with evil characteristics is sprinkled after each verse, com- mencing at the braid of hair at the right. 20. Having made an offering of chaff from a vessel made of the wood of a palajra-tree (butea frondosa), he pours the rest (of the chaff) after (the first oblation). 21. Chaff, husks, refuse of grain, and shavings are placed upon the heel of her left foot.'
There are good and evil characteristics (lakshmi = lak- sha#a, cf. AV. VII, 115), and the main point of the prac- tices is their removal by washing, and by placing all kinds of offal wThere it will easily drop from the person under treatment, and cause symbolically the removal of the bad points.
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud.
IV, 411 ff. ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 498 (cf. also 338) ;
and Geldner, Vedische Studien, I, pp. 313 ff, where the
charm is interpreted erroneously as directed against the
house-cat. Cf. our brief criticism in the Journ. Am. Or.
Soc. XV, 153, note.
a. Saya^a reads lakshmam for lakshmyam, commenting,
asaubhagyakara^/ £ihnam. To lalamyam he remarks,
lalame bhava^ tilakasthctnagatam.
d. The Pada is hypermetric, unless we read pra^ayaratim with double sandhi. Ludwig would cure the passage by substituting nir for pra^ayai, but the latter word seems guaranteed b^ AV. V, 25, 8, pra^ayai tva (tva a) nayamasi, and possibly this is the original reading (cf. Geldner, I.e., 314). In adhering to the traditional text I have supposed the meaning to be that she who has the character of an Arati is rendered fit for marriage and child-birth by the charm. Very problematic this is, to be sure. Saya^a takes pra^ayai with Pada c, yani . . . saubhagyani £ihnani . . . tani . . . asmakaz/2 pra^-ayai . . . bhavantu, . . . yani pur- vani nLfearitani asaubhagyakara/zi £ihnani . . . aratiw ^atrum . . . prapayama/z !
262 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
a. ara/zim is air. Key., reminding us of ara^a, c strange/ dra^ya, ' waste, forest/ and axa.nya.ni (-«?), the personified goddess of the forest, RV. X, 146. Saya/za reads ara/nm, commenting, arama/nm alakshmiw daurbhagyakara^z £ih- nam . . . yadvd aramani/^ sarvadd parya/anak&rmim arti- karlm va alakshmim. Shankar Pandit retains the reading of the MSS., savishak (for savishat in our edition), but Saya^a reads s&vishat. Cf. the Vag*. S. in the Ka;zva- jakha X, 2, 1; XX, 1, 1 (= IX, 5; XVIII, 30 of the M^dhyamdina-^akha), and Weber, Ind. Stud. IV, 248, 412; XIII, 108. See also Apast. Sr. XIII, 7, 13.
Saya;za treats all these epithets as referring directly to a woman ; we prefer to regard them as personifications of evil qualities, imagined as dwelling within the person whose characteristics are foul. Saya^a, vrzshasye*va danta yas- ya^ sa vrzshadati sthuladanta nari . . . gaur iva sedhati gak.knatUti gosedha stri . . . vvkritam dhamati ^abdayate iti vidhama, phutkaradivividha.rabdak&ri/zi . . . lalamya//z lalamasth&ne lala/aprante bhavam . . . mWdhyam vueshe//a Mdhzm vilW/zam, vilfo%am iva sthita//z kesa.na.rn pratilo- myarupam. Our rendering of vilidhyam is not at all certain.
I, 19. Commentary to page 120.
The hymn is one of a list of battle-charms, si/^grami- kam (sc. suktani), rubricated in Kau^. 14, 7, and associated with ceremonies of a general character, preparatory to going to battle. The Ga/zamal£, Ath. Pam. 32, 13, has a similar list, somewhat more extensive, which is entitled apara^-itaga/za : see the note at Kau^. 14, 7, and cf. the introduction to I, 2. The hymn is also employed against certain portentous occurrences, as when Brahma/zas carry arms (Kau^-. 104, 3), when images of the gods dance, shake, laugh, sing, or indulge in other freaks (Kau^. 105, 1), or
I, 2 2. Commentary, 263
when a bull sucks a cow (Kaiu. 113, 3). Cf. also Ath.
Parii". 17, 2. The hymn has been translated by Weber,
Indische Studien, IV, 413 ; cf. also Bergaigne et Henry,
Manuel V<£dique, p. 134.
Stanzas 3, 4.
These two stanzas are an expanded version of RV. VI. 75, j 9. The latter part of that hymn contains suggestions which have been freely utilised in the battle-charms of the Atharvan.
I, 22. Commentary to page 7.
