Kau^. 26, 41-27, 4 deals with our hymn, to wit : 41. 'While reciting AV. II, 8, 1 (the practitioner) washes the patient outside (of the house). 42. While reciting AV. II, 8, 2 (he washes him outside of the house) at dawn. 43. While reciting AV. II, 8, 3 he pulverises the plants mentioned in the stanza (see the translation), as also natural mud, and mud from an ant-hill, sews this up into the skin of a living animal1 (freshly slain), and fastens it (as an amulet upon the patient). 27, 1. While reciting II, 8, 4 he places a plough with its span of cattle over the head of the patient 2 and pours water over it. 2. While reciting AV. II, 8, 5 he pours the dregs of ghee into (a vessel full of) water (placed) within an empty house. 3. He pours more (dregs of ghee) into an old ditch into which grass from the thatch of the house has been placed. 4- Placing the patient into this ditch he gives him of the water to drink, and rinses him with it.' The symbolism of these practices is not clear, but they seem at any rate to be built up on the derivation of the word kshetriya from kshetra in the sense of 'field/ rather than in the sense of ' womb.' See especially the last
1 For £-ivakosham see Kaimka, Introduction, p. 1. Other sub- stances derived from living animals occur at Katy. Sr. IX, 2, 16; Par. GrA. Ill, 7, 2.
2 That is, he puts the patient under the plough with its span, vrzshabhayuktasya halasya adhastad vyadhitam avasthapya (Sayawa in the introduction to the hymn).
288 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
stages of the performance, Sutra 27, 1 (the plough and the span of cattle), and Sutras 27, 3. 4, which aim to wash off the illness into the very ground, whence (according to this conception) it has been derived. And the hymn itself is redolent of fields, plants, ploughing, &c, and calls upon (st. 5) ' the lord of the field V Thus Professor Weber was led repeatedly to look upon this hymn as a charm to counteract injuries to fields2; see Ind. Stud.V, 145 note ; XIII, 149; Nakshatra II, 293. And yet, I think, all this is mere play upon the two meanings of kshetra, ' field,' and ' womb 3 ; ' the poet, thinking that the disease derives its name from the field, conjures with the properties of the field, or, perhaps, adapts secondarily stanzas constructed originally for practices in the field.
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud.
XIII, 149 ff. ; and Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 513. The
Anukramam describes it as vanaspatya/^ yakshmana^ana-
daivatyam.
The last three Padas are repeated at III, 7, 4; the first half in VI, 131, 3. The point in all these cases is the supposed etymology of the constellation vikritau (later mulabarham, and mula) from vi krit, ' loosen;5 this enables the word to figure wherever there is question of the ' fetters ' of disease. Cf. in general, Weber, Nakshatra II, 292, 310, 374, 389; Zimmer, pp. 356, 392. For an opposite construction of the function of the vikrhau, see the note on VI, no, 2.
1 See, however, the note on this expression below.
2 Cf. also Pacini V, 2, 92, and commentaries ; Ind. Stud.V, 145 note; XIII, 159 note; XVII, 208 note; Zimmer, 391 ff.
3 Note especially the passage from KaM. S. cited by Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 1 50 note. The expression svakr/ta iri7ze does not prove that a field is in the view of a performer. A spot where there is a natural rift in the ground is frequently, in witchcraft, made the theatre of the performance, without any such special end in view. Cf. the passages in the Pet. Lex., and the paribhasha to the abhi- yfcara performances, Kaur. 49, 6.
Ii, 8. Commentary. 289
a, b. I have translated apa uMatu transitively ; cf. Ill, 7, 7 ; RV. I, 48, 8, &c. Weber and Ludwig, contrary to ordinary usage, take it intransitively : ' hinschwinden moge jetzt die nacht,' and ' weg geh mit ihrem liechte diese nacht.' Saya/za, in agreement with our version, ' the night at the time of dawn (usha/zkalina ratri) shall chase away (vivasayatu).' In Pada b I read, for the same reason, with one of Shankar Pandit's MSS., apo^atu for apo^antu, making it govern abhikr/tvan^. Weber, ' die zauberspinnerinnen (mogen schwinden) hin ; ' Ludwig, ' weg gehn sollen die bezau- bernden.' Saya?za, retaining the plural, forces, it seems to me, the meaning of abhikr/tvari^ in translating it by abhita^ rogai-anti;^ kurva^a^, 'working a cessation of disease all about.' And recognising the futility of the first, he also, alternatively, takes apoMantu as an intransitive, . . . pua- kyak apaga^antu ! Cf. the note on III, 7, 7.
