to Kauj-. 26, 25. Such is the interpretation of all authorities (Grohmann, p. 387; Zimmer, p. 382), and Wise, p. 232, describes the Anye^yuka (Suiruta's anyedyushka) as follows : ' If the paroxysm of fever recurs at the same hour daily, it is called Anye^yuka.' It is therefore equiva- lent to the rhythmus quotidianus. Saya/za, anye- dyu^ anyasmin paradine ya^ .nta^vara^ abhyeti. — yo . . . ubhayadyiir abhyeti, ' he who returns for two successive days,' i. e. with the implication that the next day (as we should say, the third day) is free from fever3. Grohmann, p. 388. and Zimmer, p. 382, identify this with the rhythmus quartanuscomplicatus, a form of the disease in which the attacks repeat themselves on two successive days, the third day being exempt. This would remind us of the eMntarita mentioned by Kcrava, 1. c. But it seems to fit also the ^aturthaka viparyaya. Wise, 1. c, says, ' In Chaturthaka the paroxysms of this fever occur every fourth day. When the paroxysm continues for two days, the fever is that called Chaturthaka Bipar^yaya/ None of these construc- tions, however, is certain. Saya^a here says, ubhayadyu^ ubhayasmin dvitiye*hani . . . ayati, and, still more ex- plicitly at VII, 116, 2, yas ks. ubhayedyu^ (!) ubhayor divasayo/%, atitayor iti seshak, abhyeti, Mturthika^vara ity artha^. This means a kind of fever that omits two days and returns on the third day, and would thus be identical with the tr/tiyaka, according to the current construction (see Pada d). But see the Pet. Lex. under ubhayadyiir and ubhayedyM.
d. For tr/tiyaka, see the note on V, 22, 13 a.
I, 34. Commentary to page 99.
This hymn belongs to a quite extensive class of Atharvan charms, the object of which is either to generate love in a person of the opposite sex, or restore alienated affection. In general, charms of this class are rubricated in the second
1 Cf. our not altogether certain interpretation of vitrz'trya, V, 22, 13a.
I, 34. Commentary. 275
part of the fourth book of the Kaurika (32, 28-36, 40). This is designated by the commentators as strikarmam, ' women's rites/ and presents the greatest variety of prac- tices connected with the life of women and their relations to men ; see Kaimka, Introduction, p. lxv, and cf. the fol- lowing hymns. Yet this particular hymn is not mentioned in the book in question, though it is otherwise worked up three times, Kaiu. 38, 17 ; 76, 8. 9 ; 79, 10. In the first of these passages, 38, 17, the hymn is employed in a simple practice uttered by an intending disputant before entering upon a debate in the sabha or parishad, the village assembly : ' While reciting AV. I, 34 he approaches the assembly from the north-east, chewing licorice.' The commen- tators do not quite agree as to the special purpose of the practice. Ke^ava says that it produces victory in disputa- tion (vivade ^ayakarma;/a^ vldhi/i) ; Darila, more mildly, says that it is an expiatory performance to wipe out the guilt incurred in defeating an opponent (in debate), praty- artha^ayadosha^amana;^ 1 pr^ya^ittam. Either of these manipulations of the hymn is reasonable if we regard kami'ni in stanza 5 as referring to the parishad or sabha 2, and there is therefore no absolute guarantee that the hymn had originally anything to do with sexual love. Cf. how- ever II, 30, 1.
In Kaui*. 76, 8. 9 the bridegroom, while reciting this hymn, ties to his little finger an amulet of licorice-wood (madugha), fastening it with thread coloured red with lac,
1 The MSS. have pratyartha^apa-, but this does not yield good sense. The correction was suggested by Professor Cowell in a kind note. Correct accordingly our treatment of the passage in Seven Hymns of the Atharva-veda, Amer. Journ. Phil. VII, 481 (p. 16 of the reprint).
2 There is, too, a bare possibility that the fifth stanza is of later origin, especially if we attach any weight to the tradition that the first book of the AV. consisted of hymns of four stanzas each ; see the introduction to I, 12 (p. 247). The meaning of that tradition seems, however, rather to be that each hymn consisted of at least four stanzas, or more, since many of them, in fact, consist of more.
