This and the two following hymns are addressed to the apamarga-plant (achyranthes aspera) 1. It is employed to ward off all kinds of evil and witchcraft, and its qualifica- tions in that direction are guaranteed to the Atharvanic Hindu by its real or supposed etymology. The name is hardly ever mentioned without bringing in its trail the verb apa mar^-, ' to wipe out.' The pun assumes the most lively reality: diseases, enemies, demons, and sins are wiped out by its influence. See Zimmer, p. 66 ff. ; our Contribu- tions, Third Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 161 ; Weber, Ra^asuya, p. 18. Cf. also vSat. Br. XIII, 8, 4, 4.
The three hymns figure at Kau^. 39, 7 in a list which is almost identical with the kr/tyapratihara^ani (sc. suktani), or the kr/tyaga//a, a series of hymns designed to counteract sorcery, in the Ga/zamala, Ath. Pam. 32, 2.
The Kaorika, 39, 7-12, prescribes in connection with these hymns a lengthy procedure, which begins with ' the pouring of the great consecration ' (maha^antim avapate). Cf. Kaiu. 39, 27 ; 43> 5 ; 44, 6 ; 46, 7 5 Sahkh. Grih. V, 11, 2. The maha^anti consists in pouring together ' holy water' (^antyudakam) during the recitation of the four ga/^as of hymns, described in Kauj*. 8, 23-9, 6. The 'holy water' itself is prepared at Kaur. 9, 8 ff. with elaborate ceremonies, the chief of which is the placing of 'holy plants '
1 Saya^a regularly glosses the word by sahadevi.
394 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
(Kauj. 8, 1 6) into the water. Obviously the meaning of all these performances is purification, and the warding off of impure influences. Then follow in Sutras 39, 8—1 rz a variety of rather complicated practices, too lengthy and obscure for exposition in this connection. They concern more narrowly some such hymn, belonging to the krztyaprati- hara/zani, as X, 1 ; see the introduction to that hymn. The fifth stanza of IV, 17 naturally figures in the du^svapna- ncUanaga/za, ' series of hymns calculated to drive away evil dreams/ of the Ga/zamala ; see Kaui*. 46, 9, note.
The hymn has been translated by Zimmer, p. 66; Grill2,
pp. 37, 130 ff. The Anukrama^i, apamargavanaspatideva-
tyam. Cf. also Ath. Pari.?. 182, 4.
a. Saya^a with one MS. reads for .rapathayavanim the synonymous ^apathayopanim ; cf. II, 7, 1.
b. The epithet puna/zsara does not somehow seem to me to be so clear as to the editors of the Pet. Lexs., Zimmer, and Grill. They render it by ' zuruckgeschlagene bliithen habend.' This is based upon the statement at IV, 19, 7, ' thou didst grow backward, thou hast fruit which is turned backward' (cf. VII, 65, 1 ; Sat. Br. V, 2, 4, 20), and the epithets parakpushpi, pratyakpushpi, and pratyakparni in native lexical works. In RV. VII, 55, 3 puna^sara is an epithet of the barking dog, ' running back and returning again (to the attack)/ The two other occurrences of the word, AV. VI, 129, 3; X, 1, 9, are not disposed of satis- factorily by the renderings of the Pet. Lexs. It seems to me that 'attacking' or 'defending' is better, and that the word pratisara, 'defensive amulet1/ is closely related to it. Cf. Sat. Br. V, 2, 4, 20, and Seven Hymns, Amer. Journ. Phil. VII, 478 ff. Saya/?a, similarly, puna/£puna/z abhi- ksh/^yena bahutaravyadhiniw/ttaye sarati.
1 The pratisara turns the spell as a boomerang upon him who performs it. See AV. VIII, 5, 5, prati£i£ krily&h pratisarafr a^-antu, and cf. the note on VIII, 5, 1.
Iv, Ij. Commentary. 395
Identical with I, 28, 3. The Pet. Lexs., Zimmer, and
Grill regard muram = mulam, * root (of an injurious plant)/
Saya/za, mur^apradam. Padas c, d perhaps rather, ' she
who has taken in hand the (magic substances) created to
rob strength . . .'