The proceedings of the practitioner, Kauy. 26, 14-2 r, are entirely symbolic ; the main effort is to banish the yellow colour to yellow creatures and objects (the sun), where it properly belongs, and to derive for the patient redness from that quarter where it is peculiarly at home, namely a red bull ; cf. RV. I, 62, 9, and Aufrecht in the introduction to his edition of the Rig-veda, vol. ii, p. xvii. The practices are as follows :
26, 14. 'While reciting AV. I, 22 (the priest) gives (the patient water) to sip, which is mixed with hair from (a red bull) the object mentioned in the mantra (st. x). 15- And having poured (water) upon the back of the bull (he lets the patient drink it). 16. He ties on as an amulet upon the (patient) sitting upon the skin of a bull (the piece of skin) pierced by the peg with which it is fastened (when it is spread out) l, after having steeped it in cow's milk and anointed it with the dregs of ghee2. 17. He gives (the patient the milk) to drink. 18. He feeds (the patient) with
1 The words ' the piece of skin/ &c. are all of them a tentative rendering of jankudhanam, to which Darila, £arma«o vistaraya kilakabandha^ ^ahkusthapanam. Sayawa, in the introduction to the hymn, raktago^arma^idramamm . . . tanmambandhanam. Ke^ava, go rakta^armaMidramamm. Cf. also Kaur. 27, 29, to AV. Ill, 7, 1.
2 Cf. Kau^. 7, 15.
264 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
porridge made of haridra (turmeric, or curcuma, a yellow plant), daubs him from head to foot both with the remnants of the porridge and (additional porridge) from which he has not eaten, (places him upon a couch), ties the (three birds) mentioned in the mantra x by their left legs to the foot of the couch, and washes (the patient) off (upon the birds). 19. He makes the patient step forward (after having first given him a stirred drink, mantha, in accordance with the paribhasha at Kauy. 7, 18). 20. He makes (the patient) address (with the hymn) the chattering (birds). 21. Having glued together with lac the hairs from the breast (of the red bull) and getting them covered with gold (the patient ties that on as an amulet).'
Saya^a in his introduction defines the purpose of the hymn as against heart-disease and jaundice, hrzdrogaka- miladirogopa^antaye ; Kcrava advances a broader construc- tion, according to which it cures in addition epilepsy and. fainting (vismaya ?), apasmara-vismaya-hrzdroga-kama- lakarohmakani bhaisha^y&ni. Adalbert Kuhn, in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XIII, 113 ff., has assembled from Greek, Roman, and Teutonic sources notions and practices analogous to those elaborated by Kaasika. The principle that the yellow disease belongs by right to yellow objects, birds, and plants, is there again applied practically, with a touch, here and there, of similia similibus curantur. In addition to Kuhn's translation we note Weber's, Ind. Stud. IV, 415 ff. ; cf. also Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 343 ; Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Vedique, pp. 134-5 ; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 388 ; Wise, Hindu System of Medicine, 247 ff. (espe-
1 The juka, ropawaka, and haridrava mentioned in st. 4. Saya«a, in his introduction, jukakash/toukagopitanakakhyana^ pakshi- »am. Darila defines haridrava^ by haridravama^ ^i/aka^. Ke^ava, sukah kash/$a(mu)sukam (!) ka, gopitilaka^z £a. They seem to refer respectively to the parrot, the thrush, and the yellow wagtail, all doubtless birds prevailingly yellow. The yellow jaundice of the patient, accentuated by his coat of yellow curcuma, is washed down upon the yellow birds, where it belongs. Cf. the notes on st. 4, and the introduction to VII, 116.
I, 22. Commentary. 265
daily 249, where turmeric still appears prominent among
the curative agencies). Stanzas similar to I, 22 occur,
RV. I, 50, 11-12; Tait. Br. Ill, 7, 6, 22-23; Apast. Sr.
IV, 15, 1.
b. For hrzddyota the RV., Tait. Br., and Apast. vSY. have hrzdroga (cf. Ridraga, Wise 321) ; see also AV. V, 20, 12 ; VI, 24, 1. Still another name is hr/day&maya, AV. V, 30, 9 ; VI, 14, 1 ; 127, 3. For the root dyut, cf. AV. IV, 12, 2; XII, 3, 22: hrzd-dyota literally means 'heart-break;' Saya/za takes it as e heart-burning,' hrzdaya/^ sa//ztapayati (cf. Lat. splendida bilis).
c. The Vedic Hindu is deeply impressed with the red- ness of the cow, which is contrasted with its white milk, RV. I, 62, 9, &c. ' O sage mir wie geht es zu, gibt weisse milch die rothe kuh.' Perhaps we have here, too, an allu- sion to the divine Rohita in the thirteenth book of the AV. ; see Henry, Les Hymnes Rohitas, and our Contribu- tions, Fourth Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XII, 429 fT.
