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

rice and kampila represents the resumption of the sharply interrupted relations between the king and his people.

Once more the hymn is recited for obvious reasons at Kau^. 55, 17, along with a list of others at the investiture of the young ' twice-born' (cf. also the scholiast at 17, 31), and it figures in one of the two var£asyaga;zas, c series of hymns which confer lustre,' in the Ga/zamala, Ath. ParLr. 32, 10 (see Kaoy. 13, 1 note).

Stanza 2.

The abrupt change of person in Pada c suggests the possibility of emending asmat to asmat, ' inferior to him.' But cf. the same formula in st. 4 c.

*Santikalpa 1 7 and 1 9 (quoted by Saya/za erroneously as Nakshatrakalpa). Cf. also Tait. Br. I, 3, 6, 7.

1 As the porridge-man drips with ghee, thus the real man shall live in abundance.

2 rash/ravagamanam. Darila, ^anapada^ tasya*vagamanakaram . . . anuragakaram. Saya«a, 'a performance designed to restore a king, driven from his kingdom by an enemy/ Cf. the hymns III, 3 and 4.

3 The commentators state explicitly that rice which has grown
anew upon the place, where it has previously been cut, is to be used.
See Darila, Ke^ava, and Sayawa (lunapunarutthita^am odanam).

p. 1

Stanza 3.

Allusion seems to be made here to the rape of the soma in Indra's behalf by Agni, the heavenly eagle (.syena). According to our interpretation, in Contributions, Fifth Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XVI, 1 ff., this Agni, the eagle, is the lightning.

T, 10. Commentary to page ii.

Vanma punishes crime, especially falsehood (cf. AV. IV, 16 ; Tait. Br. I, 7, 2, 6, &c), with his disease, the ' waterbelly/ dropsy1. The performance of the K audita is purely symbolic: 25,37. 'While reciting the hymn (the priest) sprinkles the patient over the head (with water) by means of twenty-one tufts of darbha-grass together with reeds taken from the thatch of a house.' The water in the body is supposed to be washed out by the water sprinkled upon it (attractio similium).

The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. IV,
403-4 ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 445 ; cf. also Bergaigne
et Henry, Manuel Vedique, p. 133.

Stanza 1.

b. Weber regards visa as fern. sing. ; Whitney, in the Index Verborum, as nom. plur. masc. ; Saya/za, as neut. plur., va^a va^ani. Varu/za and Asura are, of course, the same divinity.

e. Weber, ' durch mein gebet von da herauss dich reissend ; ' Ludwig, ' mit meinem brahma hervor mich tuend ; ' Saya^a, brahma^a mantrena . . . ^a^adana^ atyartham tikshTza^ . . . praptabala^.

Stanza 2.

c, d.

za and Asura are, of course, the same divinity.

e. Weber, ' durch mein gebet von da herauss dich reissend ; ' Ludwig, ' mit meinem brahma hervor mich tuend ; ' Saya^a, brahma^a mantrena . . . ^a^adana^ atyartham tikshTza^ . . . praptabala^.

Stanza 2.

c, d. The passage is a reverberation from the legend of ^unaZ/i-epa ; cf. Ait. Br. VII, 15.

1 Varu/za is the lord of the waters (see the note on IV, 16, 3) :
the dropsy is therefore conceived to be due to his infliction.
[42] R

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d. For tava*yam, cf. VIII, 2, 20 d. Ludwig suggests that the sufferer, being a kshatriya, is said to be the man of Varu/za, the king (kshatriya). Weber construes it as though it were an ethical dative, * dieser lebe dir (i. e. durch deine gnade) hundert Herbste.' Saya^a, identically the same way, tava anugrahat.

Stanza 4.

a, b. Ludwig, rendering ' von dem grossen meere VaLrvanara,' thinks that the lower regions are alluded to, since death overtakes him that has been seized by Varu//a. Saya;/a over-ingeniously connects vaLrvanara with the digestive fire (ga/^arigni), i. e. in this connection, digestive disturbance. But AV. VIII, 2, 27 shows that nothing more is intended than the funeral fire. Cf. for the entire stanza, Vait. Su. 38, 1.

