The present charm forms a link in a long chain of prac- tices for quenching fire by means of water-plants (cf. durvaA in st. 1) and a frog (cf. the Vaitana-sutra, below). This line of conceptions has been assembled and treated by the translator in Contributions, Second Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XI, p. 342 fif., where the present hymn is also treated 1. Allied with it most closely is the passage, RV.
1 The numerous passages assembled in that article may be supplemented further by Maitr. S. Ill, 3, 3. 6 ; Tait. S. V, 4, 2, 1 ; Sat. Br. IX, 1, 2, 20 ff. ; XIII, 8, 3, 13 ; La/y. Sr. Ill, 5, 13 ff. ; cf. also Indische Studien, IX, 414, and our introductions to III, 13 and VII, 116.
Vi, 106. Commentary. 515
X, 142, 7, 8 ; anent this, the Rigvidhana, IV, 11, 1, states that it is also employed against danger from conflagrations (agnibhaye sati) ; see Oldenberg, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XXXIX, 79, and cf. Sharfguriurishya (ed. Macdonell), p. 163.
The practices at Kaus. 52, 5-9 present the hymn in the somewhat general character of a jamanam, ' quieting force,' operative against danger from fire in the first place, but, further, intended to appease curses (mental fire) and to quiet the pain of one that has been burned by fire: 5. * While reciting the present hymn a practice to quiet (fire) is performed within a pond 1. 6. (The same ceremony is performed) in a ditch dug inside of the house. 7. The house is covered with an avaka-plant (a water-plant, blyxa octandra ; cf. the article cited above, p. 349). 8. To a person who is being cursed (a stirred drink and porridge 2) are offered. A person who has been burned is washed (with water).' The third and second stanzas are employed, along with III, 13, 7 and XVIII, 3, 5 (6), at Vait. Su. 29, 13, to scatter the fire upon the altar by means of a frog, an avaka-plant, and reed-plants ; see our article, p. 345.
The hymn has been treated previously by Grill2, pp. 6$, 170. The Anukramam, durvlraladevatyam.
The durva-plant, a kind of a millet (panicum dactylon), figures from early times (RV. X, 16, 13, &c.) in these fire- charms ; see our article, pp. 342-3, and Zimmer, Altin- disches Leben, p. 70. The stanza is repeated with variants at RV. X, 142, 8.
Stanzas 2, 3.
Cf. RV. X, 142, 7; Maitr. S. II, 10, 1 ; Tait. S. IV, 6, 1, 3; Va£\ S. XVII, 7; Asv. Sr. II, 12, 2. Pada 3d occurs
1 According to Kerava water is poured into the pond, as a pro- tection against fire.
2 Thus if we trust the Paribhasha-sutra, Kaur. 7, 7. But Saya//a (after Ke^ava), taptamashake divye tailadikam abhimantrya ^apatha- kartre (!) prayaMet.
5 16 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
frequently in the Ya^us-texts, &o, in the form agnir
himasya bhesha^am : Tait. S. VII, 4, 18, 2; Maitr. S. Ill,
12, 19; Va£\ S. XXIII, 10; A^v. Sr. X, 9, 2 ; cf. Tait.
Br. Ill, 9, 5, 4. The present version seems adapted for
the occasion.
VI, 109. COxMMENTARY TO PAGE 21.
The hymn is rubricated at Kau^. 26, 33 along with five others ! in a series which is designated ga/zakarmaga/za (!) by the Ga^amala, Ath. Park 32, 24. Its particular employ- ment is indicated at 26, 38: the patient is given pepper- corns to eat. Darila defines the practice as kshiptabhai- sha^yam, and Ke^ava (and Saya;/a) clearly regard it as a cure for wounds. Cf. the note on st. 3.
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda,
III, 509 ; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 389. Cf. also
Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Vedique, p. 154.
