For the conception of the flight of disease to and from the body, cf. RV. X, 97, 13 ; AV. VI, 83, 1. 2, and Amer. Journ. Phil. XI, 322-3. In the second hemistich we have emended akshitasya to akshatasya on the strength of the Sutra and its commentators (e.g. Kaiu. 31, 11). Saya^a, on the other hand, reads sukshitasya for sukshatasya (akshitasya /£irakalavasthanarahitasya . . . sukshitasya ^irakalam avasthi- tasya). There can be no doubt that the indication of the Sutra is to be preferred.
The ^ayanya is here personified as an evil being, the knowledge of whose nature or origin (perhaps with reference to the story in Tait. S. II, 3, 5, 2) confers exemption from his attacks. See the note on I, 2, 1. Note the fourfold alliteration in the first hemistich : it cannot be reproduced in translation.
For the ritual application of st. 6 ( = RV. VI, 47, 6),
see Vait. Su. 16, 14. In Pada c, a vrzshasva with double
entente,. ' manifest thy lusty strength ; ' cf. the common
formula, atra pitaro madayadhva;/z yathabhagam avrzsha-
yadhvam (Kaiuika, Index C), with the same double meaning
starting from the opposite point of view.
VII, 83. Commentary to page 12.
At Kaui". 32, 14-15 a hut is built at a point of land between two rivers that flow into one another 1, and in it the dropsical patient is washed by means of bunches of grass, and then rinsed off. For the meaning of the practice see the introduction to I, 10. At Kau^. 127, 4 the hymn is
1 Cf. Kauy. 18, 22.
Vii, 83. Commentary. 563
recited, more secondarily, while an offering is made from an animal devoted to Varu/za (cf. Su. 2) : the offering is part of a performance for obviating the evil consequences of the obscuration of the constellation, ' the seven i^zshis' (ursus major), by a comet. Cf. also Vait. Su. 10, 22; Naksha- trakalpa 14 ; Ath. Park 13, 3. The hymn is a mixtum compositum ; st. 2 seems to belong originally to a different sphere (see the note), and its bearing here is not at all clear. The hymn has been rendered by Henry, Le livre VII de l'Atharva-veda, pp. 35, 104.
See V&g. S. VI, 22 ; Katy. Sr. VI, 10, 5 ; Tait. S. I, 3, 11,1; Tait. Br. II, 6, 6, 2 ; Maitr. S. Ill, 11, 10 ; Asv. Sr. Ill, 6, 24; 5ankh. Sr. VIII, 12, 11. The vulgate's emendation of dhamno-dhamno to damno-damno, as suit- able as it is to the sense, is not supported by any of the parallel passages. Mahidhara at Vag\ S. VI, 22 has much the same thing in mind, when he says, yasmad-yasmat tvadiyapa^asamanvitat sthanat1. All the parallel texts read ^apamahe for u/£ima, and in some iti is wanting after aghnya. Pada c seems to contain the expression of an oath, or curse, which is regarded as sinful. According as iti after aghnya is read or omitted, it contains two oaths, or one oath. The passage savours of the notion that it is impious to take in vain the holy name of Varu/za, or his waters. Saya/za, he apa/z he aghnya/^ iti he varu/za iti yad u/£ima yak ^/zapavakyam avoHma, yak £/zapavakyava£anena papam ar^itaz/z tasiMd api mu/z£e*ti sa^zbandha^ . . . ato deva- tanamadheyakirtanarupai-apathakara^a^-anitapapad asman mo£aya. Cf. also the glosses to V&g*. S. and Tait. Br.
The stanza is repeated at RV.'I, 24, 5 ; AV. XVIII, 4,
69 ; Maitr. S. I, 2, 18, &c. (see the index to the Maitr. S.).
Cf. also Vait. Su. 28, 17 ; Ath. Pam. 17, 2.
1 Saya/za here, sarvasmad rogasthanat. 0 0 2
564 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
b. varu;za represents an awkward attempt to vary the
diction : it might be designated as a rhetorical uha or
vikara. The true completion of the expression requires
madhyama.
VII, 115. Commentary to page 168.
The symbolic rites which attach themselves to this hymn are described in Kaui\ 18, 16—1 8, to wit: 16. 'Having fastened a hook to the left leg of a raven, and a rice-cake to the hook (the performing priest), while reciting AV. VII, 115, i, lets (the crow go) so that he does not return1.