Cf. V, 31, 1, and the note on Kau^. 39, 31. The unburned vessel seems to symbolise the fragility, destructibility (5at. Br. XII, 1, 3, 23) of the person upon whom enchantments are practised. At Sat. Br. XIV, 9, 4, 11 = Brzh. Ar. VI, 4, 12 it figures in a sorcery practice against a wife's para- mour. The compound nilalohita is also connected with sorcery from the first. It occurs in RV. X, 85, 28 = AV. XIV, 1, 26 = Apast. Mantrabr. I, 6, 8 (Apast. Grzh. II, 5, 23) = Baudh. Gnli. I, 8 ; AV. VIII, 8, 24. The Atharvan ritual, Kaui\ 16, 20 (rubricating AV. VIII, 8, 24 d) ; 32, 17; 40, 4 ; 48, 40 ; 83, 4, leaves little room for doubt that in its view a dark blue and a red thread are here intended. This is also the tradition of Apast. Grz'h. II, 5, 23, and similarly vSaiikh. Grzh. I, 12, 8 prescribes, in connection with RV. X, 85, 28, a red and black cord upon which amulets are fastened. Only Baudh. I, 8 treats the compound as a symbolic representation of night and day ; see Winternitz, Das Altindische Hochzeitsrituell, pp. 6, 12, 67. It is, of course, possible to conclude that this is the true source of the symbolism : day and night rendered concrete by these two colours. Saya/za seems to have lost his grip upon Atharvan tradition when he says to our passage, 'the fire which is black from the rise of smoke and red from its flame/ Zimmer and Grill both co-ordinate nilalohite with ame patre, ' an das ungebrannte ' and ' am rotgebrannten,' obviously against the spirit of the Atharvan tradition. Cf. also the introduction to VII, 116, and Tait. S. IV, 5, io, 1.
c. Raw meat is eaten by demons, and therefore realises symbolically their presence ; see V, 29, 6 ; VIII, 6, 23.
396 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Identical with VII, 23. I have translated abhvam by ' gruesomeness,' because it has occurred to me at various times that it, as well as abhu (cf. RV. X, 1 29, 3), is related to nabhas, ' fog, cloud,' being in the current terms of comparative grammar = nbhuo-, and nbhii from root nebh. For this and the following two stanzas, cf. RV. V, 36, 3 ; VII, 1,19 ff.
b. The clever emendation of the Pet. Lex. anapatyatam, for anapadyatam, as is the reading of the MSS. of the vulgate, is now authenticated by quite a number of Shankar Pandit's MSS., and Saya/za (apatyarahityam) ; cf. the words apra- £*asta and apra^astva.
IV, 18. Commentary to page 70.
For the treatment of this hymn in the ritualistic texts,
see the introduction to IV, 17. The hymn has been trans-
lated by Grill2, pp. 25, 131 ff.
The Atharvanist loves to point to cosmic correspond- ences and harmonies as the foundation of his own righteous undertakings. This harmony furnishes the satyam, the unfailing basis (cf. rz'tam) for his own operations against the powers of evil. Professor Roth, as quoted by Grill, refers gyoXlh to the light 1 of the moon (cf. ^yotsna), thus establishing a closer parallelism between Padas a and b. I doubt whether the text will bear this strain. Saya/^a literally, 'the light of thee (the apamarga-plant) ;' cf. IV, 19, 3. The night is frequently viewed as illumined, starry (RV. X, 127 ; AV. XIX, 47, 1 ; 49> 6. 8).
b. kritvsiYi/i either ' enchantments ' or ' witches.'
In our view the solution of the difficulty here lies in the assumption of a change of gender from yas in Pada b (the
1 Correct ' Night ' at the beginning of the stanza to ' Light.'
Iv, 19- Commentary. 397
male sorcerer) to tasyam (the witch) in Pada c. The entire second hemistich describes the punishment of sorcerers, for which cf. V, 23, 13. If we were to change tasya/zz dag- dhayam to tasmin dagdhe the sense would be obvious. Cf. V, 14, 6, yadi stn yadi va puman krity&m £akara pap- mane. Grill emends ama to amayam (sc. sthalyam) with a result somewhat as follows : * He who practises sorcery in an unburned vessel and then puts it upon the fire to bake, his magic vessel cracks as though hit by great stones.' Saya/za deprives himself of possible helpfulness by reading dugdh&yam for dagdhayam (pratikare/^a riktikrztaya;/z . . . krztyayam, 'upon his sorcery rendered impotent by the
counter-charm ').
b. The vulgate's vi'grivaw Papaya (Padapa^a, vigrivan
papaya) is at the base of our rendering. Shankar Pandit's
MSS. seem to* read unanimously £/zayaya (^ayaya), 'lay.'
