The same stanza with variants occurs at AV. II, 4, 6.
c. The text of the vulgate has sasahe, a reading which is now supported by one of the MSS. at the base of Shankar Pandit's edition. The MSS. in general have sasaha, Pada- pa//za sasaha, each with a considerable variety of accentua- tions. Saya/za comments upon the following text for Padas c, d, vishkandham o^asa saha sa/^zskandham o^a o^asa. For his explanation of vishkandha, see the note on II, 4, 1 c (p. 282) ; his comment upon sa/^skandha is as
Xix, 34- Commentary. 673
follows : yena roge/za skandha/z sa/^nata/z sa//zlagno bhavati sa roga^ sa/^skandha/z. This etymological rendering coin- cides with that in the minds of the occidental interpreters : the Pet. Lex., 'name of a demon or disease;' Bohtlingk, ' name of a disease ;' and Zimmer, 1. c, p. 391, 'contracting the shoulders, a disease.' See, however, our note on II, 4, 1 c (p. 283).
a. The MSS. of both Sa;^hita and PadapazVfo read
trzshzva; we with both editions trish /va. Saya/za, trishu
lokeshu avasthanaya.
e. The name angiras for the plant seems to be trumped up to pun with ^angi^as.
a. Roth and Whitney's edition reads, atho yada sama-
bhavo, the basis of our translation : the MSS. have atho
pada na bhagavo (Padapa/^a, atho iti pada na bhagava^).
Shankar Pandit, upon the basis of Saya^a's comment,
restores atho*padana bhagava/z. The explanation is, he
upadana upadiyate svikriyate krztyanirhara^adivyapareshv
iti upadana^. The meaning seems to be something like
'thou who art pressed into service for the purpose of
driving out sorceries.' I do not believe in either the
restoration, or the explanation.
c. I have again translated the text as restored by Roth
and Whitney (cf. XIX, 35, 1). The MSS. of the Sa^hita
read pura ta ugra grasata (upa), and those of the Pada-
pa//za are divided in reading ugra/z and ugra. With the
latter we might have the following sense, ' formerly a fierce
(female demon?) ate of thee.' Saya/m, te tvam (!) ugrak
pra/zina^ pura grasate bhakshayanti (! plural). I feel by
no means certain that the vulgate has restored the original
text.
a. ausarika and vuarika are translated upon the basis of
their etymology simply. Saya/za, a^arika^ sarvato him-
sakam etannamanam rogam tatha vLrarikaM viyeshe/za
[42] x x
674 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
hi/«sakam etannamana;^ ka. balasam. To vtaarikam, cf. our note on II, 4, 2 (p. 284).
b. For balasam, see the note on V, 22, 11.
c. For vuva^aradam, see the note on V, 22, 13.
XIX, 35. Commentary to page 39.
For the employment of this hymn in the ritual texts,
see the introduction to XIX, 34. Saya/za defines it as
^-angi^amambandhane. It has been translated by Groh-
mann, Indische Studien, IX, p. 418 ff. ; and Zimmer, Altin-
disches Leben, p. 65,
a. The MSS., both Sa;/zhita and Padapa/^a, read dur-
harda^ samghoratn Mkshu/£, and S£ya/za explains the
otherwise unknown compound simghoram by atyanta-
kruram. I have refused the text as emended by Roth
and Whitney (durhardas tvam ghoram) ; cf. IV, 9, 6.
b. agamam, * I have approached ' with sinister intention ; Saya/za, agatam (!) hantu^ praptam. But several MSS. read adabhan(for idabhan?), 'destroying/ and this is worth considering. Grohmann and Zimmer translate agamam as an adjective, 'der herzutritt,' 'den herantretenden.'
c. For sahasra^aksho, see the note on IV, 20, 5.
e. The extra Pada, making a pankti out of the anush/ubh,
is rather suspicious. The MSS. read gaixgxdah ; we, with
the vulgate, ^-angi^a ; cf. the note on XIX, 34, 1.
c. The majority of the MSS., both of the Sa/fzhita and
the Padapaz7za, read bhavyad. Both editions follow the
minority of the MSS. in adopting the regular bhavyad.
a. The edition of Roth and Whitney has ye kr/tvano,
an emendation of yak krzshnavo of the MSS., both Sa;/z-
hita and Padapa^a. Saya^a comments upon ya rtshnavo
(devair nishpadita^ . . . gantaro himsakah purusha^), and
Xix, 38. Commentary. 675
this reading has been adopted by Shankar Pandit. I know
not how to improve upon the suggestion of the occidental
editors.
b. The western editors have restored ya uto martye- bhya^, the basis of our translation. The MSS. have ya uto vabhrztenya^ (vabhrztenya^), and vabhr/thenya^. Saya//a's text has ya uto vavrzte^nya^, upon which he comments as follows, ye anye manushyadiprerita badhaka vavrzte va- vrztire (! why does he comment, in the teeth of the grammar, upon the plural, instead of the singular, which would make equally good sense ?). Shankar Pandit has adopted Saya/za's text.