17. Having put on a blue garment, having covered that with a red one2, having wound about a white cloth (as a turban), while reciting the second stanza of the hymn, he sets down the turban by means of a hook, and with his left hand casts it, together with the hook, into the water.
18. While reciting the third stanza of the hymn (he throws) the covering 3 (red) garment (into the water) ; while reciting the fourth stanza the (under, blue) garment.' Cf. also 5antikalpa 4 ; Ath. Pam. 33, 3.
The hymn, which is related to I, 18, has been translated
1 This part of the performance executes in practice the state- ment in RV. X, 95, 14 where Pururavas threatens to fly away with- out returning, throwing himself into the lap of Nirrni, the goddess of misfortune; cf. nirrztyabhimukho in Ke^ava's comment, and anavrz'tam iti prapatanavwesha/zam in Darila's, with the diction of the RV. stanza. The black bird is fit to shoulder the evil (attractio similium), as in AV. I, 22, 1. 4; Kauy. 26, 18.
2 For the colours blue and red, cf. the introduction to VII, 116; the notes on IV, 17, 4 ; VIII, 8, 24; and Kau^. 32, 17; 40, 4; 48, 40. Cf. also nilalohita in the Pet. Lex., and Winternitz, Das Altindische Hochzeitsrituell, pp. 6, 12, 23, 67.
8 I now propose to read trztiyaya^annam, i. e. trz'iiyaya a^an- nam, instead of trz'tiyaya ^annam, in deference to aX'Mdya in Su. 1 7. Even then the translation ' covering garment' for a^annam is pro- blematic, and based upon our interpretation of Ke^ava's comment. It means naturally ' the covered (blue garment)/
VII, Il6. COMMENTARY. 565
by Muir. Original Sanskrit Texts, V, 348 ; Ludwig, Der
Rigveda, III, 499 (cf. also 338); Grill2, pp. 4T, 187 ff. ;
Henry, Le livre VII de PAtharva-veda, pp. 45, 124. The
Anukrama/zi, savitra;// ^atavedasam.
a. patayalur is air. Aey. Ludwig, i die zum fall bringende (Lakshmi) ; ' but note the short a in the first syllable : patayami in the RV. is the causative of pat, not patayami, which is a simple present.
Rubricated at Ath. Paris. 7.
a. The number 101 is regularly inauspicious, occurring in connection with diseases, varieties of death, &c. ; cf. AV. Ill, 9, 6 ; V, 1 8, 1 2 ; VIII, 3, 27 ; XI, 6, 16 ; XIX, 46, 5.
VII, 116. Commentary to page 4.
The chief interest of this charm against takman is its reference to the ancient Hindu custom of quenching fire — here its representative the fever — by a frog. I have else- where assembled from the Vedic writings a considerable number of passages which become intelligible in the light of this custom ; see my article entitled, * On a Vedic group of charms for extinguishing fire by means of water-plants and a frog,' Contributions, Second Series, Amer.Journ. Phil. XI, 342 (24 of the reprint) ff.1 The role of the frog here is distinctly the same, and is especially significant for the identification of fire and fever which is indeed superficially obvious in all the hymns and practices connected with the takman. The quaint performance of the Kau.sika-sutra, 32, 17, is as follows: namo ruraye*ti jakunin ive*shika/]g"i- mdinduka.m nilalohitabhya/^ sutrabhya;« sakakshaz/z bad- dhva2, ' while reciting AV. VII, 116, he does as in the case
1 See also the introduction to VI, 106.
2 Shankar Pandit's reproduction of this Sutra, in the introduction to the hymn in Saya//a's commentary, is decidedly free.
