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

14, 5 (Su. 44, 15). All this is too general in character, and fails to cast light on the real difficulties of the hymn. Cf. also Ath. Paru. 17, 2. The Anukramam classifies it as .ralâgnidevatyam uta mantroktadevatyam. For previous translations, see Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 175 ff . ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 522 ; Grill2, pp. 1, 89 ff.

Stanza 1.

a. The Pada might have better been left untranslated : the text is certainly corrupt, and especially dhisâna, masculine, imbedded as it is in half a dozen feminines, is open to suspicion. The Paippalada has nissala;^/ dhishnyam dhisha^am, and, since dhlshnya, means ' seat of the priest/ the suggestion arises that nis is to be separated from salâm (=j-alam, 'house') l, and is to be taken with na^ay atrial in Pada d, making some such sense as the following: 'we drive out from the house, from the seat of the priest (dhish- /zya), and from the fire-place (dhisha/za) V Cf. the use of the hymn in Kau.r. 72, 4; 82, 14 above, and the Anukrama^i, icilagnidevatyam. But the construction of nir nai-ayama^ with the accusative of place from which is unheard of, and the change of all three words to ablatives would amount to an independent composition. Besides, the employment of the Kau^ika, and the statement of the Anukrama/zi, just mentioned, may be due to a more or less conscious, punning perversion of the syllables salam, for the purpose of extracting ^ala, ' house/ from them. Grill composes a new Pada, nis salavrikyam dharsha^im, 'out (do we drive) the bold Salavrzki.5 Weber, ' die dreiste, zahe, ausspringende (? correcting to dhishaf/am) ; ' Ludwig — who entitles the hymn, * Gegen die Sala?' — translates, 'die aus dem hause befindliche (die aus der sala nolle gekommene ?) freche verlangende/ or, alternatively, ' hinaus die sala/ &c, and, once more, as a third possibility, ' aus dem haus hinaus die freche begerliche.' Saya/za knows nothing about it : -4 — — —II, 14- COMMENTARY. 3OI nissalS is either the name of a female demon, or sala a kind of a tree (vrzkshavLresha^, tato nirgata nissala).

1 Cf. I, 18, 1; VI, 14, 2.

2 Cf. Hillebrandt, Soma und verwandte Gotter, 175 fF., 181.

b. Saya^a to ekavadyam, ' she who gives forth a single sound of gruff character.'

• c. Kinds, is the name of a demon, car. key. in RV. and AV., but frequently mentioned elsewhere, especially in connection with Marka ; see Sat. Br. IV, 2, 1, 4. 9. 10. 14.
• 20. Saya/za, kruddhasya . . . papagrahasya.

d. sadanva, ' female demon,' seems to be connected with danu and danava.

on, car. key. in RV. and AV., but frequently mentioned elsewhere, especially in connection with Marka ; see Sat. Br. IV, 2, 1, 4. 9. 10. 14. 20. Saya/za, kruddhasya . . . papagrahasya.

d. sadanva, ' female demon,' seems to be connected with danu and danava. Saya/za follows Nirukta VI, 30 in explaining it as ' ever noisy/ sada nonuyamana^.

Stanza 2.

b. Saya^a takes aksha as ' gambling-house ' (akshakri- ^asthana, dyuta^ala), and upanasa either as 'granary' (anasa^ samipam upanasam dhânyagrzliam) or as ' wagon full of grain' (dhanyapuma^ ^aka/am). RV. X, 105, 4 does not render the word clear.

e. Nothing is known of the a7r. Aey. magundi (Saya/za, ka^ana plsaki); cf. Weber's combinations, 1. c, p. 177.

Read duhitro (as in the dialects), and cf. our note on
VII, 13, 1 ; also Ait. Br. VII, 13, 8.

Stanza 3.

a, b. The word adharad, ' below,' alludes with double entente to hell (adhama tamawsi). Saya/za, patalaloko*sti; cf. Zimmer, p. 420. This class of writings are fond of conjuring diseases and misfortunes upon others, strangers and neighbours; cf. AV. V, 22, 4 ff. ; RV. X, 155; and the common formulary expression, anya//zs te asmat tapantu hetaya^ * in the Ya^-us-texts.

Stanza 4.

