This stanza recurs in a hymn to Indra, RV. Ill, 38, 4. The manly Asura is primarily Indra. Since Indra is the typical king (kshatriya), stanzas in praise of Indra lend themselves readily to adaptation to praises and beatifica- tion of royalty; cf. Ill, 1, 4; 2, 5, and elsewhere.
The tiger, as well as the lion (st. 7). is the king of animals : Sat. Br. V, 5, 4, 10 ; XII, 7, 1, 8 ; hence his skin is a mark of royalty. Control of the regions is a sine qua non of royalty; cf. e.g. Maitr. S. II, 1, 12, and the dig-vyastha- pana-mantra/z at Tait. S. I, 8, 13. 1. 2 ; Tait. Br. I, 7, 7, 1. 2.
1 I am inclined to think that ' sole ruler/ and not ' simple king/ as Weber (p. 141) renders it, is the meaning of ekara^-a ; cf. ekarag- in Ait. Br. VIII, 15, 1 (scholiast, eka eva rag-a); AV. Ill, 4, 1 ; RV. VIII, 37, 3, and ekav/Ysha, AV. IV, 22, 1. 5, a hymn which is rubricated in the sequel of this description (Kaus. 17, 28). Ke^ava, moreover, introduces Sutra n with the words, maha- bhishekavidhi/rc vakshyama^. The entire passage Kau^. 17, n-29 deals with this more pompous ceremony.
Iv, 9- Commentary. 38 1
See in general, Contributions, Fourth Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XII, 432.
d. The heavenly waters are the very ones with which
the king is consecrated. By a bold figure of speech they,
as they are about to moisten him, are said to long for
him!
a. Some MSS. and Saya/za read abhi . . . asrz^an for
abhi . . . asi;z>£an. Saya/za glosses, abhimukhyena sa;/zsrz^-
antu.
c, d. The passage is not quite clear : subhuva/z may refer to the waters, or to the attendant priests (so Saya/za, seva- ka£*ana^). The word dvipinam harbours a double entente : dvipa is * island.' Vaguely, the position of the king, as he is surrounded by the consecrating water, suggests an island in the ocean.
IV, 9. Commentary to page 6i.
The hymn is rubricated at Kau^. 58, 8 in a practice calculated to bestow long life upon the young Aryan, after he has been invested with the holy cord (cf. Hir. Grzh. I, 11, 5), to wit : ' While reciting IV, 9, an amulet of salve is fastened (upon the youth). ' See also ^antikalpa 17 and 19 *; Ath. Pam. 4, 1. A persistent tradition has it that the mountain Trikakud (' Three-peaks '), in more modern times Triku/a or Tri^ota, between the Penjab and the Himalayas, is the source from which the salve is derived. See the Pet. Lex. under a/z^ana, trikakud, and traikakuda, and Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 29, 69. The Anu- krama^i describes the hymn as traikakuda/z^-anadaivatam ; it has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 507 ; Grill2, pp. 35, 123 ff., and exhibits noteworthy points of contact with RV. X, 97.
1 Erroneously quoted by Sayawa as Nakshatrakalpa.
382 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
b. The majority of Shankar Pandit's MSS. read akshyam ; this he has taken into the text. Other MSS. read akshyam. But there is also MS. authority for aksham, the reading of the vulgate, and Saya/za, who glosses it by £akshu^, ' eye.' But aksham does not mean ' eye/ and akshyam is other- wise unquotable. Nevertheless, we have translated akshyam, for the passage seems to be a tantalising reverberation of 5at. Br. Ill, 1, 3, J2. ' When Indra slew Vrztra, he trans- formed that eye of his (VWtra's) into the mount Trikakud. The reason, then, why (ointment) from mount Trikakud (is used), is that he thereby puts eye into eye.' This seems to show that the ointment was applied about the eye *, and apparently silences Professor Roth's objection, as reported by Grill, that this is too narrow a view of the usefulness of the ointment. Cf. also Maitr. S. Ill, 6, 3; Tait. S. VI, 1, 1, 5, which are equally pertinent.
c, d. The Paippalada reads, uta*mrztatvasye".sisha uta
*sa^ pitubho^-anam. Pada e looks like an appendage ;
cf. XIX, 44, 2.
