Kau.y. 61, 45. 46. With stanza 37 the porridge is covered with ghee ; with stanza 38 the porridge is addressed. Both acts in the Sutra precede correctly and naturally the dip- ping out of the porridge, indicated in stanza 36. In stanza 38 the mighty eagle seems to be the sun which shines upon the porridge; cf. XIII, 2, 32. 33. Both devak and deva- tabhi^ seem to refer to the Brahma^as : the acting priests shall give the porridge to the priests for whom the porridge is prepared as a fee. Cf. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, 1 2, 262 ; Weber, Indische Studien, X, 35, and see Kaus. 6, 26 ff.
Stanza 39.
Kaus. 62, 11 ff. : ' With stanza 39 the act indicated in the stanza is performed (i e. both husband and wife place the porridge in one dish ?). The wife takes hold of the hus- band. The subsequent performances are undertaken while husband and wife have hold of one another.' In Pada a the second para// which is rather superfluous may perhaps be emended to pate, corresponding to^aye in Pada b.
Stanza 40.
b. We read asmat for asmat to correspond with asysik in Pada a : man and wife are correlated.
Xii, 3- Commentary. 653
Kaiu. 62, 18 : ' With stanzas 41 and 44 juices are poured upon (the porridge).' The fourth Pada which is identical with 34 a (see its explanation there) seems out of place ; it may have crept in owing to 42 a. In Pada b amr/tasya nabhaya^ may mean, ( the navels of immortality.'
Kaor. 6z} 10 : ' With this stanza the porridge is divided into three sections.' Cf. XI, t, 6, and the corresponding passage, Kauy. 6i, 8-1 1. In Pada a* the treasure' is the porridge itself; cf. st. 34.
Stanza 43.
Kau^. 62, 14 : ' With this stanza the fire is carried around (the porridge).' Cf., e.g., RV. VII, 15, 10; AV. VIII,
Stanza 45. Employed along with XI, 1, 31 at Kauj\ 62, 15. 17 ; see the note at XI, 1, 31. In Pada d the rare singular angiraso is to be changed to the adjective angiraso, or, equally well, to the vocative plural angiraso.
Stanza 46. The three stanzas beginning here are quoted in the course of another version of the brahmaudana practices (Kaui*. 67 and 68), in Sutra 68, 27. The devata/z in P&da a are again, in all likelihood, the Brahma^as ; cf. st. 38.
Stanza 47.
b. The passage may perhaps be rendered, ' and (so does)
my wife at my doing and instigation.' The second hemi-
stich is evidently spoken by the priest in a sort of response
to the speech of the sacrificer in the first two P&das.
Stanza 48. a. adharo is very doubtful : the Pet. Lex., ' riickhalt ' (?). Perhaps ' support, or protection in guilt ' is nearer to the true sense. Perhaps, again, an emendation to adharmo, ' lawlessness/ would not lead too far afield.
654 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Stanza 49.
Kaiw. 62, 18. 19. A cow and utensils for milking are placed to the north of the fire, the cow is milked during the recitation of a certain hymn, and the milk poured upon the porridge. Pada a is short by two syllables : supply karma, or the like ?
Stanzas 50, 51.
Kaus. 6a, 22. 23: 'With stanza 50 (and XI, 1, 28) gold
is placed upon (the porridge); with stanza 51 a homespun
garment accompanied by gold is put down in front of it.'
These, of course, are additional gifts (piece de resistance).
Stanza 50.
Ordinary fire in wood, lightning in the (cloud-)waters,
and the fire of the heavenly luminaries, are reflected in the
gold, presented by him that cooks the porridge : in giving
the gold he becomes luminous, illustrious. Cf. I, 9, % ; XI,
Stanza 51.
Since all animals have skins, nay even the porridge has a self-made garment, it is fit that the Brahman should also have one. In Pada c kshatre^a seems to mean * covering,' and it may stand for £/£atre/za from £/zad, ' cover,' though kkdXra. ordinarily means ' umbrella.' Cf. the variants ahi- kshetra and ahikshatra for ahiMatra, ' mushroom,' i. e.
