General Index to the 49 Volumes of the Sacred Books of the East (SBE Vol. 50; comp. M. Winternitz, 1910)

The first hemistich is altogether obscure. One may imagine that the poet desires to accentuate Indra's (and implicitly the king's) power by stating that the enemies are frightened at the beat of his feet, even when he is amusing himself; cf. Mahabh. Ill, 14882, yadi prakri^/ate sarvair devai^ saha .yatakratu/z, ' if (Indra), of hundredfold power, disports himself in the company of the gods.' The words khkykyk saha would naturally mean ' in the company of k/iaya' and one is almost tempted to suspect sikya. (s'dkik), ' in the company of SaM.' But it is possible to extract the meaning, 'the enemies are frightened at the beat of Indra's feet and at his shadow.' Ludwig, * mit denen Indra spilet mit dem fussgerausch und seinem schatten'(l).

Ludwig, 'nur wie der laut einer bogensene sollen die
dundubhi herschreien, von den heeren der feinde, welche
besigt sind, und mit ihrer front nach alien weltgegenden
gehn.' But ^yaghosha^ is not a possessive compound,
witness the accent, and the sense of abhi kro^antu must
be the same as that of abhi krand in V, 20, 2. 7 ; 21, 4-6.

The picture is that of interference of the sun and its rays with the operations of the enemy, patsanginir, ' clogging their feet,' is not quite clear. Ludwig may be right in regarding it as an independent noun, 'schlingen,' 'traps;' cf. Kauj. 16, 16.

V, 2 2. Commentary. 44 1

V, 22. Commentary to page i.

The word takman is not mentioned at all in the Rig- veda, but occurs very frequently in the Atharvan. Four hymns, I, 25; V, 22; VI, 20; VII, 116, are devoted exclusively to its cure 1 ; the word is mentioned frequently elsewhere in the Atharvan ; and there are descriptions of diseases, such as are stated in AV. I, 12, which are very closely allied in character to the takman, but the word is not mentioned in the text. The Ga/zamala, the 32nd of the Atharva-Pamish/as, presents in its seventh paragraph a series (ga^a) of no less than nineteen hymns, supposed to be devoted to the cure of this disease (takmana^ana) ; see Kslus. 26, 1, note. Saya/za to AV. XIX, 34, 10 explains takman as follows: k^Mra^ivanakartaraz/z yasmin sati krzkkkrena givanam bhavati. Professor Roth in his famous tract, ' Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des Veda ' (p. 39), published in 1846, thought that the takman referred to leprosy because the name of the plant kush//£a (costus speciosus), the specific against takman, is in the later medical writings also a designation of leprosy. Adolphe Pictet in an article entitled ' Die alten Krankheitsnamen der Indo-Germanen,' published in Kuhns Zeitschrift, V, 337, thought he found etymological support for this view in Persian takhtah and Erse tachas, tochas, both of which refer to leprosy, or the like. Professor Weber, judging from the symptoms described in AV. I, 25, recognised fever as the chief feature of the takman (see Indische Studien, IV, 119); after him Dr. Virgil Grohmann published in the same Journal, IX, 381 fif., a careful and exhaustive essay which corroborated Weber's view. This was still further supported by Professor Zimmer in his Altindisches Leben, p. 379 ff., and now Darila and Ke^ava, the com- mentators of the Kau^ika-sutra, everywhere gloss the word

1 Cf. also the hymns to the kush/$a-plant, V, 4 and XIX, 39.

442 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.

by ^"vara *. The descriptions of ^vara as offered by the Hindu medical .Sastras are such as to leave no doubt that the two diseases are essentially the same. Just as the word takman is lost in the later literature, the word £*vara is totally wanting in the Atharvan : the two words comple- ment one another. Only one must not expect to find lucidly expressed diagnosis and consistent therapeutics in Atharvan writings ; the descriptions are frequently vague, being blended with that of other diseases, and the treat- ment frequently symbolic. In many passages, moreover, the takman is a person, and belongs to the same class of demoniacal manifestations as graha, amiva, rakshas, and the like.