The anacoluthon in Padas c, d, seems to be occasioned
by ayam, which is a sort of vox media fit for both second
and third persons singular.
a. I have followed Bergaigne and Henry, Manuel Ve- dique, p. 135 note, in emending the unintelligible rohimr devatya(^) to rohimdevatya(>&), 'the cows whose divinity is Rohwi.' I differ from these scholars in co-ordinating it with gavo, rather than supplying rik&h ; see the above- mentioned Contributions, p. 437. Rohi/zi is the female of Rohita, a personification of the red, ascending (ruh), ruling sun. The stanzas devoted to Rohmi occur AV. XIII, 1, 22 ff. Saya/za's comment on Padas a, b, is, deva- tya/z devatasu bhava/z . . . uktavar/za (sc. rohimk) ykk ka- madhenvadayo gava^ santi, uta api yak manushyasa;/z-
266 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
bandhinyo rohim/t rohinya/i lohitavar^sl gava^ santi tdbhiA ubhayavidhabhir gobhi^.
b. ropawaka is glossed by S4ya//a at RV. I, 50, 12 by .yarika, ' thrush ;' Saya^a on our hymn, twice, kash/^a^uka (harit pakshi : the word is not in the lexicons). Darila at Kaui1. 26, 20. haridravar^a^- ^i/aka/^ (not in the lexicons ; cf. £L££ika, RV. X, 146, 2). Ke^ava, kash/^a(mu)sukam (!), and kash//#a^u(sh)ka/£andana (! a kind of sandal). The com- mentators seem therefore to waver between a bird and a plant.
c. haridrava is glossed by Saya^a at RV. VIII, 35, 7 by pakshin^ but the same work at I, 50, 12, as also the scholiast at Tait. Br. Ill, 7, 6, 22, has haritaladrumeshu (a kind of tree !). Saya/za on our hymn, twice, gopitana- kakhya haridvar/zM pakshi/za/z (gopitanaka is not in the lexicons, but gopita is ' wagtail ') ; Darila, ib., pita.? kitakkh ; Ke^ava, twice, gopitilaka.
I, 23. Commentary to page 16.
The practices connected with this and the next hymn are defined by the commentators as a cure for white leprosy, .svetakush/Mpanodanaya (Saya/za), .svetakush/Zza- bhaisha^yani (Ke.yava). They are stated at Kau^. 26, 22- 24, as follows : 22. * While reciting AV. I, 23 and I, 24 (the priest) having rubbed dung (upon the sores) until they are red, smears upon them the substances, mentioned in the mantras1. 23. He cuts off the white (scurf). 24. (The patient?), having been covered, performs the rites to the Maruts.' The latter, described at Kau^. 41, 1-7, are
1 Ke^ava and Saya/za mention bhrmgara^a (eclipta prostata; note the pun between rag-a and ra^ani, &c. in I, 23, 1), haridra (yellow sandal, or yellow turmeric), indravarum (colocynth), and nilika. Darila has a somewhat different statement, too corrupt to be reported here.
I, 23. Commentary. 267
primarily designed to produce rain, and their employment
here, secondarily, may be intended to put the patient into
a sweat. The point is problematic and not cleared up by
the scholiasts.
The entire hymn is repeated with variants at Tait. Br.
II, 4, 4, 1. 2. The third stanza of the next hymn is there added to the charm.
Both this and the next hymn have been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. IV, pp. 416 ff. ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda,
III, 506, 509 ; Grill2, pp. 19, 77 ff. ; cf. Wise, Hindu Sys- tem of Medicine, pp. 258 ff. ; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 391 ; and Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Vedique, p. 135. The Anukramam designates I, 23 as vanaspatyam, and I, 24 as asurivanaspatidevatyam.
Saya/za refers the adjectives dark, &c, to the plants, indicated by Kaujika's commentators. The word ra^ani (as well as all others designating night) has also the mean- ing ' curcuma longa.' Cf. the scholiast at Tait. Br. II, 4, 4, 1, ra^anakshame oshadhe . . . atra haridra ra^anuti kekit. The two meanings are blended with the idea of ' rich in colour/ by virtue of which the word puns with ra^aya.
b. A considerable number of MSS., here as well as in
3 d, followed by Saya/za, read pr/thak for pr/shat, which
also makes good sense. The Tait. Br. also reads pr/shat.