Both Weber and Saya^a cite in illustration of the meaning 'friend' for aryaman the passage Tait. S. II, 3,4, 1, 'he, verily, who gives, is a friend (aryaman).' Weber renders P&da d, ' iiber die gunst des freundes selbst/ a rendering which rather forces the meaning and position of uta.
Stanzas 6, 7.
The two stanzas prove conclusively that the hymn belongs to the sphere of practices connected with the consecration of a king, and the firm establishment of his royalty. The four classes of persons whose aid is regarded as desirable for the king belong to the so-called ratna, 'jewels,' of the court, i. e. they are honoured and indispensable members of his household. Their number altogether is about a dozen, and according to Tait. Br. I, 7, 3, 1 ff., they are the ' givers and takers of royalty (rash/rasya pradatara^, rash- frasya* padatara/^).' As a preliminary to the consecration of a king they must be conciliated, and an oblation is offered in the house of each. See for the entire subject Professor Weber's notes on the two stanzas, and his still more elaborate exposition of this interesting theme in his monograph, Uber die Konigsweihe, p. 19 ff. ; cf. also Zim- mer, Altindisches Leben, p. i$i ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 246", 249, 25i-
7 a. Weber in the note on this passage, and Uber die Konigsweihe, p. %% ff., presents serious evidence in favour of reading ye^ra^ano (ara^ano) for ye ra^ano, ' they who make kings, though themselves not kings :' see vSat. Br. Ill, 4, 1, 7. 8 ; XIII, 2, 4, 18. Certainly this suits the character of the suta and gramam better than the title ra^*a. Nevertheless minor potentates, influential in the choice of a greater king, may be alluded to here ; cf. the expressions
334 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
ra^*a varu^a^ and v&runaik in III, 4, 5. 6, and our note to the passage. Weber himself has not embalmed his sugges- tion in the translation, ' die kon' ge konigsmacher audi.'
III, 6. Commentary to page 91.
The a^vattha-tree (ficus religiosa) is a strong tree of hard wood whose branches grow into other trees, resulting in their destruction \ On the other hand the union of the two trees is regarded as sexual (VI, 11), and emblematic of strength. In this hymn, as well as in the associated prac- tices, the a^vattha is employed to destroy enemies. At Kaui*. 48, 3-6, the hymn is worked up in the following sorcery-practice (abhiHrika) : 3. 'While reciting III, 6 (the performer) ties on as a talisman the substance mentioned in the hymn (i. e. wood from an a^vattha-tree which has fastened itself upon a khadira-tree), after an oblation has been poured upon it, and it has been anointed (with ghee). 4. As many enemies (as this practice is aimed at) so many fetters, anointed with ingiVa-oil 2, besmeared with the dregs (of that same oil?), (the performer), having recited the hymn over them, (places) along with the threads3 into a soma- vessel, and digs them into the vital spot 4 (of the enemies). 5. While reciting st. 8 of this hymn along with IX, 2, 4 (q. v.), he pushes off what is mentioned in the stanza (namely, a boat) by means of a branch (of the awattha-tree). 6. While reciting st. 7 he causes (the fetters) to float down (the water)/ The practices are not quite clear, nor do the commentators seem to understand them at all points. Cf. also Santikalpa 195.
1 Cf. Ka//i S. XIX, 10, esha (sc. asvattho) vai vanaspatinaw sapatnasaha^.
2 The oil of ingi^a takes the place of ghee (a^ya) in witchcraft ; see the paribhasha, Kauj. 47, 3, and cf. 14, 28 ; 25, 30.
3 Which threads ? Darila, sutre^a sa^bandhaw kn'tva.
4 This presupposes an efligy of the enemy who is thus reached by proxy. Cf. 47, 51.
5 Erroneously quoted by Saya^a as Nakshatrakalpa.
Ill, 6. COMMENTARY. 335
The hymn has been translated by Kuhn, Die Herab- kunft des Feuers1, p. 224 ; Weber, Ind. Stud. XVII, 204 ff.; Grill2, pp. 21, 104 ff. ; cf. also Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 58, 257. The Anukrama;zi, vanaspatya^vatthade- vatyam.
