The speaker is the purohita, the house-priest, or chaplain of the king; he figures prominently in all the ragakarmazi. Kaus. 14-17.
b. Sayava with one of Shankar Pandit’s MSS. reads
406 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. itp en ee cee ek Pe oe vrisham ekavrisham, and glosses, sekanasamarthanam virya- vatam purushavam madhye imam raganam .. . mukhya- sektaram asahayasiram... kuru; cf. our note on III, 5, 7.
e. nir akshvuhi, lit. ‘castrate, continuing the picture of the preceding Pada: the king is to be a bull, his enemies castrated. Cf. RV. I, 33,6; Sat. Br. IV, 4, 2,13; XIII, 4, 2,5, and the word mahanirashza. Ludwig, ‘drive out Zimmer, ‘ zerstreue ;’ Sdyava, samkuitaprabhavan kuru.
d. Sdyava divides aham uttareshu, with the result, ‘I
(the purohita) put him among the highest rulers. Cf.
XII, 4, 50.
e. The Tait. Br. II, 4, 7, 7, the Paippalada, and Sayawa read varshman, loc. sing. I see no cogent reason for giving up (with Zimmer, Hillebrandt, and Grill) the reading of our MSS., varshma.
IV, 28. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 158.
Bhava and Sarva, two of the well-known forms (marti) of Rudra (cf. especially their epithet ugra in sts. 3, 6, 7)}, are implored by virtue of their cosmogonic powers to afford protection against calamity, and, with the familiar Athar- vanic specialisation, to destroy sorceries and demons. The ritual, Kaus. 28, 8, regard the hymn as medicinal (sarva- vyadhibhaishagyam, ‘a remedy for all diseases’). Seven cornucopias are made from (leaves of) the kampila (crinum amaryllacee), filled with water, and anointed with the dregs of ghee. With the right hand the water is poured upon the patient, and the cornucopias are thrown behind the patient. The connection between the prayer and the practice is not manifest. The hymn is rubricated also in takmanasanagava of the Gavamala, Ath. Paris. 32, 73; see Kaus. 26, 1, note. It has been translated by Muir, lc., P- 332:
1 See the introduction to XI, 2 for the Vedic texts, and the Western literature, dealing with this subject.
Iv, 36. Commentary. 407
b. The periphrastic expression stuvann emi is so. strange to the padakara as to induce him to divide it into stuvan nemie Sdayaza blunders still further, reading stuvan nemi (stuvan prasamsan ... nema ardha balam asy4sstisti nemi).
a. milakv/t, ‘manipulator of roots,’ is so characteristic a feature in sorcery-practice, as to give rise to specific prohibition of the act; see Vishzu-sm7zti XXV, 7; Manu IX, 290, and cf. Narayaza on the latter passage in Biihler’s translation of Manu, Sacred Books of the East, XXV, 394.
IV, 36. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 35.
The hymn is one of the Aatanani (sc. siktani), ‘hymns which drive away demons and diseases, Kaus. 8, 25. The entire list (gaza) is employed at Kaus. 25, 22, among the bhaishagyani, ‘remedial charms, against bhita and pisdfa ; the performance connected with the recital of the gava is identical with the so-called apanodandani, ‘ practices to drive away, described at Kaus. 14, 14 ff. They consist chiefly in burning chaff, spelt, offal of grain, and wood shavings, symbolizing, doubtless, rapid consumption or destruction.
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda,
III, 526; Grill?, pp. 3, 136 ff. The Anukramawzi, satyau-
gasam a4gneyam (cf. st. 1).
408 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
nee a - iteehir e RN e often elsewhere), pratikrosa, ‘shouting back,’ i.e. ‘ under shouting and counter-shouting.’ We have taken amavasya as an adjective =AmAavAsya, ‘in the night of the new moon (Panini IV, 3, 30. 31). Cf. our note on I, 16, 1. Sayaza aptly quotes from the Apast. Sr. the following passage : ‘In the night of the new moon one shall offer to Agni, the slayer of Rakshas, a rice-cake in twelve cups. Note the concatenation between this and the following stanza.
The sense is that the superior gods who vie with the sun
(RV. 1,.08,45,123, 125.V, 4,49 1X. 23, 5) shall afford pro-
tection against the Pisa#as to man and beast.
Note the pun between pisafaih and saknomi, and the
concatenation with the following stanza. For grama, see
the note on VIII, 7, 11.
a. Sdyaza with some MSS. reads lipitaz (upadigdha/
samkrantah), and Whitney in the Index, guided perhaps by
the pada-MSS., which read lapita without visarga, suggests
lapitva. But the text seems well enough as it stands.
d. alpasaytin is uncertain: Sayava, alpakayak. . . kiza“, and we accordingly. Ludwig (c, d), ‘mein ich, sind sie ungliicklich, nur kurze zeit mer im volke verweilend ° (cf. RY. I, 34, sje TIS ao a Ne
IV, 37. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 33.