276 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
and placing it so that the amulet is on the outside of the finger, the knot within (the hand). In Sutra 10 he leads the bride forth, and the amulet is, therefore, obviously intended to make him attractive to the bride. This in- volves the construction of the hymn which we have pre- sented in our translation, i.e. the bridegroom, by means of the amulet, secures the love of the bride l.
Once more, in Kaui-. 79, 10, at the consummation of the marriage, a ceremony, involving this hymn, is enacted by the married couple. The bridegroom takes hold of the amulet of licorice (which he has put on previously, Kau^s*. 76, 8. 9), puts it into bull's grease, and while reciting the pre- sent hymn and AV. XIV, 2, 71. 72, they embrace one another. Kcrava, more explicitly, states that the amulet is first ground up, madughama/d/^ pish/va aukshe 2 prakshipya abhimantrya parasparam varavadhvau samalabhete. The purpose of the performance is not quite clear ; it seems to be designed to render the affection mutual 3. Cf. AV. II, $6, 7, and our discussion there.
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. IV,
429 (cf. V, 218); Grill2, pp. 52, 78. The Anukramam
designates it as madughama/zisuktam, ' the hymn of the
amulet of licorice/
1 Dr. Haas in the Indische Studien, V, 386, makes the bride- groom fasten the amulet upon the bride's finger. There is nothing to indicate this proceeding, which is contrary to the context of the hymn. Dr. Haas, to be sure, erroneously refers the pratika iya#z virudh to AV. VII, 56, 2; hence he did not see that the bridegroom desires to make himself lovable in the sight of the woman (see I, 34, 5).
2 For aukshe, see our note on II, 36, 7.
3 Professor Weber in his translation of this passage, Ind. Stud. V, 401, takes madughamam to mean 'hymen/ for reasons not apparent to me. I fancy that Ke^ava's pish/va removes the possi- bility of such a construction, and the madughama^ipraya^itta quoted by the same scholar on p. 404, refers simply to the loss of the amulet here in question ; this is restored by making another amulet from the putudaru (devadaru)-tree.
Ii, 3« Commentary. 277
Honey is the symbol of personal agreeableness from
earliest times. Cf. e.g. RV. X, 40, 6, c From you, O
A^vins, the bee took honey in its mouth, as a woman
goes (with honey in her mouth) to an assignation V The
digging of the plant with honey is not to be taken too
literally, as Saya^a does, madhurupe^a khanitradina, or
madhure^a prakare/^a, but rather, * with the influence of the
sweetness of honey, prompting or supporting him who digs
after the licorice-root.' Cf. AV. VII, 56, %.
The second half is a formula, being repeated almost literally at III, 25, 5 and VI, 9, 2 ; Pada d, at VI, 42, 3 ;
c, d. The passage contains an elliptic comparison, as indi- cated by the brackets in our translation. Without the ellipsis supplied there is no good sense: Weber, 'rnich allein drum du lieben magst wie einen honigsiissen zweig ; ' Grill, ' so sei denn ich das liebste dir, gleich einem honig- siissen zweig.' But what human being regards a branch sweet as honey as the most precious possession ?
a. The clinging sugar-cane is used here metaphorically
for sweetness and attractiveness; no practice of this cha-
racter is indicated anywhere.
c, d. The passage is a formula; see II, 30, 1 ; VI, 8, 1-3.
II, 3. Commentary to page 9.
The hymn is joined with I, 2 at Kau^. 25, 6-9, in a charm against excessive discharges from the body ; see the treatment at I, %. The particular part of Kau^ika's prac- tices, which is based on our hymn, is contained in Sutra
1 A different interpretation is suggested by Bergaigne, La syntaxe des comparaisons v^diques (Melanges Renier, p. 89).
278 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
25, 7. It is founded upon the conception that ants are endowed with the faculty of producing water, and that, too, healing-water, wherever they appear, and consequently whenever they are applied as a remedy. Hence they are here given to the patient to be drunk in water. For fuller statements of this belief, see the introduction to VI, 100, and Seven Hymns of the Atharva-veda, Amer. Journ. Phil. VII, pp. 482-4.