a, b. According to our translation the words babhror ar^unaka;^asya qualify yavasya ; Kcrava (and Saya^a who repeats Ke^ava's substance) make the two words represent an independentplant: ar^unakash/^a/TZ yavabusa^ tilapi%-ika//z ka. ekatra trmi baddhva. And Darila also recognises three plants, the first of which he describes as babhruvaraasya * r^unasya tasya ka^a^esham (! for ka^avLresham). Ac- cording to these constructions the first substance is a branch from the tree (Saya^a in commenting on the word in our stanza, ar^unakhyavrzlcshavi^eshakash/^asya) ar^una (ter- minalia arjuna). But the construction renders this extremely unlikely, and we prefer to render the text philologically.
b. The word te, ' thy/ would seem at first sight to refer to a field, and, as stated in the introduction, this would show that the poet here looks upon kshetriya as a derivative of kshetra, ' field/ and that he therefore introduces the para- phernalia of the field in his incantation. But this cannot stand against the ordinary value of the word, nor is it
29O HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
impossible to imagine the introduction of these substances simply on the ground of the supposed (etymological) deri- vation of the name of the disease. At any rate we have Kaarika on our side.
a. sanisrasaksha is a7r. Xey. ; sanisrasa occurs once at AV. V, 6, 4 as a designation of the intercalary month (cf. AV. XIII, 3, 8 ; Weber, Nakshatra II, p. 336 note). Our translation is conjectural and etymological ; the only sup- port I find is in srastaksha (Sumita 1, 115, 7), ' with sunken eyes.' Sayana leans with his full weight on the Kaujika's employment of the stanza (27, 2 ; see the translation of it above), in which an ' empty house ' figures, and he identifies the word with sunyagrzhak (sanisrasyamanani atuayena visra/^samanani vLnryama;zani aksha;zi gavakshadidvara/zi yesha^ te sanisrasaksha/^, sunyagriha. ity artha^), i. e. in brief, 'the decayed doors of the empty house.' Credat Judaeus ! Does ' with sunken eyes ' refer to the demon of the disease ?
b. The difficulty is much increased by the unintelligible sa^dejyebhya/^ which Sayana, who reads sa/^de.yebhya^5 again identifies with the ^aratkhata, ' the old ditch/ in the Sutra, 27, 3. 4: sam dLsyante tya^yante tadgatamr/dadanene *ti samdesak ^aradgartM ! The word seems to refer to some kind of evil (papa) at AV. X, 1, 11. 12 ; in IV, 16, 8 (where it is contrasted with vidcsya, ' foreign ') it refers to the ' fetter of Varima,' i. e. disease. Weber, * den auftrag' ausfiihrenden verneigung sei ; ' Ludwig, ' anbetung den zu beauftragenden (sich fugenden).' The entire stanza is highly problematic ; its relation to the Sutra very obscure.
II, 9. Commentary to page 34.
The disease which the hymn is designed to exorcise is,
according to Darila, possession by the kind of demons
called Yisaka. Kesava (followed by Sayana) describes it
as due to brahmagraha, a word hitherto not quoted from
any text, but reported by the lexicons as equal to brah-
Ii, 9- Commentary. 29 1
marakshasa. The practices connected with the hymn at Kaiu*. 27, 5. 6 are as follows: 5. 'While reciting AV. II, 9 a talisman consisting of splinters (from ten kinds of wood is fastened upon the patient). 6. Ten friends (of the patient) while muttering the hymn rub him down.' The commen- tators (cf. Kaus. 13, 5 ; 26, 40) understand the word jakala to mean ' a talisman made of ten kinds of holy wood/ and these are derived from the list of holy trees catalogued at Kaus. 8, 15. Cf. also the splinters from the (holy) kampila- wood, Kau.9. 27, 7 (see the introduction to II, 10), used against kshetriya (hereditary disease). For similar Germanic uses of nine kinds of wood to allay disease, see Wuttke, Der Deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, §§ 121, 538 ; Mannhardt, Baumkultus der Germanen, p. 18.
