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 day *; 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 baldsa (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. Susruta designates fever as ‘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 (Susruta, 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¢da (costus speciosus), which is
* We may mention also that Dr. Muir translated the word by
‘consumption :’ Original Sanskrit Texts, IV, p. 280.
*°Ci AY. 1, 28.4 Vl, rae ome
V, 22. COMMENTARY. 443 therefore designated as takmanasana (V, 4, I. 2), and the gangida, an unexplained member of the Indian flora’. In V, 22 the gods, Agni, Soma, Varuza, 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 Sastras, Wise, Hindu System of Medicine, p- 219 ff.
The treatment of AV. V, 22 in the ritual, Kaus. 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-fire®.’ 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, ‘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 Kausika in 25, 26, in connection with AV. I, 25.
The hymn has been translated many times, either entirely or in part. See Roth, l. c., p. 38; Grohmann, Indische
? Darila at Kaus. 8, 15, gangidosrgunah afala iti dakshimatyah. Kesava, ib., gangido varamasyam prasiddhaf. It is the name of a tree in any case; see XIX, 34 and 35.
2 Kausika’s language is of the most concise Sfitra sort: 18... agin payayati. 19. dave lohitapatreva mfrdhni sampatan 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-sfitra Kaus. 7, 15. For the sampata, see also Grzhyasam-
graha I, 113.
444 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Studien, IX, p. 381 ff. (especially pp. 411-12); Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 510; Zimmer, |. c., pp. 380 ff.; Grill?, pp. 12, 153 ff.; cf. also Hillebrandt, Vedachrestomathie, p. 49. The Anukramazi designates, it as a takmanasanadevatyam (sc. siktam); Bhvigu-Angiras are the authors.
a. Because the first Pada is a gagati followed by three trish¢ubh Padas the Anukramawzi designates the stanza as a bhurig. It is possible, however, to obtain a trishzubh by reading apabddhatetd/ with elision and crasis; cf. Roth in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVI, 5off. I prefer to retain the gagati, because it frequently appears in trish¢ubh stanzas, without the possibility of a change.
b. ptitadaksha’ (stem pitadakshas) is not easily rendered. Roth, I.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 Miller, Vedic Hymns, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxii, p. 493, ‘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. III, 1, 5, kratum punanak kavibhiz pavitraif, ‘ purifying his intellect by wise means of purification.’ The epithets pita-daksha and ptita-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 amuyaé bhavantu in their plainest sense, ‘sollen 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 sayanam, RV. I, 32, 8; papdyd=muyd, RV. I, 29, 5, &c.; and Grill’s note, p. 155.
V, 22. 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 agnir ivasbhidunvan and the davagni of the ritual practice (Kaus. 29, 19) there is a thread of symbolic connection. Cf. AV. I, 25, 2. 3; VI, m3
d. nyan and adharaén 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
4rusheya, and translates ‘der rot ist von rotem ’—an un-
necessarily severe handling of the text.
b. avadhvamsa is dz. Aey., but the meaning is fairly clear ; cf. the expression kirmair avadhvams in the Pet. Lex., s.v. dhvams. 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).
e. visvadhavirya would seem to refer to the kush¢ha-
plant, if we consult AV. XIX, 39, 10. But the ritual does
not indicate its employment.
ce. Literally, ‘the fist-fighter of Sakaszbhara,’ i.e. the champion carrier of excrement, or the chief of diarrhoea
446 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
producing diseases: sakamzbhara 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: mahavrzsha, 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 people! ; and even miga- vant may suggest mu#ga-grass, the plant which figures among Kausika’s remedies for the disease ; see the intro- duction to I, 12, and cf. mu#gavant in Yaska’s comment at Nirukta IX, 8, as the equivalent of migavant*. Rigorous geographical deductions derived from the juxtaposition of these names are therefore to be avoided. They are, how- ever, as also the Gandhiari, 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 Webei’s article, ‘ Uber Bahli, Bahlika, Proceed- ings of the Berlin Academy of November, 1892, vol. xlvii, p. 985 ff.
a,b. Note the concatenation with 4d.
e,d. The Anukramazi designates the stanza as vira¢ pathya brzhati, but takmams is in all probability interpolated. Its removal ensures a fairly good anush/ubh.—nyo&ara is Gz. Aey., its form being perhaps twisted in some measure in deference to the obvious pun with dkas in a, b (‘ gelegen- heitsbildung ’); it also suggests doubtless in its suffix the
1 Cf. especially, Zimmer, p. 433, top.
* The name mf{gavant, however, is typical for a region far dis- tant; see Tait. 5. 1, 8, 6, 2; Vag. .S. IIT, 61, and Sat. Bro ThG..3, 17, in all of which Rudra with his destructive bow is entreated to depart beyond the Mfgavants: esha te rudra bhagah... tena svasena paro migavatostishy avatatadhanva, &c. ‘Here is thy share, O Rudra; provisioned with it go beyond the Migavants with thy bow strung, &c.’