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 138 ff. ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 507 ; Grill2, pp. 17, 79 ff. The Anukrama/zi designates it as bhaisha^yayurdha- nvantaridaivatam.
b. The difficult word here is avatka. In the Paippalada XIX, 8, 2 (see Bohtlingk's lexicon s. v.) occur the two hypermetric Padas, avataka//z mama bhesha^am avataka;^ pariva^anam. Here the metre suggests emendation to avatka, but at the same time shows pretty clearly that the word is a derivative of avata, ' spring.' Saya/za is very mis- leading. Having in mind the performances of the Sutra, he identifies avatka with mungasira/t in Kau^. 25, 6, and the mountain mentioned in the stanza with the Mu^avat, to wit : atra parvata^abdena mu^avan nama parvato viva- kshita^ x . . . tasmat ada^ viprakrzsh/a/^ yat prasiddham avatkaw vyadhiparihare^a rakshaka;^ mungasiraA ava- dhavati avaruhya bhumau dhavati. This involves an im- possible rendering of avadhavati, and leaves out of sight the possibility that this hymn may have nothing to do with the mu^*a-reed, being concerned rather with the healing water, procured by the ants ; see the introduction.
c, d. The passage as it stands in the text, and our trans- lation, can be sustained only on the supposition that the water is added to some other substance, not indicated in the stanza. Ludwig, feeling this difficulty, emends subhe- sha^-am to subhesha^o, ' so that you (the patient) may have a powerful remedy.' A simpler emendation is to change
1 Cf. the note on V, 22, 5.
Ii, 3- Commentary. 279
asasi to asati, ' that do I make into a remedy for you, so that it may contain goodly remedy.' But the next stanza, as it stands, seems also to point to a mixed remedy ; hence I have adhered to the text. Saya/za comments against sense and grammar.
I have adhered to the unanimous reading of the MSS.; the Paippalada offers no help, ad afiga ^ata^ (!) yad bhe- sha^ani te sahasra/^ va gha yani te (cf. also VI, 44, 2). The sense of the passage, as it stands, seems to be that all the remedial substances which are combined with the avatka are, after all, inferior in healing capacity to the avatka itself. This is much as Saya^a construes it, tava sawbandhini sa^atiyani ^atam . . . yani . . . bhesha^ani tesha^ bhesha^-ana/^ madhye tvam uttamam utkrzsh/ata- mam asi. Ludwig and Grill emend te to me ' dann wird's doch wohl geschehen, dass von meinen hundert Arzenei'n du selbst die allerbeste bist ' (Grill). I am not convinced that this is right.
a. ad anga,' then surely;' kuvid anga', i yea, quite surely ;' the latter phrase is a rhetorical question (' art thou) surely ? ' Cf. Yaska's Nigh. I, 3, and Nirukta IV, 15.
a. The Asuras, the demons, here either hide away the remedies by burying them deep in the ground (cf. VI, 109, 3), or they bury them for secure keeping, so that they may become available on occasion (cf. I, 24, 2). See in general the note on I, 24, 1.
b. aru(/^)sra;/am is emended well by Ludwig to aru(A)- ^r&am, from root ^ra, 'cook.' The Dhatupa^a, 22, 22, has sra (srayati) pake, and Saya;/a also avails himself of this root in one explanation of the word, aru^ srayati pakva/# bhavati anena ; and (under st. 5), arusho vra/zasya pa^anam. That is c a remedy which causes the wound to ripen or heal.' We seem to have here the very source for the root sra of the Dhatupa/^a. For the interchange of the sibilants, see Bloomfield and Spieker, Proc. Amer. Or.
280 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Soc, May, 1886 (Journ., vol. xiii, pp. cxvii ff.). Possibly
the word asrava may have had something to do with the
change of -srana. to -sra/za.
d. Saya?/a reads a^faamat for anina^at ; cf. st. 4.
For upa^ika^, 'ants,' see the introduction to VI, 100. Saya;/a, valmikanishpadika vamrya^.
The stanza consists of 12 + n + n syllables; the last
word rakshasam, obviously a gloss, is metrically super-
fluous. For Pada c, cf. I, 19, 1.