Saya^a has alternate renderings for kshiptabhesha^f, and
atividdhabhesha^f, in effect, 'throwing aside, and suppressing
(other) remedies/ Hardly probable : note the accents.
a. For the role of the Asuras in connection with curative plants, see the introduction to I, 24, and cf. especially II,
c. Zimmer, I.e., p. 389, has endeavoured to show that vati'kr/ta means 'produced by wounds/ Ke^ava (and Saya^/a) here (not however at VI, 44, 3) seem to agree with this construction of the word. Saya^a, in the introduction, must have this word in mind when he defines the charm as dhanurvata - kshiptavatadi - kr/tsnavatavyadhi^antyartham, and he seems to take vata in the sense of ' wound.' Yet we would adhere to the ordinary sense of vata, ' wind of the body/ in the medical 5astras ; cf. Wise, Hindu System
xn,7; 25; VI, 85; 127; VIII, 7.
Vi, Iio. Commentary. 517
of Medicine, p. 250. Zimmer's quotation from Wise, p. 323, is based upon a misunderstanding of the English words. The words, ' or throw pieces of wood or stone,' mean that the consumptive shall not exert himself by throwing, not, that his consumption has been brought on by throws (on the part of some other person) of pieces of wood or stone.
VI, no. Commentary to page 109.
The Kau^ika, 46, 25, very intelligently, prescribes this charm for one born under an inauspicious constellation (papanakshatre ^ataya). The sense of the Sutra is obscure1. The word mulena refers to some performance undertaken elsewhere either ' under the constellation mula ' — this is identical with the vi£r/tau, st. 2 — , or 'with a root.' Curiously enough, it would seem as though this referred to some per- formance described in the Nakshatrakalpa, if we are to trust Kcrava, who says : ' This rite is performed under the constellation mula. He shall perform the rite mentioned in the Nakshatrakalpa . . . He eats milk-porridge over which dregs of ghee have been poured ... In this rite sacrificial straw with the roots (samula) is spread 2 ; fagots with the roots attached are laid on the fire . . .' The entire practice according to Kcrava (and Sayaz/a) consists in washing off and sprinkling (the child, or the parents), and in eating the above-mentioned porridge (cf. Kaus. 46, 26) 3.
The hymn has been treated by Weber, Die vedischen
Nachrichten von den Nakshatra, II, 291 ; Ludwig, Der
Rigveda, III, 431 (under the caption, ' Segensgebet fur den
opferer ') ; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 321.
1 The full text is, pratno hi*ti papanakshatre ^atay a mulena.
2 Cf. Kaur. 1, 22. 23 and the scholiasts. Of course the word ' root ' throughout symbolises the constellation mula.
3 The practice thus coincides largely with that undertaken in connection with VI, 112 (see the introduction) and, since the word mula occurs also in its first stanza, mulena in Kaur. 46, 25 perhaps simply refers to the practices in Kam. 46, 26 ff.
5 18 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Repeated with variants at RV. VIII, n, io; Tait. Ar. X, i (st. 69). In Pada c Saya?za with these texts reads piprayasva (^ariram . . . puraya) for piprayasva. The mean- ing of the latter is at any rate in doubt, either ' delight ' (from root pri) or ' fill ' (from root pra *).
For the character of the constellations ^yesh/Zzaghni' (thus, not ^yaish^aghm, the MSS.) and vi£r/tau, see Weber, Nakshatra, II, pp. 292, 310, 374, 389 ; Zimmer, I.e., pp. 356, 392. In Pada b (formulaic, see VI, 1 12, 1 b) the expression mulabarha/zat plays upon two alternate names of the vikr/tau, namely, mula, and mulabarha/zi 2. The name vi^rztau is here felt to be ' entanglers, ensnarers ; ' elsewhere in the AV. and in other texts, the word is rather regarded auspiciously, ' they that loosen the bonds of disease/ and the like. See the note on II, 8, 1. The change of person in the second hemistich is noteworthy, but Agni seems to be the subject in both.
For vyaghre^hni, cf. vyaghrau dantau VI, 140, 1. The
tiger, thus early, typifies danger to life, as even to this day
he claims thousands of victims annually in India.
VI, in. Commentary to page 32.
The hymn is one of the three matrznamani (sc. suktani), ' hymns that contain the names of the mothers,' Kau^. 8, 24. They are II, 2 and VIII, 6 in addition to the present, and appear to have been so designated because they contain the words apsaras (II, 2, 3. 5 ; VI, in, 4), and matar (VIII,
1 So Whitney, doubtfully, in the Index Verborum, p. 195 b (cf. also 382). The form piprayasva is not quoted in the same author's Roots, Verb Forms, &c, either under pra and pri (p. 102), or under pr/ (p. 100).