The plant agasrzigi', or, as it is called synonymously by Darila, meshasrzngi, ‘goat's horn’ (Sayaza, again synonym- ously, vishazi), is the odina pinnata; see Zimmer, p. 68. The hymn is directed against Pisaf#as, Apsaras, and Gan-
' In stanza 6 it has the additional obscure epithet ara/aky. Sdyava, ard... a/ayati uesatayati.
IV, 37- COMMENTARY. 409 dharvas, and, according to Darila at Kaus. 28, g-11, it is em- ployed in a remedial charm against one possessed by Pisdkas (pisazagrzhita). Kesava and Sayava, more broadly and correctly, sarvabhitagrahabhaishagyam. The practices are stated as follows: 9. ‘ While pronouncing IV, 37 the prac- titioner takes pulverised sami (i.e. the pulverised leaves, or fruit, of the prosopis spicigera) from a basket (and puts it) into the food (of the patient)!. 10. (He puts it also) into the cosmetics (of the patient). 11. He scatters (the pulverised sami) around the house (of the patient)”.’. The hymn is also rubricated among the Aatanani (sc. sfiktani) ‘hymns to drive away with, Kaus. 8,25. Cf. Santikalpa 17 and 21°.
Adalbert Kuhn, in Zeitschr. f. vergl. Sprachf. XIII, 118 ff., has translated this hymn and compared it with parallel | conceptions in the Teutonic folk-lore. Especially good are the parallels drawn between the Apsaras, who, from the time of RV. X, 95 onwards, are engaged in enticing heroes and divine seers *, with the Germanic elfs who fascinate the. wanderer at night with their dance. The hymn has also been rendered by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 352.
The description of the natural abode of the Apsaras in this and the following stanzas is in accord with the Brah- manical view from earliest times. Cf. the apya ydsha. ‘water-woman, RV. X, 10, 4; Bergaigne, La Religion Védique, II, 35, 40, 96; III, 65 ff.; A. Holtzmann, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morg. Gesellsch. XX XIII, 631 ff. The fanciful list of names embodies largely a superficial personification of fragrant cosmetics and ointments: bdellium, spikenard, fragrant salve, &c.
sami into a sami-fruit, and feeds the patient upon that. Cf. Kaus. 47; 23.
? As there is no mention of the sami in the hymn, one is almost tempted to identify the agasrzigi with it.
* Shankar Pandit, erroneously, Nakshatrakalpa 17 and ar.
* Cf. our note on VI, 111, 4.
410 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
For aukshagandhi, cf. aukshdm in our note on II, 36, 7,
and in the introduction to I, 34 ; pramandani reminds us
of pramanda, Kausika, Introduction, p. lii. See also Kuhn,
ig
b. Bohtlingk, in his lexicon, proposes avasvase, dative
infinitive, ‘to blow away. Sayawa and the Paippalada
read iva svasam for avasvasam. The former glosses,
sushzku naupreravakusalam yatha titirshavo gana upaga-
khanti.
f. SAayava reads pratibaddhad for pratibuddhaz (nirud- dhagatayaZ) in this and the subsequent stanzas.
We have adopted Shankar Pandit’s arrangement of sts. 4-6, to wit: his st. 4 is made up of vulgata 4a,b+ 3 e,f, which is repeated by all his MSS.; his st. 5 is the rest of vulg. 4; and his st. 6 is vulg. 5+6. Sayawza does not insert the additional hemistich, but he also differs from the vulgate in his arrangement.
b. The Pet. Lex. suggests sikhazdiniz, vocative, ‘ crested, as an epithet of the Apsaras ; cf. the same epithet of the Gandharva in st.7.. Sdyavza simply ‘peacocks.’ We prefer the poetic figure: the crowns of the great trees are likened unto crests.
a. For the epithet Anr¢tyataz, cf. the parinz¢tyati apsara in: LV 202%:
e,d. The epithet avakada, ‘ devouring dvak4-reeds’ (blyxa octandra), is clear. The Gandharvas live on the shores of waters, and the davaka is the typical water-plant. See our Contributions, Second Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XI, 342 ff. (especially 349 ff.); Roth, in Festgruss an Otto von Bohtlingk, p. 97 ff. Less certain is havirada, ‘ devouring oblations. The sense of the hemistich might be taken pregnantly: The Gandharvas who devour our oblation, though their natural food is the avaka-reed, &c. But
IV, 37. COMMENTARY. AIl
I have in mind RV. X, 95, 16, where the Apsaras Urvasi exclaims that upon eating a drop of ghee her appetite was cloyed for ever (cf. Harivamsa 1377; Vishwu-purava IV, 6, 28, and Geldner, Vedische Studien, I, pp. 263, 282). The Atharvan is reminiscent, and fond of generalising salient features of legends. It seems possible that the Gandharvas are substituted for the Apsaras who represent the Apsaras par excellence, Urvast. SAdyavza on the AV. evinces his customary and astonishing talent of dodging difficulties by means of bad variant readings, to wit: abhi- hradan abhigatahladan praptagalasayan va.