I, 11. Commentary to page 99.

The ceremonies connected with this hymn are described in KâUS. 3$, 1 ff. They are in part intended to procure easy and natural parturition, but the attention of the sutrakara seems to be engrossed even more by certain oracles which shall tell whether the woman is in danger, and whether or not she will give birth to a male child. As the practices, in spite of their unusual length, do not exhibit any very close connection with the hymn, we may only present the first six Sutras, as follows: 1. 'While reciting AV. I, 11, four portions of the dregs of ghee are poured into a water-pail, and four mu;^a-reeds are plucked (and placed) eastward upon the head (of the pregnant woman :). 2. The sheaths (of the mu^a-reeds) are placed westward. 3. If (these reeds and stalks) should break, there is danger. 4. (The practitioner) washes her with warm water, beginning with the braid of hair to the right.

1 Cf. the four directions mentioned in the second stanza of the hymn.

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5. The joints of the house are loosened1. 6. On both sides of her a cord and a wagon-rope is fastened.' The remaining Sutras are not all of them clear ; they seem to be devoted wholly to oracles for finding out whether it is to be a boy or not.

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5. The joints of the house are loosened1. 6. On both sides of her a cord and a wagon-rope is fastened.' The remaining Sutras are not all of them clear ; they seem to be devoted wholly to oracles for finding out whether it is to be a boy or not.

Practices similar to the above, in part built up upon mantra-materials of a similar character, are known in the GWhya-sutras and elsewhere by the name of soshyantikarma; see Sat. Br. XIV, 9, 4, 2,2 = Brih. Ar. VI, 4, 23; Par. Grih. I, 16, 1 ff. ; Sankh. Grih. I, 23 ; Gobh. Grih. II, 7, 13 ff. ; Khad. Grih. II, 2, 28 ff. ; Hir! Grih. II, 2, 8 ff. ; Apast. Grih. VI, 14, 13 ff.

The hymn has been treated by Roth, Ueber den Atharvaveda (Tubingen, 1856), pp. 15 ff. ; Weber, Indische Studien, IV, 404-5 ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 478.

Stanza 1.

a, b. The point of the first hemistich is the punning comparison of the birth (suti) with the act of pressing the soma. This makes of it a sacrifice ; Aryaman, as the hotar-priest, utters the vasha/-call for Pushan who is, as it were, the adhvaryu-priest ; cf. Ind. Stud. X, 324. Ludwig's surmise that Sushan is to be read for Pushan (cf. stanza 3) is untenable. The association of the two in matters connected with marriage (RV. X, 85, 36, 37) is well known 2. For hota vedha^, see Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, pp. 223-4; vedha^, however, is not derivable from the root vidh, but is equal to Avestan vazdanh (Geldner, Studien zum Avesta, p. 58).

c. The Pada is very difficult. Roth emends freely, sisri- Xkm nary rztapra^ato, ' (a child) begotten at the proper time shall detach itself. O woman!' He compares, for this use of sfsrztam, Vâg. S. VIII, 28, eva*ya;/z da^amasyo asrat,

1 Symbolic action calculated to loosen the foetus ; cf. in general
AV. IX, 3.

? The mantra quoted in Kaor. 33, 7 is also based upon the same hymn, RV. X, 85, 40 (the surya-sukta).

R 2

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where asrat is, however, to be derived from sra//zs, ' fall.' Weber regards nary rz'tapra^ata as parenthetic, and combines sisratam with parvam, ' lass nachgeben — mog die frau richtig gebaut sein! — lass weichen die glieder!' Ludwig, ' es lose sich die frau als eine richtig gebarende.' We have adhered closely to the text, but sisratam as a third singular middle imperative is problematic, and perhaps Roth's emendation (sisntam) is to be adopted. Possibly some derivative of sraws stood in place of the word (sfsrasat, ' may she cause the child to fall ' ?).

Stanza 2.

d.