sive urine, and even flow of blood, i.e. against excessive or unnatural flows from the body in general. The practices are as follows : 25, 6. c While reciting the two hymns I, 2 and II, 3 the (practising priest) ties the head of a stalk of mu«g*a-reed (saccharum munja) with a cord (made from the same plant, as an amulet, upon the patient *). 7. Having ground up a natural lump of earth, and earth from an ant-mound2, he gives (a solution of this to the patient) to drink. 8. He smears him with ghee. 9. He blows upon (the rectum of the patient 3).'
The hymn has been translated and analysed by Weber, Ind. Stud. IV, pp. 394-5 ; and the present writer, in ' Seven Hymns of the Atharva-veda,' Amer. Journ. Phil. VII, pp. 467-9. Cf. also Florenz in Bezzenberger's Beitrage, XIV, pp. 178 ff. ; and, as a specimen of an interpretation which assumes that no Vedic passage has previously been correctly understood, Regnaud, L'Atharva-Wda et la methode d'interpretation de M. Bloomfield, pp. 8-10.
a. Par^-anya is the god of rain (hence his epithet bhuri- dhayas), and his outpourings upon the earth seem to be compared with a shower of arrows ; hence in RV. VI, 75, 15 the arrow is said to come from the semen of Patg-anya (par^anyaretasa ishvai). Possibly, however, the arrow is Par^anya's child, because arrow-reeds (.yara) grow in conse- quence of the rain. It seems further that the discharges from the body are compared with Parg-anya's rain, and are therefore under his control ; cf. I, 3, 1 below. Hence the
1 The passage in brackets is derived from the Commentaries.
2 For the role of the ant-mound, see the note on II, 3, 4, and more especially VI, 100.
8 So according to Darila, apane dhamati ; Kcrava and Saya#a, in accordance with their more liberal construction, cause the blow- ing to be performed upon the particular opening in the body from which the excessive discharge flows (Saya^a, apana^wnana^ivrawa- mukhanam dhamanam). For apana, a euphemism for ' rectum/ see Kaurika, Introduction, p. lv, bottom.
I, 3. Commentary. 235
double construction of this hymn as a battle-charm, and as a remedy against excessive discharges. — For the knowledge which imparts power and control, cf. VII, 12, 2 ; 76, 5, and elsewhere. Also Sat. Br. IX, 1, 1, 17, * no damage comes from him who has been recognised and addressed.'
b. The earth as mother of the plants yields the shafts for the arrows.
a. Weber's translation ' Bogenschnur ! schlinge dich um
uns/ is not in accordance with the quotable uses of the
verb pari nam. Sayana, quite correctly, asman paraVztya
. . . mam vihaya anyatra saram preraya. Cf. II, 13, 4b ;
Tait. S. IV, 6, 6, 4.
e. Saya^a, who throughout this hymn identifies Varga- nya and Indra (cf. Biihler, Orient und Occident, I, p. 229 ; Bergaigne, III, p. 35), refers v\d\xk to Indra. But it refers to the bowstring; cf. vi^u ayudha, RV. I, 39, 2\ and similarly, RV. VI, 47, 26.
a. Literally, ' when the cows embracing the tree.' The singular or plural of the stem go for ' sinew,' and some word for tree in the sense of 'bow,' occur also RV. VI, 47, 26; 75, II; X, 27, 22.
b. Saya/?a, anusphura^ pratisphura/za;^, sphur samka- lane . . . ar^anti . . . prerayanti.
d. Cf. with this the tying of the amulet in the practices
of the Sutra. Saya/za, mu^eshika-nirmita ra^u^. Cf.
the introduction to I, 12.
I, 3. Commentary to page io.
The Kau^ika prescribes this hymn against retention of urine and constipation ; the stanzas themselves seem to refer to difficulties in micturation only, and very possibly, the Sutra adds the other feature. The hymn is the pendant
236 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. IV,
pp. 395-6. Cf. also Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Vedique,
p. 130.
Cf. I, 2, 1 above. The expression sativrishnya. refers to the abundant semen (rain) of Par^anya ; cf. especially
1 According to the commentators, haritaki, ' gall-nut/ and kar- pura, ' camphor/ are such substances.
2 Darila, at Kauj. 8, 17, glosses this with induka.
3 The sense and the construction of the long compound in this Sutra are not altogether clear. Cf. Kau^ika, Introduction, p. lxii ff.