' serpent's umbrella/
Stanza 52.
Kau^. 63, 1. 2 : * With this stanza they clothe themselves in the same garment. A second garment (which they put on) becomes a garment (that carries off) evil : that, accord- ing to some authorities, is given to a human being of the lowest character.' Cf. Kau^. 18, 1. 4, where a black gar- ment (krz'sh/za^ailam), symbolic of misfortune, is put on, and afterwards dropped into the water, in order that the mis- fortune may depart.
Stanza 53.
Cf. the note on XI, 1, 28. For Padas c, d, cf. stanzas 19 a, b. The point of the stanza is not altogether clear : it
Xii, 3* Commentary. 655
seems as though the smoke rising from the porridge (the earth) symbolises a cloud, and thus procures rain.
Stanza 54.
At Kaiu. 63, 8 ' other chaff of grain (phalikara;/a in Sutra 7) is thrown (into the fire) while reciting this stanza.'
Previously, in Sutras 6 and 7, similar substances (tusha and kambuka) have been thrown into the fire, and cast aside with the left foot; see the note on XI, 1, 29. The stanza is extremely obscure, and I have lost confidence in the interpretation of it advanced in Contributions, Sixth Series, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XLVIII, 576. Its purpose seems to be, rather, to cause the fire to blaze up anew, perhaps, in order to drive away demons. As the sky can assume different colours, and, especially in the morning, can drive away its blackness for the brightness of the dawn (Pada c), so the fire may be enlivened unto redness by sacrificing (chaff) into it. RV. X, 3, 1 d is almost identical with our Pada c. The Paippalada, suit- ably to the metre, reads at many in Pada b, and nuantim in c ; for apa£*ait, see the passage in the Contributions, cited above.
Stanza 55 ff.
With the remaining stanzas the bestowal of the brah- maudana and the concomitant gifts takes place (Kau^. 6$, 2,2,). The series of formulas beginning here are closely related to the sarpahuti, AV. Ill, 27 ; Maitr. S. II, 13, 21 ; Tait. S. V, 5, 10, 1 ff. ; cf. Weber, Indische Studien, XVII, 295 ff. For the names of the serpents, see the notes on VI, 56 ; VII, 56, and Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 94 ff. The expression ^"ara mr/tyave in the third line of the for- mula reminds us of the bahuvrihi ^aramrztyu, XIX, 24, 8 ; 26, 1 ; 30, 1. This suggests here a tatpurusha ^aramr/tyu, ' death from old age ; ' the passage would then mean, ' may he lead us to death from old age.' In stanza 59 the asso- ciation of Vishnu with the dhruva dis is remarkable : we should expect the urdhva. For the association of Indra (not Yama) with the southern direction, see Weber, 1. c, p. 296.
656 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
XII, 4. Commentary to page 174.
The hymn is an elaborate plea of the Brahmans for one of the numerous sources of income which they managed to devise. Especially all sorts of ominous occurrences are set down as occasions for expiatory performances (praya^itti), at which the performing Brahman comes in for his dakshma (see the thirteenth book of the Kaorika), and every kind of irregularity in the birth of a domestic animal is amended by ceremonies in which the animal finally expiates its own existence by going over into the possession of the Brahman. See, for instance, AV. Ill, 28, and Kau^. 109-111. A cow which after a certain time (see st. l6) is discovered to be sterile (vara) is viewed in this light : she belongs to the Brahmans, and the present hymn recounts in picturesque language, accompanied by fierce threats, the urgency of pass- ing her on to the Brahmans whom nothing hurts. Similarly in Tait. S. II, t, 2, 2, a sterile sheep is said to be ' cattle for the gods' (i.e. in effect, for the Brahma/zas) ; cf. also Tait. Br. I, 2, 5, 2, and see in general Weber, Ind. Stud. X, 61 ff. In Kb.us. 44 and 45 the ceremonies for slaughtering a vara are described; it seems according to 45, 17 that they are wound up by giving the animal away. The present hymn is rubricated in Kaar. 66, 20 along with X, 10 ; nothing is stated except that she is bestowed upon the Brahmans, after having been solemnly sprinkled while the hymns are recited. Cf. in general Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 272, and the same scholar's translation of the hymn, ibid. 448 ff. The metre of this composition is regular anu- shAibh ; this, together with the style and contents, betrays the late character of the hymn.
