a. The Pada might have better been left untranslated : the text is certainly corrupt, and especially dhis&na, mas- culine, 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 sal&m (=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 Anukra- ma^i, icilagnidevatyam. But the construction of nir nai-a- yama^ 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 em- ployment of the Kau^ika, and the statement of the Anu- krama/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 — — —
1 Cf. I, 18, 1; VI, 14, 2.
2 Cf. Hillebrandt, Soma und verwandte Gotter, 175 fF., 181.
Ii, 14- Commentary. 3oi
nissalS is either the name of a female demon, or sala a kind of a tree (vrzkshavLresha^, tato nirgata nissala).
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. Saya/za follows Nirukta VI, 30 in ex-
plaining it as ' ever noisy/ sada nonuyamana^.
b. Saya^a takes aksha as ' gambling-house ' (akshakri-
^asthana, dyuta^ala), and upanasa either as 'granary'
(anasa^ samipam upanasam dh&nyagrzliam) 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.
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 con- juring 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.
The stanza occurs in another connection in the Paippa- lada, 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.
302 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
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.
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 . . . roga- na,m. Weber and Ludwig, ' coming from the field.' Grill, ' ob ihr zum wild des Felds gehort.'
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 tish- t/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. 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 mis- carriage, 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-
Ii, 26. Commentary. 303
^yakarmam), which the Ga/zam£la (Ath. Pari?. 32, 24)
describes as the ga/zakarmagaTzo (! a list for collective prac-
tices). Kaui-. 8, 25 mentions it further among the £ata-
nani, ' 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 de-
scribes it as vanaspatyam.
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 accord- ingly 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 Saya#a, vatsalalamuritam. Cf. Khad. Grih. Ill, i, 47. 48.
3 Cheap magic. The milk is sure to turn ! Is vikr/te to be emended to avikrz'te ?
304 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Der Rigveda, III, 371 ; Grill2, pp. 64, 92 ff. Cf. also
Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Vedique, p. 138. The
Anukramam designates it as pa^avyam, the author being
Savitar.
b. Vayu, the wind, the husband of the distant regions
(II, 10, 4), who goes in every direction, is naturally regarded
as the companion of the cattle, when away from home —
a truly poetic conception ! Cf. Tait. Br. Ill, 2, 1,4.
c. rupadh^yani is taken by the Pet. Lex. as a copulative
compound, ' form and colour/ But the analogous bhaga-
dheya and namadheya do not favour such a construction.
Perhaps 'formation' is the safest rendering of the word.
Cf. e.g. Tait. S. I, 5, 9, 1 ; Tait. Br. Ill, 8, 11, 2.
c, d. Sinivali, the goddess of the new-moon, and Anumati, the goddess of the full- moon, as representatives of the bright part of the month, are fit to illumine the way home. They also preside over the act of procreation ; cf. Zimmer, p. 352. Saya/za, unsupported by MS. authority, comments upon anugate instead of anumate.
c. ' Poured together,' i. e. ' united, or accumulated.' The translation is stiffer than the original, where sa.ni sinkami and sawsiktcL^ play upon one another.
For the change of verb-form, cf. the note on II, 29, 5.
II, 27. Commentary to page 137.
The history of the interpretation of this hymn is told
by the translator in Seven Hymns of the Atharva-veda,
Amer. Journ. Phil. VII, 479 ff. It is of interest, because it
marks very clearly the value and continuity of the Hindu
Ii, 27. Commentary. 305
tradition. It had been regarded previously by all inter- preters as a charm against robbers of provisions, until the obviously correct conception of D&rila in his comment on Kauy. 38, 18 ff. was presented. The translation of this passage, along with the bracketed commentary, is as fol- lows : 38, 18. * While reciting AV. II, 27 (one approaches) the person against whom the debate is directed (from the north-east, while chewing) the root of the pa/a-plant \ 19. He addresses (with the charm his opponent). 20. He ties on (the pa/a-root as a talisman). 21, He wears (upon his head) a wreath of seven leaves (of the pa/&).' Cf. also S&ntikalpa 17 and 19 2. Previous translations of the hymn : Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 190 ff. ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 461 ; Grill2, pp. 23, 93 ff. The Anukrama^i designates the hymn as vanaspatyam.
The Anukrama/zi defines the purpose of this stanza cor-
rectly by arinirq^astvam aprarthayat, * he desired absence
of strength in the enemy.'
a. Sdya^a, incorrectly, takes pra^ as a noun of agency, prash/ara^ vadinam 3 ; see, however, Kau^. 38, 24, pra^am akhyasyan (Dctr. pratipra^nam akhyasyan ; cf. Vait. Su. 37, 2 ; 38, 6). Neither this word nor pratipnlr and prati- pra.rita (Kaui\ 38, 18 ; Darila, prativadin) have any con- nection with root a^, ' eat,' but are derivatives from the root praj", ' ask.'
c. The construction of 1pr2isa.n1 pratiprlro ^ahi is not quite certain. Saya^a takes both as accusatives, 'the
1 The pa/a is, according to Saya^a at st. 4, identical with the later pa/M (clypea hernandifolia) ; cf. Kau^. 37, 1 ; itYgvidhana IV, 12, 1 (MSS. pa/M). See Ind. Stud. XVII, 266 (the passage quoted from Apastamba is to be found Apast. Grzh. Ill, 9, 5). The word pa/a is doubtless, like other words for plants (apamarga, arundhatf), etymologically suggestive ; cf. the root pa/, ' tear/ — For the words supplied by Darila, cf. Kaur. 38, 17.
2 Erroneously quoted by Sayawa as Nakshatrakalpa.
8 But in st. 7 he falls into line with pratikulapra^narupaw vakyam. [42] X
306 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
debater and the counter-debaters strike/ We regard prdti- pr&so as gen. sing, dependent upon praVam (cf. st. 7 a), in which case one should like to emend arasan in Pada d to arasam (cf. Ludwig). If not, pratiprlr is to be regarded as a collective, ' the opposition.5 Possibly both are accusa- tives, ' overcome the debate and the debaters.'
d. arasan, with double entente, i without sap or moisture
(in their throats)/ and ' without force.5 Saya/za, ^ush-
kaka^/Mn.
a, b. The same hemistich occurs at V, 14, 1 ; cf. I, 24, 1. Saya?za, supanza^ . . . vainateya/z, i. e. Garutmant, Gariu/a. But there is no myth in all this : the eye of the eagle, and the. nosing boar find the secret seat of the plant.
Saya^a, in the teeth of the Padapa/^a, comments both
here and in the next stanza on taritave instead of staritave.
The Sa/^hita may be construed either way.
a. sakshe (Sa^hita and Padapazv^a), probably for sakshye (5at. Br. I, 3, 3, 13) ; cf. our note on IV, 20, 7.
b. Saya;za glosses salavr/kan by ara;zya.s-v&na/z, in accord-
ance with many other scholia, assembled by Weber, 1. c,
p. 191. Doubtless jackals, as devourers of corpses, are
meant.
For ^alashabhesha^a, see Contributions, Fourth Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XII, 425 ff., and cf. especially AV. VI,
d. Saya^a, with some MSS., reads pnbam for pra.n (pra^am prashzaraw vadina//z mam uttaram . . . kuru).
II, 38. Commentary to page 50. The hymn is counted in the Ga/zamala, Ath. Parii*. 33, 4, as one of a list i calculated to bestow long life ; ' see Kau.9. 54, 1 1 note. It is worked up more especially in the