The stanza occurs in another connection in the Paippalada, and may not originally have stood here, since the

1 'Heiliger Sanct Florian,

Schutz unser haus ztind' andre an!'
Cf. Amer. Journ. Phil. XI, 345 ff.

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second book of the AV. in general consists of hymns of five stanzas.

a. Saya/m glosses bhutapatir correctly, bhutan&#z palako rudra^. The word bhuta here suggests more narrowly 'evil beings.'

d. fndro is metrically superfluous, and may be spared from the context. Anukrama^t, uparish/advira^ brzhati.

Stanza 5.

a. I have taken kshetriya/za/^ in the sense which it ordinarily has in the AV. (II, 8 and 10 ; III, 7) ; Saya^a, kshetrat parakshetrat matapitmarirad agatanam . . . rogana,m. Weber and Ludwig, ' coming from the field.' Grill, ' ob ihr zum wild des Felds gehort.'

Stanza 6.

b. In the MSS. the Padap. reads, slsut gasht/iam ivasaran ; the edition emends gash/Mm to kash/Mm, and we, with most translators and Saya^a, read ivasaram. Sayana reads glash/Mm, glossing, paridhavanena glana/k san yatra tisht/iati sa glash/M (' goal,' ' resting-place ' ?). Cf. VI, 6j, 1.

II, 25. Commentary to page 36.

The plant prz.miparm (hemionitis cordifolia ; Sayana, £itraparm oshadhi//) is here employed to off-set the activity of demons called ka?zva, of varied pernicious influence, but especially conceived as devourers of the embryo in the womb.

25. Commentary to page 36.

The plant prz.miparm (hemionitis cordifolia ; Sayana, £itraparm oshadhi//) is here employed to off-set the activity of demons called ka?zva, of varied pernicious influence, but especially conceived as devourers of the embryo in the womb. According to Sumita I, 377, 7 it serves, mixed with milk, as a preventive against miscarriage (garbhasrave). Ke^ava, at Kau.s\ 26, 36, prescribes it as a far more general remedy, for one overtaken by misfortune, against miscarriage, still-birth, and demons of various sorts. Darila says it destroys the demons called pisaka. The practice at Kaus. 26, 36 consists in smearing the plant mixed with the dregs of ghee upon the patient. The hymn is one of a list of six grouped together at Kaus. 26, 33 for all sorts of diseases (Sayana in the introduction, sarvarogabhaisha-

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^yakarmam), which the Ga/zam£la (Ath. Pari?. 32, 24) describes as the ga/zakarmagaTzo (! a list for collective practices). Kaui-. 8, 25 mentions it further among the £atanani, ' hymns with which demons are exorcised.'

The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 187 ff . ; Grill2, pp. 20, 92. The Anukrama/zi describes it as vanaspatyam.

Stanza 4.

For -yopana in this and the next stanza, see Amer. Journ.
Phil. XII, 414 ff. Cf. II, 7, 1.

II, 26. Commentary to page 142.

This is a hymn connected with a species of oblation (havi's) x, whose object is to concentrate (sa/^sravya) wealth and prosperity upon the sacrificer. Cf. I, 15 and XIX, 1. Our hymn aims at prosperity in the stable, and accordingly it is rubricated along with III, 14 ; VII, 75 ; VI, 11, 3, at Kaui". 19, 14 ff. in a series of 'stable-ceremonies' (gosh/^akarma^i), to wit: 19, 15. ' He (the owner) drinks the new milk of a cow that has thrown her second calf, mixed with the spittle (of the calf)2. 16. He presents a cow (to the Brahman). 17. He pours out (into the stable) a vessel full of water. 18. Having swept together the (previously moistened dung), placing his left hand upon it, he scatters half of it with his right hand. 19. Having placed lumps of excrement, bdellium, and salt into milk from a cow with a calf of a colour identical with hers, he buries (the mixture) behind the fire. 20. On the fourth morning he eats of it. 21. If the milk has turned 3, then (the performance) is a success/

The hymn occurs also in the Paippalada ; it has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, p. 26 ff. ; Ludwig,

1 Cf. the introduction to VI, 39.

2 Sayana, vatsalalamuritam. Cf. Khad. Grih. Ill, i, 47. 48.