Briefly, the disease is described as having for its chief symptom the change between heat and chills ; inter- mittency, arriving either every day at the same time, every third day, or omitting every third day2; jaundice, which suggests true malarial fever, especially during the rainy season ; and the association with a variety of other diseases, some of which are none too clear in character. Headaches, coughs are alluded to unmistakably; in addition the diseases called balasa (AV. IV, 9, 8 ; XIX, 34, 10), and his 'brother's son/ the paman (V, 22, 12). Almost all diseases in India show a tendency to be accompanied by febrile symptoms, and the frequency of malarial fevers is notorious. Suiruta designates fever as c the king of diseases ; ' fever is present when man comes into the world, and it is also present when he leaves the world. Gods and men alone survive its ravages (Sumita, Uttaratantra, chapter 39). No wonder, then, that the burning weapons of Takman are dreaded so much in the Atharvan. The effort is made to drive him out, either with polite words (I, 25 ; VI, 20) ; with potent charms (IX, 8, 6); or with plants used as specifics, especially the kush//za (costus speciosus), which is

1 We may mention also that Dr. Muir translated the word by < consumption : ' Original Sanskrit Texts, IV, p. 280.

2 Cf.AV.1,25, 4; VII, 116, 2.

V, 2 2. Commentary. 443

therefore designated as takmana^ana (V, 4, 1. 2), and the £*angk/a, an unexplained member of the Indian flora 1. In V, 22 the gods, Agni, Soma, Varu^a, the Adityas, and the deified press-stones (pressing the soma) are appealed to for help. Cf. in addition to the authorities mentioned above, Edmund Hardy, Die Vedisch-Brahmanische Periode, p. 198, and, for detailed descriptions of fever and its treatment in the medical 5astras, Wise, Hindu System of Medicine, p. 219 ff.

The treatment of AV. V, 22 in the ritual, Kaor. 29, 18. 19, is as follows : '(The priest) gives (the patient) gruel made of roasted grain to drink. The dregs (of the gruel) he pours from a copper vessel over the head (of the patient) into fire derived from a forest-fire2.' The treatment is intensely symbolical, being based upon the attractio si- milium, with a touch of homoeopathy. The roasted grain represents heat and therefore fever ; the copper vessel (lohitapatra), with the other meaning of lohita, c red/ in mind, again suggests heat and fever, and the forest fire, davagni, figures in preference to ordinary fire because it is occasioned by lightning, and lightning is conceived as the cause of fever and its related diseases. See our treatment of AV. I, 12, and cf. Seven Hymns of the Atharva-veda, Amer. Journ. Phil. VII, 469 ff. (p. 4 ff. of the reprint). Note also the very parallel treatment which the fever patient undergoes at the hands of Kau.rika in 25, 26, in connection with AV. I, 25.

The hymn has been translated many times, either entirely or in part. See Roth, 1. c, p. 38 ; Grohmann, Indische

1 Darila at Kau^. 8, 15, £-ahgitffo*rg-una^ a/£ala iti dakshi^atya^. Kcrava, ib., gahgido vara//asya/# prasiddha^. It is the name of a tree in any case; see XIX, 34 and 35.

2 Kau^ika's language is of the most concise Sutra sort : 18... la^an payayati. 19. dave lohitapatre^a murdhni sa^patan anayati. The translation above is with the help of Darila. The employment of the dregs after the act of aplavana is technical ; see the Pari- bhasha-sutra Kau^. 7, 15. For the sazrcpata, see also Grzhyasaw- grahal, 113.

444 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.

Studien, IX, p. 381 ff. (especially pp. 411-12) ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 510; Zimmer, 1. c, pp. 380 ff.; Grill2, pp. 12, 153 ff. ; cf. also Hillebrandt,Vedachrestomathie,p.49. The Anukrama;zi designates it as a takmana^anadevatyam (sc. suktam) ; Bh^/gu-Angiras are the authors.

a. Because the first Pada is a £*agati followed by three trish/ubh Padas the Anukrama^t designates the stanza as a bhuri^-. It is possible, however, to obtain a trishAibh by reading apabadhateta/z with elision and crasis ; cf. Roth in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVI, 50 ff. I prefer to retain the ^agati, because it frequently appears in trish/ubh stanzas, without the possibility of a change.