4 According to Saya/za, in the introduction, he probes the bladder with a copper instrument. So also Ke^ava.
5 The text, phalato: this seems to refer to the twenty-one barley-grains.
6 ' Apparently a kind of creeper or weed in grain- fields/ Darila, godhumavyadhi/^ ; Ke^ava, yavagodhfimavalli. See Kaurika, Intro- duction, p. xlvii.
7 Darila, kasturiklraka, ' musk ; ' Kcrava, pavika.
I, 7. Commentary. 237
RV. VI, 75, 15. Hence the repetition of the same expres-
sion with four other gods is secondary and mechanical.
The medicine man wants to make sure that he does not
neglect and offend. Saya^a justifies the mention of Mitra
and VaruTza by a reference to Tait. S. II, 4, 10, 2 ; of
iTandra by saying, asya oshadhuatvat ^arasya pitr/tvena
vyapade^a^ ; and of Surya by relying again upon Tait. S.
II, 4, 10, z.
a. SayaTza explains gavtnyor by, dntrebhyo vinirgatasya
mutrasya mutrlrayapraptisadhane panvadvayasthe na^yau
gavinyau ity u^yate. The urethra and the ureter? Cf.
the dual gavinyau in Tait. S. Ill, 3, 10, 1 ; and gavinike,
AVI, 11,5; IX, 8, 7.
b. The majority of the MSS. read sa^irutam ; but one
of Shankar Pandit's MSS. has sawsrutam. For the root
mi, 'flow/ see Bloomfield and Spieker, Proc. Amer. Or. Soc,
May, 1886 (Journal, vol. xiii, p. cxx). For years I have
had sa/^sritam written as a possible emendation on the
margin of my copy of the text, and now Saya^a persis-
tently (three times) comments upon the same reading.
b. The MSS. are divided between the readings vartram and vartam. Saya/za comments upon the latter, vartam vartate pravahati ^alam atre*ti varto marga^, and some of the MSS. of Kauj. 25, 16, a Sutra coined with evident reference to this stanza (vartim bibhetti, see the translation above), also read vartam. Darila comments, varta/0 mu- trabilam. I do not feel certain that this is not the correct word for the text : ' like the outlet of a lake.' For vartra, see Tait. S. I, 6, 8, 1 ; Maitr. S. I, 4, to.
I, 7. Commentary to page 64.
This and the following hymn are directed chiefly against the species of beings called yatudhana, a term which oscil- lates between the meaning ' human sorcerer ' and ' hostile
238 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
demon/ The entire tradition, Sutras and Commentaries, give the word the latter bent, but we can see from RV. V, 12, 2 ; VII, 104, 15, 16, that men might practise yatii, and, therefore, be yatudhana. Both hymns are catalogued in a series (ga#a) called £atana, ' driving away (demons, &c.)/ in Kaui". 8, 35, and the Ga^amala, Ath. Pari.?. 32, 3 (k&- tanaga^a) : for their employment, see Kaujika, Index B, under Htanani, and *Santikalpa 16. With the subject- matter of these hymns cf. in general RV. VII, 104, and III, 30, 14 ff. Both hymns have been rendered by Weber, Indische Studien, IV, 398 ff. ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 523 ; cf. also Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Vedique, p. 131 ff.
Throughout this and the next hymn Saya^a takes the root stu in its ordinary holy sense of ' praise/ a mistake which leads to the most contorted renderings, and to an utter disregard of grammatical construction, excused by assuming interchanges of inflections (vibhaktivyatyaya). He seems to be shy to attach any sinister sense to the root, or to connect it in any way with evil beings. For kimidin, see the note on IV, 3o, 5.
c. tailasya in the vulgata is an emendation of the MS. reading taulasya (Saya/za, tulavat huyamana-dravyasya).
d. vf lapaya, ' make howl/ obviously includes as a double entente the other possible sense of the word ' annihilate/ as causative from the root It.
Stanzas 4, 5.
A great deal of stress is laid in these hymns upon the confession of the yatudhana himself. Half the battle is won when their true nature is made apparent. Cf. I, 8, 4 and the note on I, 2, 1. Hence the neat difference between the active pra bruhi in 5 b, said of Agni (cf. RV. X, 87, 8 = AV. VIII, 3, 8), and the middle prabruva//a/£ in 5 d, said of the yatudhana. Stanzas $-7 are perhaps of a later
I, 9. Commentary. 239
hand, since the hymns of the first book ordinarily present only four stanzas ; cf. the introduction to I, 1 2.