Cf. RV. X, 97, i2=Va£\ S. XII, 86. The difficult word of the stanza is madhyama^ir, all the renderings of which, both native and western, are mere conjectures. Saya^a, here, either 'wind' (i.e. who dwells in the middle region), or, arir mitram arer mitram iti nitu-astroktama/z^alama- dhyavarti ra^a. The gloss at RV. is similar to the latter interpretation. Still more fanciful is Mahidhara at Va^Y S.
Cf. II, 4, 2, and for the meaning of vishkandha, see the note on II, 4, 1.
1 Saya^aon st. 3, anakti ^akshushi anene^ti a%-anam.
Iv, Io. Commentary. 383
d. We have taken purusha in the sense which it fre- quently has in the Veda, namely, 'menial, servitor.' Cf. RV. X, 97, 4; AV. X. 1, 17 ; Sat. Br. VI, 3, 1, 22 ; and probably also RV. VI, 39, 5 (discussed erroneously by Pischel, Vedische Studien, I, 43). Ludwig, ' und dein leben, o mensch ; ' Grill, * auch deinen lebensgeist, du mann ! ' Saya//a reads purushas with some MSS. (both Sa//zhit& and Padapa/^a), all of which, however, present the word as an enclitic without udatta. With the nominative the sense is, * may I as thy servitor (O salve) obtain horses, &c.'
For balasa, see the discussion in the note on V, 22, it.
The poison of the serpent is considered as a disease ; hence
it is mentioned along with takman and balasa.
Cf. Tait. Ar. VI, 10, 2 ; Hir. Gr/h. I, 11, 5.
IV, 10. Commentary to page 62.
The hymn is employed at Kam\ 58, 9 in connection with a practice for bestowing long life and prosperity upon the young Brahmanical disciple after the investiture: 'While reciting IV, 10 an amulet of pearl is fastened (upon the youth)., Cf. also vSantikalpa in the introduction to XIX, 34.
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rig- veda, III, 462; Grill2, pp. 36, 1241?. Cf. also Pischel in Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morg. Gesellsch. XXXVI, 135 ff. The Anukrama^i, .sankhamamsuktam.
In this and the subsequent stanzas the fanciful sources of the pearl, some of which become commonplace in the later literature, are paralleled with great fidelity in the imaginations of Arabic and classical writers ; see Pischel, I.e. The glint on the surface of both pearl and shell
384 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
suggests gold ; and the changes are rung upon this com-
parison. See also Yaska's Nigha^/u I, 2, where kmana is
put among the names for gold ; cf. especially st. 6.
a. Saya;za, rokananam ro^amananaw bhasvara^aw nak-
shatradinam. He has in mind, doubtless, the beautiful
stanza RV. X, 68, 11, 'as a black steed with pearls, thus
did the Fathers stud the sky with stars.'
b. For sadanva^, see our note on II, 14, 1 d.
b. Saya/za, ' from the body of Vritra,, or from the cloud.' The latter alternative hits the point. According to the familiar Hindu notion, the pearl is a drop of rain, and thus it here breaks through the cloud, like the sun, itself a small sun.
Pada a accounts for the presence of the word kwana
among the names for gold, Yaska's Nigh. I, 2. With Pada c
cf. RV. I, 35, 4. The extra fifth Pada is formulaic, and
betrays its character as an appendage by the change of
person (tarishat) ; see the note on II, 4, 6.
e. The MSS. available for the vulgate read kans-anas;
so also the majority of Shankar Pandit's MSS. The
emendation of the Pet. Lex. to kar^anas is now substan-
tiated by Saya/za (kanrana^ kr/Vanasaz/zbandhi manik), and
a minority of Shankar Pandit's MSS.
IV, 12. Commentary to page 19.