566 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
of the birds, i. e. he ties a frog that has stripes like reeds (upon his body) by means of a blue and a red thread by the arm-pits (to a low couch upon which the patient is made to recline, and besprinkles him).' In order to under- stand this difficult Sutra we must follow the commentaries. Darila says, ^akunin ive karoti, mantroktan * adhastalpe haritasutre^a savya^anghasu baddhve*ty adivat, ' He does as in the case of the birds, i. e., as in the performance indicated in Kaui". 26, 1 8 with the words mantroktan adhas- talpe, &c.' The practice in question centres about AV. I, 22, a charm directed against jaundice. In the course of it the patient is seated upon a couch beneath which the yellow birds are tied with a yellow thread by their left legs; then the patient is washed off, and his jaundice is supposed to settle upon the yellow birds where, as it were, it is naturally at home; see the introduction to I, 22. In accordance with that performance, Darila continues to expand and explain the suggestion of the practice in Sutra 32, 18, which is connected with the present hymn : ishike*va rekha yasya sa ishika;7^*i//, tam nilasutre;/a 2 lohitena ka, sutre;/a saha kakshabhya;/z baddhva ^akunin iva karoti, 'he who has a line like a reed he is a reed-marked (frog) ; him he ties with a blue and a red thread by the arm-pits and treats as he does the birds.' See also Ke^ava on the passage, and cf. Kaiu. 40, 4 ; 48, 40.
From all these statements it becomes clear that the fever (Darila, ^varabhaisha^yam) is washed from the patient down upon the frog, but apparently with this difference, that the birds — homoeopathically as it were — take up the jaundice because they are themselves yellow, while the frog, allopathically, quenches the fever (fire) of the patient,
1 The MSS. of Darila read mantroktan ; this appears in the edition as mantroktam, because I did not know at the time that the passage is a quotation of part of Kaor. 26, 18, which see.
2 Cod. somewhat indistinctly tatnlasutre^a, obviously for tan nilasutre^a, and that again for taw (sc. ma^ukam) nilasutrerca, the plural tan being a corruption derived from the plural mantroktan in 26, 18.
Vii, I 1 6. Commentary. 567
being himself cold and moist. I would also draw attention to RV. X, 166, 5, where in the course of a hostile charm occurs the expression, a vo murdhanam akramim, adhas- padan ma lid vadata ma/zduka ivo*dakat, ' I have stepped upon your head ; from under my feet do ye speak up to me like frogs from the water V A touch of this idea also is perhaps worked up symbolically in the present practice, and even more clearly in the related performance at Kaus. 48, 40.
The combination of the colours blue and red is associated everywhere with hostile witchcraft. In RV. X, 85, 28 = AV. XIV, 1, 26 (cf. iarikh. Grzh. I, 12, 8 ; Apast. Grzh. 1,5, 23) the bridal garment polluted during the consummation is spoken of as, nilalohitaw bhavati krz'tya*saktir vy a^yate, ' blue and black it is ; the sorcery, the inherent (evil) 2, is driven out.' In AV. IV, 17, 4 (see our note on that stanza) a hostile charm is made in a blue-red vessel, and red and blue threads are spread out against enemies in AV. VIII, 8, 24 (cf. Kaus. 16, 20). This sinister employment of red and blue renders it unlikely that the use of the same colours in German wedding-practices is in any way to be connected with the Hindu conception ; see Weber, Indische Studien, V, 308, note 4 ; Winternitz, Das altindische Hochzeitsrituell nach dem Apastambiya-Grzhyasutra (Imperial Academy of Vienna, vol. xl), p. 67 ; Hillebrandt, Mitteilungen der Schlesischen Gesellschaft fur Volkskunde (1894-95), I, 39 ff. Why, now, is blue and red fit for Hindu sorcery practices ? Is nilalohita night and day ?
On the other hand it seems difficult to dissociate from the present practice the Bohemian frog-charm which Groh- mann, 1. c, reports as a cure against fever : ' In Bohemia the practice is to cure chills and fever (kaltes fieber) by catching a green frog at the time of the morning dews on the day preceding that of St. George. This is sewn into a bag which is hung about the neck of the patient without his
1 Cf. the Sutra 26, 20 in connection with the jaundice cure, vadata (sc. ^akunin) upasthapayati, and Ke^ava's comment thereon.
2 For asakti, see Ludwigs excellent remark, Der Rigveda, vol. v, p. 398.
568 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-YEDA.
knowing its contents. Then the patient must pronounce the lord's prayer nine times on nine days before sunrise. On the ninth day he must go with prayer to the river, cast the bag into the water, and return home praying and without turning his face.5
The hymn has been translated and expounded by Groh-
mann, 1. c, pp.386, 414; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 381;
and Victor Henry, Le livre VII de TAtharva-veda, pp. 45,
124. The hymn is quoted also as one of the takmana-
janaga//a in the Ga;mmala, Ath. Paris". 32, 7 (Kauy. 26,
i5 note).