e,d. Cf. RV.VII, 59,12. The Paippalada, milam ulvalvo yatha.
b. Sdyava reads susuka, ‘as a wild animal of that name
(susuka) runs to a distance. The word is not quotable.
The Pet. Lexs., on the other hand, suggest that asumga is
the name of some bird. Neither suggestion commends
itself.
ce. For the reed that passes away in a year’s time, cf. IV, 19, 1. On the other hand reeds grow profusely and quickly, VI, 137, 2. 3. Sdyaza reads ita for fZa.
VI, 16. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 30.
This hymn, full of hocus-pocus and singular diction, represents the extreme Atharvanesque manner, and for this reason alone is worth reproducing. All details are ex- ceedingly obscure, and the rather full elaboration of it in the ritual is not very helpful. The commentators agree in regarding it as a charm against ophthalmia (akshirogabhai- shagyam); the performances, Kaus. 30, 1-6, are as follows : 1. ‘While reciting the hymn (an amulet derived from the mustard-plant), anointed with the dregs of mustard-oil}, is fastened (to the patient). 2. (And) the stem (of the mus- tard-plant) smeared with (mustard-oil is also fastened upon him as an amulet). 3. The leaf (of the mustard-plant) mixed (with the oil) is given (to the patient). 4. (Then) four fruits of the saka-tree (tectona grandis) are given (to
* We would now read sarshapatailasampatam in accordance with the comments of Darila, Kesava, and Sayama. The latter sarsha- patailena sampatitam.
* Sayama, sarshapatailena bhrzsh/am sarshapapatrasikam kakshi- rogagrastaya prayakshet.
Vi, 16. Commentary. 465
the patient). 5. A paste made from the sap of the plant
is smeared (upon the eyes of the patient)1. 6. (The
patient) eats (of the sap).’ We are permitted to judge
from these practices that the mustard-plant, and perhaps
other plants (the sdka-tree) are referred to in the hymn,
but the identification is uncertain.
The fourth stanza is rubricated at Kaus. 51, 15. 16 in
a practice that seems to be calculated to remove weeds
from a field (alabheshagam)*, The practice consists*in
burying three tips of the sila#gAla-plant (cf. Kausika, In-
troduction, p. xlv) into the middle of a furrow.
The hymn has been translated by Florenz, Bezzenber-
gers Beitrage, XII, 268 ff The Anukramazi, mantrokta- .
devatyam uta #4ndramasam.
a, b. The mention by name of the father and mother of
a plant is typical and formulaic; cf. the note on V, 5, I.
Shankar Pandit reads vihahlo; Sayaza, vihamlakhyak
kaskit pita. For madavati, cf. 1V, 7,4, and the note on
varavdvati, IV, 7, 1.
c,d. For hi na of the vulgata Shankar Pandit with the
} Sayama, milakshiram abhimantrya vyadhitasya akshini afigyat. 2 For 4la, see Kausika, Introduction, p. xlvii. But Sayama reads annabheshagam, ‘curing of food:’ annasvastyayanakamas/ tisrah gasyavallir abhimantrya kshetramadhye nikhanet. Cf. also Kesava.
(42] Hh
466 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Sayava regards tauvilika as the name of a female demon that causes disease. And thus also babhri and babhru- karva are two personified rogaheti’. We have rendered ailabak by ‘howling one’ (Sayaza, rogaviseshah) ; better, ‘howl’ (abstract): cf. XII, 5, 47. In Pada d the Pada- pacha reads nih ala as two separate words, and we have taken ala as a vocative. The word, according to Darila to Kaus. 25, 18 (cf. the introduction to I, 3, p. 236), seems to mean ‘a kind of weed.’ Whitney in the Index Ver- borum suggests a verb nir ala from a root al, comparing vy ala, V, 22, 6 (obscurum per obscurius). Sayavza, he nirala etatsamgaia roga, again regards the entire word as the name of a disease.
All that we know of the names in this stanza is that they are plants, and, probably, compounds of Ala (st. 3), though the Padapazda does not divide them as compounds?. At Kaus. 51, 16 sila#gala occurs as the name of a plant (Kesava, sasyavalli ; cf. Kausika, Introduction, p. xlv), and Sayaza says, doubtless correctly, of all three, tisraz samg7as tisyzzam sasyavallindm. But the true value of the formula seems beyond reach.
1 Pada c is formulaic: it recurs at V, 23, 4c}; see the note
there.