Both ajvattha and khadira are masculines, i. e. males ; hence the virility of the a^vattha is, as it were, in the second power. The a^vattha, moreover, is intimately related with the production of fire (cf. Tait. Br. I, 1,3, 9), being in fact an embodiment of the lightning. Hence its special fitness for aggressively hostile practices ; see Weber's note, 1. c.
b. Saya/za reads vaibadha dodhata^ without support from the MSS. (Sa^hita or Padapa^a). We have adopted this emendation which is indeed self-evident in the light of st. 7. It is of interest to note that the Pet. Lexs., Weber, and Grill felt constrained to resort to the same remedy. The name c displacer ' for the a^vattha becomes clear in the light of the natural history of the tree ; see the introduction above, and Lassen, Indische Altertumskunde I2, 304 ff. Saya^a takes vaibadha as ' sprung from the vibadha, i. e. the khadira,' the latter being so-called because it strikes with its thorns (ka/z/akair badhate).
a. Saya/za with the Paippalada reads nir abhina/^ (nir-
bhidya utpanno*si) ; some of Shankar Pandit's MSS. (both
Padapa//za and Sa/^hita) support this by reading nirabhinno
(ni>& abhinna/^) ; cf. Pada c.
b. Saya/^a, correctly, anzave antarikshe ; cf. RV. VIII, 26,17; TS. IV, 5, 11, 1.
c. Saya/za, the Paippalada, and some of Shankar Pandit's MSS., nir bhinddhi ; cf. P&da a.
a. Saya^a, the Paippalada, and some of Shankar Pandit's MSS., £arati.
336 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
The stanza is repeated at IX, 2, 12 with the variant
sayakapra/mtt&nam for vaib&dhapra/zuttanam. The similes
in this and the next stanza are put into practice in the rites
of the Sutra ; see the introduction above.
Ill, 7. Commentary to page 15.
This hymn and the practices connected with it harbour the peculiar conception that the horn and the skin of the antelope have the power to drive out inherited disease. Kaui*. 27, 29-31 we have the following performances: 29. 'While reciting AV. Ill, 7 (the practitioner) fastens (an amulet made from the horn of an antelope upon the patient), gives him (water) to drink, lets him rinse himself (with water), and at the time when the stars fade away (at dawn) he sprinkles him with water which has been warmed by quenching in it the kindled piece of antelope's skin pierced by the peg with which it is fastened (when it is spread out) *. 30. From a heap of undetermined measure he offers as much barley (cf. AV. II, 8, 3) as can be taken up by a single grasp (of the hand). 31. He gives food (to the patient).' The relation of the antelope and the practices to the kshetriya are extremely obscure. Again as in II, 8 it seems to rest upon a rapprochement with kshetra, { field,' at least if we trust the vague suggestion of the obscure stanzas, \dg. S. XXIII, 30. 31; Maitr. S. Ill, 13, i; Tait. S.VII, 4, 19, 2 ; cf. also Tait. Br. Ill, 9, 7, 2 ; >Sat. Br. XIIT, 2, 9, 8. Here the antelope is said to eat grain (yad dhari/zo yavam atti ; cf. yava in Kau^. 27, 30). But we are
1 The words ' he sprinkles him, &c/ to the end of the sentence are all of them a paraphrase with the help of the scholiasts of the words jankudhana^-valena . . . avasi^ati. For jarikudhana, see Kaiu. 26, 16, as explained in the introduction to I, 22 (p. 263); for ava^-vala, cf. also Kau^. 28, 2, in the introduction to IV, 6 (p. 374), and Kauj. 27, 33; 29, 8; 30, 8; 32, 10.
Ill, 7. COMMENTARY. 337
attempting to explain obscurum per obscurius. Perhaps the swiftness of the animal (st. 1) symbolises the rapid removal of the disease. The skin of the antelope is used for an amulet at Kauy. 16, 3, the horn at Sat. Br. Ill, 2, 2, 20; Apast. Sr. X, 9, 17; Santikalpa 17, and 19. We must not forget, of course, that visha/za, 'horn/ suggests vi shyati, 'loosen/ and that the entire employment of the horn may therefore be in its capacity as a ' loosener ' of disease (cf. the introduction to VI, 44). The hymn puns freely upon these words ; cf. sts. 1, 2. In general there are many points of contact between Kaarika's practices and the stanzas. The first two stanzas occur (with variants) at Apast. Sr. XIII, 7, 16; the second ib. X, to, 3. The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. XVII, 208 ff. ; Grill2, pp. 8, 105 ff. The Anukrama/zi has, sap- tarkam yakshmanlranadevatam uta bahudevatyam, anush- Aibham, bhrzgvangira adyabhis tisrzbhir hari^am astaut, paraya (st. 4) tarake, paraya (st. 5)*pa^, parabhyam (sts. 6, 7) yakshmanaianam.