XIX, 38. Commentary to page 40.
The matter of this little hymn, the guggulu or bdellium, has been made the subject of an exhaustive investigation by Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, I2, 339; cf. also Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 28. Saya/za here defines it as, surabhi^ ghra^asa/^tarpako gandha^ ; cf. also his comment at II, 36, 7. The ritual of the Kamika makes no mention of the hymn, but it is rubricated in an unim- portant way in Ath. Parmsh/as 4, 3. 41; 17, 2. A previous translation is that of Grill2, pp. 39, 193. The Anukramam, mantroktagugguludevatakam.
In most of the MSS. the bracketed hemistich forms the first half of st. 1 2 ; next, the last hemistich of our first stanza, together with the first of st, 2, makes up the second ; and, finally, the second hemistich of our st. 2 figures inde- pendently as a third stanza. Some MSS., however, make one stanza of the three last hemistichs (a tryavasana, sc. rik). The bracketed passage is obviously secondary, though it stood in its present place at the time of the composition
1 Cf. the introduction to XIX, 39, note.
2 Thus also both editions.
X X 2
676 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
of the Pamishfes. It seems to have been attracted to its present place by the word yakshma/z in st. 2 a of the text.
a. For arundhate, see IV, 12; V, 5; VI, 59, in these translations. Saya;m overcomes the embarrassing presence of the word by turning it into a verb, rodha^z na kurvanti na pi^ayanti (!), and Whitney in the Index, in the same vein, emends the word to arundhata, though it is followed by the present a^nute. The MSS. with accent, arundhate.
f. The MSS. have, mr/ga isvk ive*rate, which we have
translated. Roth and Whitney emend mrzgad risyk ive*rate,
' as antelopes flee from the wild beast/
XIX, 39. Commentary to page 5.
Neither the Kaiuika, nor Darila and Ke^ava, make any mention of this hymn, though it might, but for the com- mentaries, be understood to be included in the kush- thdlmgdik (sc. rikdik) in Kaui\ 28, 13. It is not, moreover, included in the takmana^anaga^a of the Ga/zamala, Ath. Pam. 32, 7 : see Kaiu. 26, 1, note. Its failure to appear in the latter is fortuitous, since the Ga^amala, like other Atharvan PanVish/as, draws freely upon the nineteenth book; Kau.rika's silence, on the other hand, is in accord with the general attitude of this Sutra towards .the nine- teenth (and twentieth) books of the Sa^hita ; see Kaorika, Introduction, p. xl. Sayaz/a in his introduction to the hymn says that the hymn is employed in the Ratrikalpa1, on the occasion when incense of kush//£a is offered (to whom ?) in connection with AV. XIX, 34, etu deva/fc iti shash//*a;/z suktam (sc. pa££ame*nuvake) asya ratrikalpe kush^apra- dane viniyoga^ purvasuktasamaya (XIX, 38) ukta^.
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 198 ff.; cf. also Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, Index, p. 457 b. For the nature of the kush^a, see the introduc- tion to V, 4.
1 The quotation occurs neither in the Pish/aratrya/fc Kalpa (Ath. Park. 6), nor in the Aratrika (Ath. Paru. 7), but in the Purohita- karma (Ath. Pam. 4, 4), where it is quoted together with XIX, 38.
