b. ‘ As far as she reaches or penetrates,’ i.e. wherever she is distributed and eaten (?). Ludwig, ‘wohin sie iiberhaupt gewandelt,’ i.e. wherever she has been during her life-time. Zimmer (and similarly Grill), ‘wahrend sie noch unter dem
beile zuckt.’ )
b. I read asyate for asyate with Zimmer and Grill; cf. -V,18,3d. See also the note on III, 4, 7, and Proc. Amer. Or. Soc., May, 1886 (Journ., vol. xiii, p. cxvii ff.).
The last word, brahmagyasya, is a gloss (Anukr. upari-
sh/adbrzhati). The cow is described as portentous, hence
she forebodes destruction; cf. VIII, 6, 22.
e. The Pet. Lex., s.v. man with abhi, reads tad dhanam for sad dhanam. The emendation is not urgent.
d. Narada is the typical interlocutor in the Puravas; in. AY. XII, 4, 16. 24. 41 ff, he is especially engaged in pro- curing the brahmagavi.
Stanza ll.
Cf. V, 18,12. For nava navatayas, see Whitney, Sk. Gr.?
A favourite method of imprecation in the Atharvan consists in threatening with the ceremonies of funeral, or even employing stanzas and formulas originally constructed for burial; cf. the introduction to I, 14, and the note on II, 12, 7. The present stanza, as well as sts. 13, and
F f 2
436 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
XII, 5, 47 ff., contain such threats against the oppressor of Brahmans; cf. our Contributions, Second Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XI, p. 336 ff. (especially pp. 339 ff.). In this stanza reference is made to the custom of tying a kidi-plant (according to Darila at Kaus. 21, 2. 13, &c.= badari, ‘ Christ’s thorn ;’ cf. Kaus. Introduction, p. xliv) to the dead, so that it trails after him and effaces the track of death: death shall not tind the path again and turn upon his trail for further victims. Cf. Antoninus Liberalis 23, éfiinre Se ex Ths ovpas mpds ExaoTov Any, ws av Ta txvn TOV Body apavicn. To this rough embrace, symbolic of death, the oppressor is here assigned. See Roth in Festgruss an Bohtlingk, pp. 98-9; and the present translator, Amer. Journ. Phil. XI, 338; XII, 416.
Cf. Asv. Sraut. VI, 10,2; Asv. Grth. IV, 1, 16; Max
Miiller, ‘Die Todtenbestattung bei den Brahmanen, Zeitsch.
d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. IX, p. 11.
a. For the relation of Mitra and Varuvza to rain, see Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 314.
e. Cf. VI, 88, 3; Khad. Grzh. III, 1, 6; and Ludwig, I. c., p. 256.
V, 20. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 130.
The purpose of the hymn is obvious. At Kaus. 16, 1, it is rubricated along with VI, 126, 1, and accompanied by the following solemnities. All musical instruments are washed, dipped into a mixture which contains the fragrant substances tagara (powder of the tabernaemontana coro- naria) and usira (the root of andropogon muricatus); they are next anointed with the dregs of ghee (cf. V, 21, 3), and finally the chaplain (purohita) of the king sounds them thrice and hands them over to the warriors as they go forth to battle. Cf. also: Vait..Sii)94) Tay cAth. Paris. 9.2
V, 20. Commentary. 437
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda,
III, 460 ff.; Grill’, pp. 68, 153 ff. Cf. Zimmer, p. 289.
The Anukramazi, vanaspatyadundubhidevatyam
Sapatnasenaparagayaya devasenavigayaya.
Cf. V, 21, 3. The Padapa¢ha satvana: yan, ‘going with, or to, the warriors.’ Grill, ‘wann sie in den kampf ruft.’ As regards the resonance of the wood, Tait. S. VI, 1, 4, 1 has the following pretty conceit: ‘Vaz, speech, once upon a time escaped from the gods, and settled in the trees.., Her voice still resounds in wooden instruments.’
a. druvaya (cf. XI, 1, 12), with an obscure suffix vaya,
perhaps = maya; cf. our remarks on the interchange of
v and m in the Proc. Amer. Or. Soc., May, 1886 (Journ.,
vol. xiii, pp. xcvii ff.)’. Ludwig, ‘an beiden hdlzern nach
beiden seiten befestigt.’
b. The MSS. read vdsitam, emended in the vulgate to
vasitim. This we have translated. Ludwig also adopts
vasitam, but renders ‘ losbriillend wie ein stier auf die kiihe.’
ew alae, 32, Al, O, 25.
ce. Possibly vi vidhya is to be read for vidhya (haplology ; cf. Proc. Amer. Or. Soc., April, 1893; Journal, vol. xvi, p. xxxiv ff.); see I, 8,2; VI, 66,1; XI, 9, 23.
d. hitvd grém4n, ‘with broken ranks,’ or, ‘having aban- doned the villages’ (so Pet. Lex. and Ludwig).
ce. For utpipanaz, see our discussion, Contributions,
Fourth Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XII, p. 441 ff.
d. In the light of satruttirya and vritratfirya one is
1 Perhaps, however, druv-4ya, formed upon a denominal verb- stem; cf. gav-ay4, ‘ bos gavaeus:’ go, ‘cow.
438 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
( {SR RENEE ARSED eG MEIN UE Sa tempted to read amitratdrydya, notwithstanding the metre. The sense would be the same in the end. svardhi (stem sv-ardhin), am. Aey., we have translated philologically ‘having the good side;’ cf. RV. II, 27, 15. The Pet. Lexs. and Grill, ‘ein guter parteigenosse (kampfgenosse),’ but the word is certainly a bahuvrihi. Ludwig’s ‘sinnend auf liecht (gewinn)’ presupposes svar-dhiZ, but there is no reason for the loss of the visarga.
a. The metre suggests for dhibhiZ the synonymous dhiti-
bhiz; cf. RV. I, 161,7 with III, 60, 2. Likewise, vadasi for
vadati would harmonise better with Pada b.
ce. Ludwig takes satvano as nominative of satvana, ‘ Indra- freund und held lass dich nennen.’