a. At Apast. Sr. XIII, 7, 16 most MSS. read raghush-
yato, genitive of the participle raghushyant, but two MSS.
report the reading of our text.
c, d. visha/zaya vishu/£inam are in punning alliteration
with one another and with vi shyati, ' loosen ' (understood ;
cf. visha/ze vi shya in st. 2).
b. For padbhu the Apast. Sr., ib., reads pa^bhii", see our Contributions, Second Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XI, 350 ff. (cf. also Sat. Br. XIII, 2, 7, 6), and especially pp. 352-3, where we have endeavoured to prove that the expression ' with (four) feet ' has come to have the general value of ' quickly, nimbly, briskly.' The fact that human beings have but two feet, the swifter animals four, is of far greater salience to the Hindu mind than to ours ; cf. Maitr. S. I, 5, 10 (p. 78, 1. 12), Ait. Br. Ill, $i, 13, and especially Tait. S. V, 4, 12, 1.
338 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
c. Two of Shankar Pandit's MSS. have gulphitam for
gushphitam ; they are supported by Saya^a (gulphitam
gulphavad grathitam), and the unanimous reading of the
MSS. at Apast. Sr. X, 10, 3; XIII, 7, 16. Another
variant of the word is gush/itam, Sat. Br. Ill, 2, 2, 20.
b. ' The roof with four wings (sides) ' alludes vaguely to the antlers of the antelope, compared with the roof upon a house ; the exact meaning of paksha, as part of a house, is not clearly defined; see our notes on AV. IX, 3, 4. 21. Saya^a, £atushko^am Madiv iva. Possibly Grill is right in translating ' a roof which rests upon four posts ; ' he thinks that the four feet of the animal (st. 2) are compared with posts.
The stanza is closely parallel with II, 8, 1 ; see the dis- cussion there.
Parallel passages, at RV. X, 137, 6 ; AV. VI, 91, 3, mark the stanza as formulaic ; its connection with the rest of the stanza is probably purely liturgical. The hymns of the third book are theoretically entitled to six stanzas only (or to six stanzas at least) ; see AV. XIX, 23, 3, and cf. the literature cited in Amer. Journ. Phil. VII, 470 (bottom).
a. Weber translates asute/£, ' through the act of propaga- tion.' This would comport well with hereditary disease, but does not accord with the use of the word and the root k su in general. Saya/^a, strikriyama/2&ya asute^, asuyate cisi^yate ity asutir dravibhutam annam.
b, d. Note the alliteration between vyana^e and naj-ayami.
d. I have, very hesitatingly, construed apa . . . ukAatxi transitively, in accordance with the usual force of the ex-
Ill, 9. COMMENTARY. 339
pression, and the close parallelism with II, 8, 2 c, d (cf. also VI, 83, 1), where kshetriyam is an accusative dependent upon apa . . . ukkaXu. For the subject of the verb cf. sa in st. 1. Perhaps apavase in Padas a, b is also to be taken transitively, c when the constellations shine away (as they fade out in the morning the evil powers of night), &c.! Saya/za, as the Pet. Lex. s. v. apa vas, construes all the derivatives from root vas in this stanza intransitively ; cf. our note on II, 8, 2.
Ill, 9. Commentary to page 67.
The hymn, one of the most perplexing in the AV., is directed against a variety of bodily disorders, or demon- iacal forces, among which vishkandha and kabava stand out most clearly. For vishkandha see our discussion in the introduction, and in the note on the first stanza of II, 4. The Kaorika rubricates the hymn at 43, 1, 2, where Darila describes the performance as a pLra/£ana.ranam, Kcrava (and Saya/za in his introduction) as a vighna^amanam, to wit : 43, 1. 'While reciting III, g, an amulet of aralu (calosan- thes indica, a tree) is fastened (to the sufferer) by a red- dish brown thread (cf. st. 3) ; he is given a staff to carry (cf. st. 2), and he also carries a weapon 1. 2. He is fumi- gated with (the smoke of burning) grain-chaff.'
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud.
XVII, 215 ff. The Anukrama^i designates it as dyavciprz-
thiviyam uta vauvadevam.