Xix, 39- Commentary. 677
b, c. The two Padas are translated in accordance with the text of the edition, which emends the MS. readings with great ingenuity, as follows : naghamaro nagharisho na ghaya^ purusho rishat. For the two syllables naghal the MSS. everywhere present nadya ; so also Shankar Pandu- rang Pandit's MSS. of the text with Saya/za's commentary, and the Padapa/^a (nadya). The Devanagari MSS. confuse badly, in the case of doubtful words, the characters for dya and gha ; see, e.g. the writings va^dya for vamgha, Kaus. 8, 14, and apadya for apagha, 36, 22 ; 42, 22 ; 82, 4. Thus far the emendation seems therefore well founded, an impres- sion which is strengthened by Saya;za's abortive attempts to get sense out of nadyS by correlating it with nadi, * river/ and even worse. As regards nagharisho of the edition, Shankar Pandit's MSS. waver between nadyarisho, nad- yayusho, and nady^yusho, and the PadapaMa between nadya-risha^ and nadya-ayusha^ ; the element ayusha seems to be due to a secondary effort to contrast the word with mara in the preceding, and thus strain sense out of it. The formation nagharisha is guaranteed by AV. VIII, 2, 6 ; 7, 6, where it is also an epithet of a curative plant. By the side of purusho rishat the MSS. have also piiru- shorshat and purusho rishat (Padapa/^a : purusha^ rishat, and purusha^ r/shat). These emendations may be regarded as a specimen of the best that can be done with the corrupt text of the nineteenth book. — 'Three names hast thou,' i. e. na-gha-mara (' forsooth-not-death '), and na-gha-risha (' forsooth-not-harm '), in addition to the ordinary name kush/^a. This refers to varieties of the plant (cf. V, 4, 8), which, in the common manner of the Atharvan, justify opportunistic formations, coined with the freest fancy, and expressive of salient qualities.
a. ^ivala, ' vivida,' ' quickening,' or ' full-of-life/ is the honorific epithet of an independent plant (AV. VI, 59, 3 ; VIII, 2, 6 ; 7, 6), probably the arundhati (see the ihtroduc-
678 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
tion to IV, 12). The Atharvan has a way of formulating
qualities as father, mother, brother, &c. of the object they
are attributed to ; see the note on V, 5, 1.
b. I have not followed the edition in emending ^ivanto, the unanimous reading of the MSS., to ^ivalo. A glance at VIII, 2, 6 ; 7, 6 shows ^ivalam by the side of ^ivantim ; and ^ivanta, givanti, ^ivantika are sufficiently authenticated as names of remedial plants. The emendation seems entirely groundless. For another father of the plant, see V, 4, 9 b.
a. Cf. VIII, 5, 11 ; V, 4, 9 a, b, and also 1 b. The fulsome praise in the manner of kathenotheism. When another plant is employed the expressions are no less exorbitant ; cf. e.g. VI, 15, 1.
e. saka//z somena tish//£ati (cf. V, 4, 7 b): both soma and kiish/^a are mountain-plants; the former has the epithet girish/M, ' dwelling upon the mountain,' RV. IX, 18, 1, &c, and the mountains are called somaprzsh//£a, ' having soma upon their backs/ AV. Ill, 31, 10. For kiish/^a as a moun- tain-plant, see V, 4, 1 ; VI, 95, 3.
Xix, 39- Commentary. 679
The same stanza at V, 4, 3 ; VI, 95, i, with the variant
fourth Pada, deva^ kush/v£am avanvata ; see the notes at
V, 4, 3. In Shankar Pandit's edition with Saya/za's com-
mentary the last four Padas of the preceding stanza are
here added at the end, as a refrain.
The same stanza at V, 4, 4 ; VI, 95, 2, with pushpam
(pushyam) for ^aksha;/am in Pada 3, and dev&k kush/?//am
avanvata in Pada 4 ; see the notes at V, 4, 4. In Mr. Pandit's
edition the same refrain as in the preceding stanza*
a, b. It seems difficult to abstain from comparing with this passage certain features of the well-known legend of Manu and the flood. In the 5at. Br. I, 8, 1, 6 the northern mountain upon which Manu's ship settled is styled * Manu's descent,' manor-avasarpa/zam, and in the version of the flood-legend in the Mahabharata I, 12795 (cf. also the Matsyopakhyana 49) it is called nau-bandhana. If the vulgate is correct in its restoration of the word ikshvako to ikshvakor in the next stanza (9), ' the ancestor of Ikshvaku,' i. e. Manu, may be imagined as landing with his ship upon the mountain, and finding the remedy. The Rig-veda, II, 33, 13, speaks of pure, most wholesome, and strengthen- ing remedies which ' Father Manu ' chose, and it seems altogether likely that the two independent legends should blend here in the mind of the poet, and that he should have in mind when speaking of the descent of his golden heavenly ship upon the Himalaya the very spot where Manu descended. Nevertheless it may be fairly questioned whether navaprabhra/zz.s'ana here is a proper name, and does not mean simply, ' where the (heavenly) ship descended.' The character of the word as a compound is not at all secure. The majority of the MSS. of the Sa;/zhita read navaprabhra/^sanam with two accents, and one of Shankar Pandit's MSS. has nava/£ prabhra/z^anam. The MSS. of