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 153 ff. ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 506 ; Grill2, pp. 8, 82 ff. ; cf. also the author in Amer. Journ. Phil. VII. 478, and Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Vedique, p. 137. The hymn figures in the takmana^anaga^a of the Ga/zamala, Ath. Pari.?. 32, 7 (see Kau^. 26, 1 note) ; the Anukrama^i describes it as vanaspatya^ yakshmana^anadaivatam. The Paippalada presents the hymn, the stanzas arranged as follows: 1, 5, 4, 2, 3.
The metre is irregular, pankti (Anukr., vira£ prastara-
pankti). The Paippalada has the first half as follows :
daicivrzlcsha mu&mam ahi/^sro grahya^ ka..
a. For adhitir the Paippalada reads adhitam. Saya/za, ' the Vedas, which he has read formerly, or their meaning, which is to be remembered, he has recalled ! ' Cf. KMnd. Up. VI, 7. Ludwig emends adhiter, and translates ' from insensibleness he has come away,' but the translation con- flicts with the meaning of adhi ga ; cf. RV. II, 4, 8.
c, d. The Sutra embodies the indefinite large numbers 100 and 1000 in the amulet often kinds of wood, and the
292 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
ten friends (Brahmans according to the scholia) who attend the patient.
The word kitim occurs only in this stanza, and is very problematic. The Pet. Lex. and Weber, i sammeln ; ' Ludwig, ' pfliickung ; ' Sciya^a, ' covering.' We are con- necting the word with £inoti in the sense of c arrange, build up/ having in mind the peculiar amulet or remedy daj-a- vrzksha, ' consisting of ten woods/ in st. i . The sense then would be that the gods have found out the magic arrange- ment of the woods, while the Brahmans contribute the practical knowledge of the woods which are endowed with the healing property. Cf. Grill's similar exposition.
I have followed Saya^a who, relying alternatively upon RV. II, 33, 4, and Tait. S. IV, 5, i, 2, makes tsvara^, 'lord/ the subject of the sentence, uvara eva he rug^a tubhyam idani^tanabhishagrupe^a bhesha^*ani karotu. But the text of Pada d is awkward, and rendered somewhat doubtful by the Paippalada, whose version of c, d is, sa eva tubhyam bhesha^-a^ £akara bhisha^ati £a. Upon the basis of this reading Grill suggests for Pada d, krzVsavad bhisha^-ati ka. Ludwig suggests suki, Vedic accus. plur. neut. in agreement with bhesha£*ani ; Weber, bhisha^a^ for bhisha^a. Saya^a thinks also of i-u^ina for s\xk\h. I have translated the unanimous text of the 5aunakiya-school.
II, io. Commentary to page 14.
The practice associated with this hymn at Kaor. 27, 7. 8
is colourless: 7. 'While reciting AV. II, 10 (the prac-
titioner) fastens upon the limbs (of the patient who has
been placed) upon a cross-road * splinters of kampila-wood
(crinum amaryllacee), and washes him off with (water
1 The favourite place to divest oneself of evil influences ; see the note in the introduction to VI, in.
It, Io. Commentary. 293
dipped out) by means of a bunch of grass. 8. (Or) he sprinkles (him in the same way).' Cf. the practices under II, 8. A closely parallel mantra-passage occurs at Tait. Br. II, 5, 6, 1-3 ; this the commentator on the authority of Baudhayana (see p. 628, bottom) connects with the cere- monies at the birth of a child (^atakarma). According to Baudh. Grih. II, 1 and 7, the child is bathed with these stanzas, and this prescription is borne out by Hir. Grih. II, 3, 10 ff., where the same stanzas are quoted. They occur also in Apast. Mantrabr. II, 12, 6 (cf. Apast. Grih. VI, 15, 4). This usage does not really conflict with the Atharvanic employment of the hymn, since it aims to free the child from diseases and troubles derived from the womb of the mother. The conception borders closely on that of original sin. That the Atharvavedins regarded the kshe- triya in this hymn as a disease may be gathered from the employment of the hymn among the bhaisha^yani in the Kau^ika ; it figures also in the takmana^anaga^a, ' the list of hymns destructive of fever,' in the Ga^amala. ; see Ka.us. 26, 1 note.
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, T56 ff.3 and Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 513.