by ' wound ; ' he also identifies vata with ' wound ' etymologically. The compound vata- bhra^as in the first stanza, as he understands, means ' suffering from wound-fever/ But Zimmer's theory that the word vata ever means ' wound ' has not sustained itself: vata is 'wind in the body;' vatikrztanayani (VI, 44, 3 x) is ' destroyer of the disease which comes from wind (of the body) ;' cf. bata byadhi (vatavyadhi), 'diseases pro- duced by wind (in the body),' in Wises Hindu System of Medicine, p. 250, and see Contributions, Fourth Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XII, p. 427. In Seven Hymns of the Atharva-veda, 1. c, VII, pp.

3wind (of the body) ;' cf. bata byadhi (vatavyadhi), 'diseases pro- duced by wind (in the body),' in Wises Hindu System of Medicine, p. 250, and see Contributions, Fourth Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XII, p. 427. In Seven Hymns of the Atharva-veda, 1. c, VII, pp. 469 ff., I presented a full discussion of the hymn, and, aided by the indications of the Kaurika-sutra, showed that the hymn referred to lightning, which is regarded as pro- ductive of certain diseases mentioned in the context, to wit, fever (cf. the word ^o^isha in st. 2), headache, and cough. The pivotal word in the hymn is ^arayu^a^, and it is interesting to note why it is especially misleading. The first book of the Atharvan is a miscellaneous collec- 1 Cf. the note there, at VI, 109, 3, and IX, 8, 20. I, 12. COMMENTARY. 247 tion of hymns containing for the most part, though not unfailingly, four stanzas each (cf. AV. XIX, 23, 1 ; Atharvd- nukramam I, 1, 13; Ath. Park 48, 9 and 10; Gop. Br. I, 1, 8 ; Ind. Stud. IV, 433 ; XVII, 178). There is no definite order in the arrangement of the hymns within the book, but there appears a marked tendency to group together two or even three having the same or a similar subject. This concerns especially hymns n-13. The eleventh is a charm for easy delivery in childbed. The last three stanzas end with the refrain, ava ^arayu padyatam, ' may the placenta come down ; ' in addition to this the word £*arayu occurs thrice more in the course of the last three verses. Now, there can be no doubt that the redactor placed our hymn (I, 12) after I, 11 simply because it begins with the word gaxayugkh \ This does not argue that he misunderstood the true nature of the hymn ; on the con- trary it is quite clear that he recognised its association with lightning, because he has placed after it I, 13, a hymn which is evidently a prayer to lightning (namas te vidyiite, &c). He placed I, 12 after I, 11 simply because the word g-a.r&yug&k offered as good a point of linkage as any other at hand, the fundamental difference in its value notwith- standing. But it is natural that European readers should have seized upon this erroneous suggestion, so as to be influenced by it in deciding the purpose of the hymn. The native treatment of the hymn exhibits considerable divergence, owing to its duplex character. It is a hymn to lightning ; and, on the other hand, the diseases attributed to lightning present even more salient and practical points, destined to be prominent in its designation and ritual application.

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.