The parenthetic expression, ' and they have noted her,' is admonitory : the Brahmans do not fail to know that a sterile cow exists ; they are sure to claim their own ! Ludwig suggests abhatsata or abhantsata for abhutsata, 4 and those who have bound her/ but there is no relative pronoun, and the sense resulting is strained.
Xii, 4- Commentary. 657
a For ku/a, cf. Geldner, Vedische Studien, I, 138. asya seems to refer to gava/£, understood from the context.
b. ka7am ardati is difficult : ka/am is unquestionably a Prakritic form for kartam, AV. IV, 12, 7 (cf. similarly keva/e, RV. VI, 54, 7). For ardati one would expect some word for ' fall/ or ' push/ but the word means ' burst, go to pieces.' Perhaps ka/am is the subject, ' the deep ground bursts' (cf. RV. IV, 17, 2 ; AV. XIX, 9, 8, descriptive of earthquakes), but this does not quite do justice to ka7am.
d. The Paippalada has for diyate the preferable reading ^iyate, ' his property is wrung (from him).' For the inter- change of the sound-groups di and gi (dy and gy)y see the writer in Amer. Journ. Phil. VII, 482.
a. vilohita, designation of some disease, also IX, 8, 1; perhaps, ' flow of blood from the nose.' Henry, Les livres VIII et IX de l'Atharva-veda, pp. 105, 142, 'decomposition du sang.' Both translations are purely etymological, but we may note that the word occurs in connection with other ailments of the head at IX, 8, 1. Cf. also lohita VI, 127, r, note.
c, d. The passage is not quite clear, sa^vidyam, air. Aey., may mean ' possession.' Ludwig, ' name.' At any rate there seems to be an attempt to etymologise upon, or explain, vaja as a derivative from the root vas, ' control : ' the character of the vaja, quasi ' controller/ is such that she cannot be deceived (duradabhna). We should expect u^yate for u^yase: the Paippalada also reads u^yase. The Pet. Lexs. translate duradabhna (also st. 19), by ' getting the better of gates/ i.e. ' not to be confined.' This is ingeniously improbable, and contrary to the more usual rendering of the perfect passive participle. The prefixes dur- and a- represent a double negative for emphasis ; the word is a stronger version of diWabha.
Stanza 4 may be suspected of having stood originally [42] u u
658 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
after 5, because its second hemistich seems to summarise
the statements made in the remaining three hemistichs of
the two stanzas.
b. viklfndu, cnr. Aey., perhaps i catarrh ; ' cf. vikleda (root klid), ■ moisture.'
d. Ludwig emends ya to yan, but the feminine is un- objectionable (supply, dhenM, or the like).
For the custom of marking cattle, see Zimmer, Altin- disches Leben, p. 234. The sense of a sku is not quite certain. For Sat. Br. I, 2, 1, 5. 8, Bohtlingk's Lexicon renders it f durch stochern zerkleinern ; ' Eggeling, Sacred Books, XII, 33, 'pull towards oneself;' Pet. Lex., 'divide off.' For £ wz>£ate, see the next note.
c, d. If we compare a vra^anti in st. 28, and Sat. Br. XII, i, 3, 22, it seems possible that the passive a vriskyate must be substituted in one or another case (stanzas 6, 12, 26, 34) for $. vrtskate ; cf. the parallel roots j^yut and ^ut, and the note on VI, 136, 3. The Pet. Lex. s. v. suggests the same correction for a number of passages in other texts. The dative manyave, in that case, involves zeugma : here the middle of the same verb, in the sense of ' infringe upon,' is* certainly required, as is shown by st. 51.
For Narada in this and several of the following stanzas, see the note on V, 19, 9.
The sense is as follows : Though he did not perceive her udder, because a young and sterile cow is deficient in this mark of prospective maternity, yet when he gives her away, she becomes a fruitful source of blessings.