Saya^a, kshayaya (kshaya^z prapaya). Cf. RV. VII,
The first three Padas are identical with the first three of V, 31, 11.
IV, 19. Commentary to page 71.
For the employment of this hymn in the ritualistic texts, see the introduction to IV, 17. It has been translated by Grill2, pp. 34, 132 ff. Cf. Zimmer, pp. 66-67.
The sense of the first hemistich seems to be that the plant in its dual role of destroyer of enemies and protector of friends depletes and increases families or clans. Saya/za erroneously derives -krtt from root kart, c cut,' to wit, jatru- nkm kartaka^ . . .^amaya/2 saha^a/^ ^atrava^ tesham api kartayita asi. For Pada d, cf. VI,. 14, 3 c.
The words ka/zvena narshadena (RV. X, 31, 11) seem to be a gloss upon brahma^ena ; cf. IV, 37, 1 ; VI, 52, 3, &c.
398 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
S&ya/za regards the avr. Aey. paryuktd as = pariyukta (vini- yukta*si); cf. our remarks on haplology, Proc. Amer. Or. Soc, April, j 893 (Journ., vol. xvi, p. xxxiv ff.). But pari yug" is not quotable elsewhere. The stanza figures in one of the abhayaga/za of the Ga/zamala ; see Kau^. 16, 8, note.
The order of the statement here is really to be reversed :
when thou, O plant, wast begotten as apamarga (' wiping
out '), then the gods drove out the Asuras with thee.
For 'thy father's name/ cf. the note on V, 5, 1. For
pratyak, see pratyan and pratiHnaphalas in st. 7, and the
note on IV, 17, 2.
A cosmogonic brahmodya, pressed into the service of incantation ! Cf. Contributions, Third Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 172 ff. We have presented a purely philological translation of the stanza without attempting to bend it to the situation any further than is warranted by the wording. Grill takes asat in the sense of ' wrong,' and similarly Saya//a, asatkalpa/;z krztyarupam. But a glance at the word in Jacob's Concordance to the principal Upani- shads reveals the subjective character of the proceeding. The asat is simply 'chaos/ manipulated as one of the primary cosmic forces: the sat, tad, satyam, or rztam would apparently have done just as well. For kartaram in the sense of ' evil-doer/ cf. V, 14, 11.
IV, 20. Commentary to page 68.
The hymn is addressed to a magic plant which is sup- posed to impart the power to expose hidden demons, wizards, and their hostile practices. The attributes of the plant are not stated in the hymn with sufficient clearness to enable us to point out its place in the redundant Indian
Iv, 20. Commentary. 399
flora. The Kaiuika, 28, 7, mentions the name of the plant as sadawpushpa ; this is glossed by Darila with trisa^- dhya and by Kcrava with sa/^dhya (probably a corruption of trisa^dhya). The Sutra reads: a pa.syati*ti sadaw- pushpama/zi//z badhnati, ' with AV. IV, 20 he ties on as an amulet the plant sada/^pushpa.' The plant is mentioned again along with others in a charm directed against witch- craft in 39, 6, and Saya/za defines it in agreement with Kaujika, he devi sada;^pushpakhye oshadhe ; cf. also sadapushpt in the lexicons. The plant seems to be the calotropis gigantea ; cf. iTaraka-sawhita I, 4, 3. For amulets derived from the vegetable kingdom see Seven Hymns of the Atharva-veda, Amer. Journ. Phil. VII, 478, and for amulets in general Kaay. 7, 19. The hymn is rubricated further in the list of stanzas designated as £ata- nani (sc. suktani), 'hymns to chase away with/ in Kaus. 8, 25, and the Ga/*amala, Ath. Parii". 32, 4, adds it also to the three hymns which Kaar. 8, 24 describes as the matr/- namani (sc. suktani). The reason for this classification is the expression devy (oshadhe) in stanzas 1 and 2. See the note at Kaus. 8, 24, and cf. for the matrzga/za our remarks in the introduction to VI, 111. The Anukramam follows these secondary considerations, designating the hymn as matrznamadaivatam, its author being Matrznamarshi.
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rig-
veda, III, 525, and Grill2, pp. 2, 133 ; cf. also Hillebrandt's
Vedachrestomathie, p. 48.