The purport of this hymn is manifest both from its
wording, and its function in the ritual. It is to cure
external lesions, and fractures of bones. The Kaui-ika
Iv, 12. Commentary. 385
deals with it twice, 28, 5. 6, and 28, 14. The practice described in the former place is assigned by Kcrava to the healing of broken bones, wounds, and flow of blood caused by weapons (asthibhange rudhirapravahe j-astrabhighatadau bhaisha^yam). It consists in sprinkling the patient at dawn when the stars fade (with a decoction of the laksha-plant, Kcrava adds), then giving him to drink a so-called przsha- taka 1, a mixture of ghee and milk (so Darila ; cf. Kau^. 49, 15), and finally anointing him with it : 28, 5. rohanuty avanakshatre*vasi#/£ati. 6. przshataka//z payayaty abhy- anakti. At Ka.us. 28, 14 the performance is very similar, lakshalingabhir (sc. rzgbhir) dugdhe pha;//an payayati, 'while reciting the stanzas characterised by the mention of the laksha-plant (according to the commentators, AV. V, 5 in addition to our hymn) he gives the patient to drink a decoc- tion (of the plant) in milk.' Darila distinctly describes this as a cure for wounds (arusho bhaisha^yam), while with Ke^ava the scope of the charm is broader, namely, ' against wounds from knives, clubs, stones, burns, in fact all wounds of the body.'
The name laksha, under which the plant addressed in this hymn goes consistently in the ritual books, does not occur in our hymn, but instead arundhati'. In AV V, 5> 7 tne lakshS, is mentioned — apparently a air. Aey. in the Mantras — and it there appears distinctly as an alternate designation of the creeper called arundhati', or sila£i'2, a parasitic plant which grows up on the stems of many trees (V, 5, 5), and wThich is otherwise described in the same hymn ; cf. also Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 67. Since the plant is employed to cure wounds (arus), the student of the Atharvan need hardly be warned that there is a punning symbolic connection between the disease and the simple ; cf. Darila's
1 For pnshataka, see Gobh. Gr/h. Ill, 8, 1 ff. ; Gr/hyasa^graha II, 59, and my note on the same, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XXXV, p. 580.
2 Possibly also r6ham; seethe note on stanza 1. Sayawa at VI, 59, 1 explains arundhati as sahadevi (cf. the text of VI, 59, 2).
[42] c c
386 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
statement, arusho bhaisha^yam, at Kaiu. 28, 14, and the doubtless conscious mention of ariis and arundhat? in V, 5> 4- 5 ; cf. also VIII, 7, 6. The word is, however, likely to be a-rundhatf, a feminine present participle with a priva- tive ; so Saya/za at VI, 59> 2-
Adalbert Kuhn, Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprach- forschung, XIII, 58 ff. ; 151 fif., has compared the hymn with the Merseburg charm, and a considerable variety of related materials from German, Scandinavian, and English sources. And, having in view more particularly AV. V, 5, 8. 9, he believes that the creeper was used primarily to heal the fractured limbs of horses — a construction which seems to me too narrow. Any kind of genetic connection between the Hindu and the German charm is none too certain, since the situation may have suggested the same expressions independently. Yet as a strongly-marked line in the folk-psychological character of the peoples in question, the parallels are extremely valuable and instructive. The hymn has also been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 508, and Grill2, pp. 18 and 125 ff. ; cf. also Hillebrandt, Vedachrestomathie, p. 48. The Anukrama/zi designates the hymn as vanaspatyam, ' devoted to Vanaspati,' its author being Rzbhu (cf. st. 7).
a, b. I take it that the three occurrences of the word roha/zi in the stanza are intended to convey the same word in at least a double meaning. The plant is a creeper growing upon trees, as is stated distinctly in AV. V, 5, 3, vrzksha/^-wzksham a rohasi, ' every tree thou doest ascend.5 The poet is very likely to have in mind this meaning of the root ruh in addition to the more direct one, ' cause to grow,' at least in connection with the first occurrence of the word. It seems necessary to construe one of the two roham in the first Pada as a proper name ; Ludwig in his translation goes farther than that, and seems to take one of them as vocative, * Roha/zi[, die wachsen macht,] bist du, o Roha;zi, &c.' The passage with its three identical nomi- natives has a parallel in the traditional text of XIX, 35, 1,