Treated by Roth, Festgruss an Otto von Bohtlingk, p. 99. His translation implies that the drum heralds the return of the warriors after the battle, and announces the respective merits of the participants!. This breaks the connection, and imports over-pregnant sense into Pdadas c, d, ‘das verdienst sachverstandig abschatzend (but vayunani vidvan is a mere formula !), teile vielen lob aus im kriege,’ i.e. ‘fiir ihre haltung im kriege (for their conduct in battle)” For dviraga, cf. duellum, bellum.
c,d. A blurred comparison. The press-stones are placed over the skin ‘into which the juice trickles, adhishavavzam (sc. Aarma)?; cf. Hillebrandt, Soma und verwandte Gotter, p. 181 ff. They dance upon (beat down upon) the stems
* Note XII, 1, 41, Akrandé yasydém vadati dundubhifz, ‘upon whom (sc. the Earth) resounds the roaring drum.’
? adhishavazam by itself means the pressing-board, and so it may be.understood here without altering the sense materially. Only the simile in that case is still further diluted.
V, 21. Commentary. 439
of the plant over the skin. Thus the drum-sticks* beating upon the skin for victory, as it were, dance upon (beat upon) the booty. The Pet. Lex. and Grill change adri to adhri, apparently as though it were the MS. reading (‘man konnte an eine verwechselung mit ddri denken, Pet. Lex. s.v. adhri). But there is no word adhri, and according to the Index Verborum the MSS. read adri!. The expression grava adriz seems to be a composite phrase, ‘ press-stone ;’ cf. Hillebrandt, l.c., 152 ff.
e. For vidatha nifikyat cf. RV. IV, 38, 4. It seems to
mean ‘like a leader (puroet4) attending to the troops.’
Ludwig, ‘der opferversammlungen gedenkend ;’ cf. Der
Rigveda, IIT, 259 ff. I believe that viddtha primarily
means ‘family ;’ cf. su-vidatra, 2. védana (pativédana), pari
vid, &c.
V, 21. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 131.
The practice connected with this hymn at Kaus. 16, 2. 3 is as follows: ‘(The purohita) while reciting the hymn makes an offering aloud, and swings the sacrificial spoon about high in the air*. Theh he sews a soma-branch upon (a piece) of the skin of an antelope, and fastens it (as an amulet) upon the king.’ The performance on high sym- bolises the shrill sound of the drum (cf. V, 20, 1); the amulet seems to be a blended, vague embodiment of the soma-shoot in V, 20, 10, and the antelope’s skin in V, 21, 7. Stanza 12 of our hymn is rubricated in the aparagitagana of the Gawamala, Ath. Paris. 32,13. The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 373-4.
b. The skin of the antelope seems thus to have been used for the covering of the drum just as the skin of the
' Some of Shankar Pandit’s MSS. do, however, read Adhri. * Darila, irdhvam parivartayan ... homas ka ukfaih.
440 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
FOE a a eee cow (V, 20,1; 21, 3). But the matter is not altogether clear, since in the Sitra above the antelope’s skin is com- bined with a soma-shoot. This points, rather, to some use of it.either at the soma-pressing, or, perhaps, at some preparatory stage (diksha). The black antelope’s Skin is regularly employed at the diksha; cf. Ait. Br. I, 3, 17; Lindner, Die Diksha, p. 27 ff.; Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, pp. 87, 399 ff.
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. III, 14882, yadi prakridate sarvair devaik saha. satakratu, ‘if (Indra), of hundredfold power, disports himself in the company of the gods.’ The words &fayaya saha would naturally mean ‘in the company of khayd, and one is almost tempted to suspect sakya (sakia), ‘in the company of Safi. 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 ’(!).
Ludwig, ‘nur wie der laut einer bogensene sollen die
dundubhi herschreien, von den heeren der feinde, welche
besigt sind, und mit ihrer front nach allen weltgegenden
gehn. But gydghosh4% is not a possessive compound,
witness the accent, and the sense of abhi krosantu 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. Kaus. 16, 16.
V, 22. Commentary. 441
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!; the word is mentioned freauently 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 takmdn, but the word js not mentioned in the text. The Gavzaméala, the 32nd of the Atharva-Parisish/as, presents in its seventh paragraph | a series (gaza) of no less than nineteen hymns, supposed to be devoted to the cure of this disease (takmanasana) ; see Kaus. 26,1,note. SAyava to AV. XIX, 34, 10 explains takman as follows: krikkhragivanakartaram yasmin sati krikkhrena givanam bhavati. Professor Roth in his famous tract, ‘Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des Veda’ (p. 39), published in 1846, thought .that the takmdn referred to leprosy because the name of the plant kushz¢sa (costus speciosus), the specific against takmdn, 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 Kuhn’s 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 takmdan (see Indische Studien, 1V, 119); after him Dr. Virgil Grohmann published in the same Journal, IX, 381 ff., 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 Kesava, the com- mentators of the Kausika-sitra, everywhere gloss the word
? Cf. also the hymns to the kushfha-plant, V, 4 and XIX, 39.
442 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
by gvara!. The descriptions of gvara 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 takmdn is lost in the later literature, the word gvara 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.