I, 8. Commentary to page 65.
For the employment of this hymn in the Atharvanic
practices, and previous translations, see the introduction to
the preceding hymn.
c. In order to obtain a trish/ubh line we may either resolve both ta^s or tvam, or insert £*ahi after tvam.
I, 9. Commentary to page 116.
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 456, and entitled ra^abhisheke, 'at the coronation of a king.' Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 163, renders it in the same spirit. The Kaurika, however, in its descrip- tion of the coronation (chapter 17), does not rubricate this hymn, but rather IV, 8 (cf. also Vait. Su. 36, 7), and the Ga//amala, Ath. Paris'. 32, 30, again only counts IV, 8 as the abhishekaga/za (see Kau^. 17, 1 note). Weber, Ind. Stud. IV, 401, entitles it ' Segensspruch fur einen Fiirsten,' but this also seems to be too narrow : the Sutra, advisedly no doubt, employs it in practices designed to confer glory, lustre upon any one at all.
At Kaus. 11, 19. 20, the hymn is employed along with I, 35 and V, 28 in a practice designed to make one success- ful (sawpatkarma), to wit : ' an amulet made of a pair of krzsh/zala-berries (abrus precatorius linnaeus) *, which has
1 Or the weight of two krzsh/zala in gold ? All the commentators explain yugmakrzshtfalam as 'gold/ Darila, raktike^ti (see Pet. Lex.) prasiddhabhidhana aya/# k& sauvar#ama#i^ ; Ke^ava, suvanza- ma«i^, hirazzyama/zi^ (here, and at Kaur. 52, 20). Cf. the word hirawya in I, 9, 2 ; 35, 1 ; V, 28, 6. A very similar performance undertaken with the same three hymns is stated at Kaor. 52, 20. 2 1, being a rite which bestows long life (ayushyakarma). See also
24O HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
been steeped (in honey during certain three days, Kauj. 7, 1 9), is tied on. Then a mess of porridge, cooked in the milk of a cow with a calf of the same colour, is shaped in the figure of a man, enriched during twelve days with the dregs of ghee, and consumed with -averted face 1.
Further, at Kslus. 16, 27. 28, the hymn is associated with a practice intended to restore the loyalty of a disaffected people 2 : the king is given to eat a porridge prepared from an after-growth of rice 3, cooked in the milk of a cow with a calf of the same colour, upon a fire of kampfla-branches (crinum amaryllacee), which have grown out where they have been previously cut. A neat bit of symbolism : the milk of the cow with a calf of the same colour represents complete harmony ; the after-growth of rice and kampila represents the resumption of the sharply interrupted rela- tions between the king and his people.
Once more the hymn is recited for obvious reasons at Kau^. 55, 17, along with a list of others at the investiture of the young ' twice-born' (cf. also the scholiast at 17, 31), and it figures in one of the two var£asyaga;zas, c series of hymns which confer lustre,' in the Ga/zamala, Ath. ParLr. 32, 10 (see Kaoy. 13, 1 note).
The abrupt change of person in Pada c suggests the pos-
sibility of emending asmat to asmat, ' inferior to him.' But
cf. the same formula in st. 4 c.
*Santikalpa 1 7 and 1 9 (quoted by Saya/za erroneously as Naksha- trakalpa). Cf. also Tait. Br. I, 3, 6, 7.
1 As the porridge-man drips with ghee, thus the real man shall live in abundance.
2 rash/ravagamanam. Darila, ^anapada^ tasya*vagamanakaram . . . anuragakaram. Saya«a, 'a performance designed to restore a king, driven from his kingdom by an enemy/ Cf. the hymns III, 3 and 4.
3 The commentators state explicitly that rice which has grown anew upon the place, where it has previously been cut, is to be used. See Darila, Ke^ava, and Sayawa (lunapunarutthita^am odanam).
I, Io. Commentary. 24 1
Allusion seems to be made here to the rape of the soma
in Indra's behalf by Agni, the heavenly eagle (.syena).
According to our interpretation, in Contributions, Fifth
Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XVI, 1 ff., this Agni, the
eagle, is the lightning.
T, 10. Commentary to page ii.