2 Cf. also the foot-note on VI, 112, 1 a, b.
Vi, Iii. Commentary. 5 1 Q
6, i a) ; cf. Kanaka, Introduction, p. lviii. The matrznamani are mentioned frequently in the Kausika (see Index B) ; the employment which bears most closely upon the sense of the present hymn is at Kaus. 26, 29-32, a rite which, according to the scholiasts, cures a person possessed by demons. Pulverised fragrant substances, mixed with ghee, are sacrificed, and the patient is anointed with what remains. The patient is next placed upon a cross-roads 2, a wicker-work of darbha grass, containing a coal-pan, upon his head ; and upon the coal the previously mentioned frag- rant substances are again offered. The patient going into a river against the current throws the same substances into a sieve3, while another person from behind washes him off. Pouring more of the fragrant substances into an unburned vessel, moistening the substances (with ghee), placing the vessel into a three-footed wicker-basket made of mu%-a-grass he ties it to a tree in which there are birds' nests. The complicated ceremony is largely symbolic : it aims to purify, and indicate the passing out of the unhealthy conditions.
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda,
III, 512; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 393; Grill2,
pp. 21, 170; cf. also Hillebrandt, Vedachrestomathie,
p. 50 ; Wise, Hindu System of Medicine, p. 279 ff. The
Anukrama^i, agneyam.
The Anukramam designates the first stanza as para-
nushAip trish/ubh. A considerable variety of textual
emendations, none of which seems warranted by the
exigencies of the case, are suggested by Grill2, p. 170.
The stanza consists of three trish/ubh Padas, the second of
1 Cf. also XII, 1, 60, and the introduction to IV, 20.
2 The favourite place to divest oneself of evil influences ; cf. Kauj. 27, 7, in the introduction to II, 10; Kaur. 30, 18, in the introduction to VI, 26, &c. See in general Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, p. 267, and the index under 'kreuzweg.'
3 For the sieve, see the introduction to VI, 26.
520 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
which is hypermctric, and seems to suggest a slurred reading of the five syllables preceding the caesura, perhaps e//z yo baddha/z for aya//z yo baddha/£ (cf. Avestan aem).
b. baddha/z and siiyata^ may refer either simply, or with
double entente to the mental condition of the patient,
' bound and checked by the fetters of the dementia.'
c. Zimmer, p. 393, cdann wird er dir deinen antheil
darbringen.' But adhi kar does not seem to bear any such
interpretation.
a. Zimmer renders devainasa by ' sin against the gods ; ' Ludwig, ' von befleckung (where is there a corresponding word in the original?), siinde gegen die gotter, der wan- sinnig.' It does not seem that the gods madden him that offends against them, a mere sight of them suffices : see Mahabh. Ill, 1450T, ' the man who, awake or asleep, beholds the gods quickly becomes mad ; that is known as possession by the gods.' Our translation, too, preserves the parallelism between the first two Padas. Indeed, devainasa seems to mean outright ' the sins committed by the gods.' See the introduction to VI, 11 2, and Proc. Amer. Or. Soc, March, 1894 (Journal, vol. xvi), p. cxix ff., and cf. especially Apast. Sr. XIII, 17, 9; Pa/2£. Br. I, 6, 10 (devakrztasyaUnasa/z). Thus also Saya/za, devakrztam enas . . . devakrztat pipad upaghatad unmaditam. Cf., perhaps, also VIII, 7, 28.
b. Read yathanunmadito for yadanunmadito : the corrup- tion is due to 1 d.
a. At AV. II, 2, 5 tne Apsaras are designated as the ' mind-bewildering ' wives of the Gandharvas ; at Tait. S. Ill, 4, 8, 4, 'the Gandharvas and Apsaras render mad him that is mad.' In the sequel of the latter passage it is stated that it is necessary to quiet them (^amayati, cf. st. 2 a). The expression piinar da is used in the sense of ( give back, give up possession/ rather than in the derived sense, ' make well, restore/ All this seems to be well founded in the early Hindu view; in RV. X, n, % the Gandharvi and the