V, 22. COMMENTARY. 447
word ara, ‘going. Ludwig’s translation is very literal,
“wie gross du auch geboren bist, so gross bist du heimisch
bei den Bahlikas.’
a,b. I really see no present possibility of translating the words vydla vi gada vyanga ; everything suggested is mere guess-work. A brief history of the interpretation of the words may be given in lieu of any personal conviction as regards their meaning. vy4la, according to the lexicons, means either ‘ malicious, wily, or ‘serpent,’ or some other ferocious animal, any of which meanings might be given to the demon of a severe disease. Ludwig translates it ‘schlange, a rendering which is supported in a measure by vyariga, ‘limbless ;’ Grill and Hillebrandt prefer ‘tuck- isch.’ The text of the Samhita and the Padapdzha both have vi gada, which is doubtless felt to be an imperative. Accordingly Ludwig translates it ‘sprich heraus ;’ Grill in the first edition of his ‘ Hundert Lieder,’ pp. 11, 63, emended vi gadha, and rendered ‘lass los.’ Whitney in his Index Verborum, s.v. gad and vigada, as also in his ‘ Roots, Verb- Forms, &c., under root gad suggests the reading vigada, vocative, and this is now accepted by Grill in the second edition, who renders it ‘stumm, and Hillebrandt, s. v. vigada, who entertains the same view: etwa ‘ wort-, sprach- los. With this emendation in mind the word might also be translated ‘O chatterer,’ referring to the delirium of the patient. One may be permitted, too, to consider the possibility that gada, ‘sickness,’ is at the bottom of the word : vigada, ‘ free from sickness,’ (euphemistic address to the demon of the disease); cf. Bohtlingks Lexicon, s. v. In that case vigada would be synonymous with agada, ‘free from disease,’ and this would remind us strongly of RV. X, 16,6; AV. XVIII, 3, 55; Tait. Ar. VI, 4, 2, ydt te krishbvah sakuna Atutdda pipilad sarpa utd va svdpadah, agnish fad visvad agadam krinotu, ‘If the black bird (vulture) has bitten thee, the ant, the serpent, or even the wild animal, may all-devouring Agni restore (agadam krinotu) that.’ And further, we may remember that the
448 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. a en pn tn i et ee ee ktishzha-plant, the specific against takmdn, renders agada a person suffering from takman in AV. V, 4,6; VI, 95, 3. vyanga again calls up a variety of possibilities. If we translate vydla by ‘serpent, we will not fail to remember that vyanga, ‘limbless,’ occurs in AV. VII, 56, 4 as an epithet of the serpent, and render accordingly. So Ludwig and Grill in the second edition. Hillebrandt more vaguely, ‘korperlos.’ The Petersburg Lexicons, and Grillin the first edition, translate it by ‘fleckig’ (vi+a#g), which might be justified by some symptom of the disease. Non liquet.— With bhtiri yavaya we have supplied vagram from Pada d.
e. nish¢dkvarim with the following pun in mind: nish takm4nam (suva, or the like), ‘drive out the takman.’ The word is &m. Aey., but fairly clear as a synonym of prakirza', pumskali, vipravragini, bahuarizi, &c. Such a person is correlated with the cross-roads; see the citations in our edition of the Grzhyasamgraha II, 23, note 3 (Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XX XV, 573), and add Kaus. 37; 9-
b. The etymology of balhika in the mind of the poet
(bahika ‘externus;’ cf. note on st. 5) accounts for para-
stardm ‘farther away. The statement may not be utilised
for geographical purposes.
d. visva dhunihi, ‘shake her through as it were’ with
humorous intent. The symptom referred to is ague, and it
is paralleled by the use of the root vip in st. 10 (cf. also IX,
8, 6).
b. I have translated in accordance with the vulgata, bandhv addhi parétya, but not without a strong temptation to emend to bandhv adhi parétya, and translate, ‘ having passed over to thy kinfolk, the Mahavrvzshas and the Miga- vants. ‘Eat your kinfolk’ seems exceedingly crude even
for the present production. The MSS. exhibit indigestible variants.
+ Schol. at Grzhyasamgraha II, 22, grzhe-grzhe gamanasila.
V, 22. Commentary. 449
d. anyakshetrazi va ima seems to refer to other countries, nearer to the speaker than those mentioned in the stanza; perhaps, as Grill remarks, the Anga and Magadha men- tioned in st. 14.