b. putadaksha^ (stem putadakshas) is not easily rendered. Roth, 1. c, 'von unversehrter kraft ;' the Petersburg lexicons, Grohmann, and Grassmann, ' von reiner gesinnung ; ' Hille- brandt, ' von gelauterter gesinnung ; ' Grill, 'lautern sinnes ;' Ludwig, 'von geheiligter kraft ; ' Max Miiller, Vedic Hymns, Sacred Books of the East, voL xxxii, p. 493, 1 endowed with pure strength.' But ' lautere gesinnung ' idealises over much, and ' pure strength ' is vague. Perhaps after all our translation ' of tried skill or strength ' comes nearest to the true sense of the original. Cf. RV. Ill, 1,5, kratu//2 punana^ kavibhi^ pavitrai/^, ' purifying his intellect by wise means of purification.' The epithets puta-daksha and piita-dakshas are employed very frequently in connec- tion with the Adityas, singly or collectively, and it is perhaps significant that Daksha is one of the Adityas.

d. Ludwig takes the words amuya bhavantu in their plainest sense, ' solfcn nach jener seite hinweggehn.' But amuya frequently has a sinister, contemptuous meaning, ' in that well-understood, suitable, evil manner ;' it is a kind of euphemism like English ' gone,' German (slang) ' caput.' Cf. amuya ^ayanam, RV. I, 32, 8 ; papaya *muya, RV. I, 29, 5, &c. ; and Grill's note, p. 155.

V, 2 2. Commentary. 445

a. In India malarial fever is frequently accompanied by jaundice ; cf. AV. VI, 20, 3, ' thou that makest all forms yellow/ and I, 25, 2. 3, where the takman is designated as haritasya deva, 'the god of the yellow (colour).' Cf. Grohmann, ib. 393.

b. Between the expression agni'r iva^bhidunvan and the davagni of the ritual practice (Kaui*. 29, 19) there is a thread of symbolic connection. Cf. AV. I, 25, 2. 3 ; VI, 20, 1.

d. nyan and adharan are synonymous to such an extent
as to render it difficult to preserve the flavour of the original :
literally, ' do thou go away down, or lower ! '

a. For parusha and parusheya, Ludwig reads arusha and
arusheya, and translates ' der rot ist von rotem ' — an un-
necessarily severe handling of the text.

b. avadhva/TZsa is cnr. Aey., but the meaning is fairly clear ; cf. the expression kxxvmxr avadhva^s in the Pet. Lex., s.v. dhva^s. The eruption (Grohmann, 394) produces roughness of the skin's surface, and the Hindus look upon such super- ficial changes as coming from without ; cf. Contributions, Second Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XI, 323 (5 of the reprint).

c. vuvadhavirya would seem to refer to the kush//za-
plant, if we consult AV. XIX, 39, 10. But the ritual does
not indicate its employment.

a, b. Note the concatenation between this and the pre- ceding stanza, effected by Padas 3 d and 4 a. The expres- sion nama/z krz'tva indicates a polite modification of the power of the charm, calculated to engage the co-operation of the demon Takman himself. Pada a is trochaic ; in b read krz'tua.

e. Literally, 'the fist-fighter of Saka^bhara,' i.e. the champion carrier of excrement, or the chief of diarrhoea

446 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.

producing diseases : jaka/^bhara seems to be the personifica- tion of abnormal evacuation.

I do not consider the versifier incapable of a certain kind of punning intention in the choice of ethnic communities to which he would relegate the takman : mahav/^sha, here, and elsewhere in the hymns, may suggest to him ' a very strong ' tribe, better fitted to cope with the ravages of the disease; balhika surely suggests to his mind bahika and bahis, 'without/ i.e. not his own people1 ; and even mu^a- vant may suggest mu%*a-grass, the plant which figures among Kaimka's remedies for the disease ; see the intro- duction to I, 12, and cf. mu;^avant in Yaska's comment at Nirukta IX, 8, as the equivalent of mu^avant 2. Rigorous geographical deductions derived from the juxtaposition of these names are therefore to be avoided. They are, how- ever, as also the Gandhari, Anga, and Magadha in the sequel, true ethnical designations ; see Roth, Zur Literatur und Geschichte des Weda, p. 39 ; Zimmer, pp. 29, 129, 431, 433, and Weber's article, ' Uber Bahli, Bahlika/ Proceed- ings of the Berlin Academy of November, 1892, vol. xlvii,

P-985ff.

a,b. Note the concatenation with 4d.

c, d. The Anukramam designates the stanza as vira/pathya brzhati, but takmams is in all probability interpolated. Its removal ensures a fairly good anushAibh. — nyo^ara is a7r. Aey., its form being perhaps twisted in some measure in deference to the obvious pun with okas in a, b (' gelegen- heitsbildung ') ; it also suggests doubtless in its suffix the

1 Cf. especially, Zimmer, p. 433, top.