Professor von Roth in Festgruss an Otto von Boht- lingk, pp. 97 ff., proposes to read gyotayamamakdan (Pada- patha, gyotaya mamakdn) as one word, and interprets the word in his inimitably ingenious manner as=pisdadipika, _ ‘will o’ the wisp, Jack o’ lanthorn.’ Yet we have adopted the simpler solution of the difficulty, proposed by Whitney - in Festgruss an Rudolf von Roth, p. 91. He proposes gyotayamanakdan, comparing pravartamanaka, RV. I, 19f, 16. In both cases the suffix ka is truly diminutive, indi- cating that the action of the verb is undertaken by a dimi- nutive agent; cf. also avakarantika, AV. V, 13, 19 (see the note there), and the Mantrabrahmaza of the Sama-veda II, 7, 3, athaissham (sc. krimiz4m) bhinnakaZ kumbhad. ‘Little shiner’ would be the literal translation of gyotaya- manakan, and Roth’s comparison with the will o’ the wisp may yet hold good.
b. The epithet sarvakesaka reminds one of hairiness as
a sign of sexual power, RV. I, 126, 7; X, 86, 16, a very
suitable attribute of the Gandharva; cf. also kapi in
vrishakapi in X, 86. But the word for ‘hair’ in both
these passages is réma, while sarvakesaka naturally refers
to the hair of the head; RV. X, 136, 6. Yet the two
conceptions may be connected.
412 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
IV, 38. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 149.
Both the internal evidence of the stanzas themselves (including the metre), and their employment in the ritual prove the composite character of this hymn. The Anu- kramazi, too. significantly describes the hymn as dvideva- tyam. A gambling song of four stanzas is combined with cattle-charm of three stanzas, apparently for the purely formal reason that every hymn of the fourth book must consist of at least seven stanzas ; cf. AV. XIX, 23,4; Gop. Br. I, 1, 8; Ath. Paris. 46, 9. 10; Ind. Stud. TViagaas XVII, 178; Kausika, Introduction, p. xli. Sayava is the only authority that makes a blend of the two parts. He comments upon ydsam rvishabhd, &c., in st. 5, as follows: ydsim apsarasam ... sekanasamarthad pati“.
The practices connected with the gambling-song are reported at Kaus. 41, 10-13, as follows: 10. ‘ Under the constellation ptirva ashad/4h} the gambler digs a pit (in the gambling-house). 11. Under the constellation uttara ashadhah he (again) fills up the pit. 12. He smoothes the place where the play takes place. 13. While reciting IV, 38, 1-4; VII, 50; and VII, 10g he throws dice which have been steeped (in curds and honey during the three nights [and days] beginning with the thirteenth day of the month ; see Kaus. 7, 19).’
This part of the hymn has been rendered by Muir,
Original Sanskrit Texts, V, 430; Ludwig, Der Rigveda,
III, 454; Grill?, pp. 71, 140 ff.; cf also A. Holtzmann:
Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morg. Gesellsch. XX XIII, 631 ff.
* The name ashadhah means ‘invincible. Here, as frequently elsewhere, its symbolic suggestiveness is utilised to secure success or victory for the person who performs under the two constellations of that name; cf. Weber, Nakshatra, I], 374, 386.
IV, 38. -COMMENTARY. At
Cf. Zimmer, pp. 283-5. The kritam,. or the kv7tani in Pada c (cf. sts. 2 c and 3b), are either the winnings, or the winning numbers, or combinations, of the dice. Cf. Apast.
ee Ved, 20.
a. Sayawa, vikinvatim ekatra nirbadhe kosh¢se trifaturan
akshan visesheza samuf/invatis samghikurvatim. Muir,
‘who collects and scatters;’ Ludwig, ‘die aufhaufende,
zuschiittende. These technical terms are very obscure:
the scholiasts are untrustworthy because they have in mind
different games and different times.
Sayava combines Padas e and f with 4 a, b, making his fourth stanza, and then continues as follows: 4c,d+5a,b= 5; 5c—f=6; 6=7; 7=8. His comment on this stanza is rendered very problematic through bad readings: ada- dhanas for adadana ; seshanti (avaseshayanti) for sishati ; prahan for praham. For parinrétyati, cf. anz/tyatak .. . gandharvasya, IV, 37, 7. We have assumed with great reluctance that sishati is a desiderative participle from sa=san, ‘gain.’
We read pramodate for pramddante with Sayava and two
of Shankar Pandit’s MSS., and bibhrati for bibhrati. The
anacoluthon in the second hemistich is thus easily removed.