Am A
alasa means ‘dull, sluggish ;’ for sila#gala, cf. sila&i, V, 5, 1. 8. The MSS. of Kaus. 51, 16 read sila#gala, suggesting the presence of the word sila, ‘stone,’ in the first member. Sayama, sala#gala (sasyamazigar}),
Vi, 18. Commentary. 467
VI, 17. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 98.
The Kausika, 35, 12-15, has a performance entitled garbhadvzmhavani, ‘ performances for steadying the womb, or foetus, which rubricates, in addition to our hymn, AV. V, 1,1, and a mantra whose pratika is akyuta (probably the hymn given in full at Kaus. 98, 21). It is as follows: 35, 13, ‘A bowstring, thrice knotted, is tied about (the foetus) that has been seized by convulsions. 14. (The woman) is fed upon lumps of earth. 15. Black pebbles are scattered about her couch.’ For the character of gambha, ‘convulsions, see the note on II, 4, 2, and cf. especially the references there given to Wise, pp. 421-3.
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda,
III, 477; Florenz, Bezzenberger’s Beitrige, XII, 269 ff. ©
The Anukramazi, garbhadr7mhanadevatyam.
VI, 18. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 106.
The performances at Kaus. 36, 25 ff. involve the use of this hymn in company with VII, 45, and the third stanza of VII, 74. They picture a woman engaged in symbolic acts calculated to appease a jealous man, and to remove the jealousy from his body, to wit: 25. ‘ The practising woman mutters the above-mentioned mantras against (the jealous) man, presents to him (a stirred drink with grits, Kaus. 7, 7), and touches (his person). 26. With the first (of these hymns) she performs upon his body the act described in the hymn (i.e. she blows out fire held over his body *). 27. While reciting VII, 45, 2 (see the stanza) [she gives him to drink] water, warmed by pouring it over a heated axe. Soothing the jealous man, and the symbolic removal of the fire of his jealousy, are therefore the points of the practice.
’ Kesava, akyuta dyaur iti. Darila, sakhantariyasiktam.
? Darila, hridayesgninirvapavzam mantroktatvat. Kesava, kafipra-
dese . . . dhamati.
uh 2
468 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
a a me The present hymn has been rendered by Weber, Indische
Studien, V, 235 ff.; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, ITI, 514; Florenz,
in Bezzenberger’s Beitrage, XII, 270 ff.; Grill’, pp. 28,
159 ff. The Anukramazi, irshyavindsanadevatyam.
b. For manaskam patayishzukadm, cf. RV. I, 163, 11; VI, 9, 5. Ludwig renders patayishvukam by ‘zu falle bringend,’ but that would require patayishvukam, since the Vedas discriminate between the stems pataya and pataya, the former being simple, the latter alone causative. Weber also causatively, ‘was dir den sinn entfallen macht.’
d. nvéter is untranslatable, though Ludwig renders the Pada, ‘wie die erhitzung eines tanzers.’ The Paippalada reads trzter; this supports in a measure Weber's and the Pet. Lexs.’ emendation to dr¢ter, ‘as heat from a pot, or, ‘as the exhalation from a (water-carrier’s) skin.’ Similarly also Sayava, with the approval of Shankar Pandit, yatha driteh karmamayyéa bhastrikayad sakasat tanmadhyavarti- nam dshmavzam svdsavad antaptritam vayum.
VI, 20. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 3.
The Kausika offers by way of practice to be performed in connection with this charm a part of that reported for AV. V, 22. The exceedingly terse Sitra, 31, 7, agner ivesty uktas dave, is to be translated, ‘With AV. VI, 20 he does what has been said in connection with the forest-fire,’ i.e. according to Darila, what is prescribed in Sitra 29, 19 (and by implication also what is prescribed in 29, 18). Namely, he pours the dregs of gruel, which the patient has imbibed previously, from a copper vessel over his head into fire derived from a forest-fire. See the introduction to V, 22. The practice is again symbolic, aiming by attractio similium to obviate the symptoms of heat and fire incidental to the disease. The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 511; Zimmer, p. 380; and Florenz, in Bezzen- berger’s Beitrage, XII, 273 ff.; and it is quoted also in the
VI, 20. COMMENTARY. 469 takmanasanagaza of the Gavzamala, Ath. Paris. 32, 7 (Kaus. 26,1, note). - The Anukramazi designates it as yakshma- nasanadaivatam, and describes its authorship and purpose as follows: bhvzgvangiraZ ... anena mantroktan sarvan devan astaut.
a. A gagati Pada may be construed if one syllable is sup- pressed. Probably agnér iva is to be read as three syllables with elision of r and crasis (cf. Pet. Lex., s.v. iva 4c), or by reading va in the manner of the Prakrit. Florenz, |. c., makes different propositions. The Anukramazi designates the stanza as atigagatt. |
sushmin is a derivative from sishma, whose fundamental meaning seems to be ‘lightning,’ from which ‘strength’ is derived secondarily; see Contributions, Sixth Series, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XLVIII, 565 ff.
b. mattd vilapan; cf. the words unmaditoé and Ialapiti nA YY. Vi 711, 1.
e. Ludwig and Florenz propose to emend avratas to avratam, because the epithet ‘impious’ does not seem to suit the takman; cf. RV. I, 132, 4. A glance at AV. VII, 116, 2 exhibits the takman with the same epithet under circumstances which admit of no doubt, showing the danger of subjective reasoning on matters connected with foreign folk-psychology. Ludwig renders ‘irgend einen werklosen.’
a. Note the concatenation with Pada 1 d: tapurvadha in 1d suggests Rudra in 2a, and takmane is repeated.
c,d. The diction lapses into formulary prose, which does
not however deter the Anukramavi from assigning the
entire stanza to the metre kakummati prastarapanktt.
The metre is very rough, according to the Anukramavi,
satafpankti. Pada a is a trochaic anush/ubh if we read
sbhisokayishuur; b is a trishtubh; c is a hypercatalectic
anushfubh ; d a gagati.
470 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA. i a a
a, b. In close paral eleaen with V, 22, 2.a,b: see the note on the passage.
ce. The epithet babhri calls to mind Latin febris from febrv-is, which would then be the ‘ brown, sallow disease.’
d. The meaning of vanya, ‘silvestris, seems fairly certain: The Pet. Lex. suggests ‘greenish, in order to establish a parallelism with aruza and babhri in the preceding Pada. Grohmann, I. c., p. 385, translates ‘dem wilden (wasserge- borenen?) Takman.’ If the word means ‘forest-born’ then it must refer to the malarial fever of the rainy season which is caused by the decay of the tropically prolific flora. Cf. the takman varshika in AV. V, 22, 13. Living in wooded, ill-ventilated valleys is, according to Wise, l.c., p. 220, one of the causes of fever. Sdyava, samsevyaya, ‘to him that is to be adored.’
VI, 21. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 30.
This interesting hymn is accompanied by equally in- teresting symbolic practices, at Kaus. 30, 8-10, part of which passage is unfortunately very obscure: 8. ‘ While reciting the hymn the person that desires the growth of hair (Sayavza, kesavriddhikamaw) is rinsed off with water heated by burning plants! that grow upon the earth under trees. 9. His head is rinsed off with an effusion prepared by heating dice in water. 10. (And also with an effusion prepared) from two nika/a-plants?(?).’ The symbolism of the first practice is quite clear: as the head of the earth is clothed with plants (cf. st. 1), as the crown of the tree is full of leaves, so shall the person practising the charm be luxuriantly hirsute. But the dice (the fruit of the vibhitaka-tree) and the nikafd.are left unexplained.
’ Cf. the note on Kaus. 27, 29, in the introduction to III, 7 (p. 336, note).
* Very doubtful. Kesava, daruharidraharidre (!) 4a dvabhyam kyathayitva avasi#kati. Sdyana, haridrakvathodakena avasifket. According to these authorities nika‘i would then be the yellow curcuma.
Vi, 24. Commentary. 471
The hymn has been translated. by Florenz, Bezzenber-
ger’s Beitrage, p. 275 ff.; Grill?, pp. 50, 160 ff.. Cf. also
Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Védique, p. 150. The Anu-
kramami #andramasai (cf. st. 2).
For the conception of the three earths, see the note on
IV, 20,2. Sdyawa refers tvaké in Pada c to the real earth,
which ig the skin of the other earths, tasdm przthivinaw
tyakah tvag iva upari vartamana ya bhiimiz tasyaz,
VI, 24. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 12.
Rubricated at Kaus. 30, 13. Ddarila prescribes it against dropsy ; Kesava, more explicitly, as a cure for pain in the heart, dropsy and jaundice (cf. the introduction to I, 22). Kausika’s performance is as follows: ‘While reciting VI, 24 water is drawn from a stream along its current?; (the water is warmed with burning) grass from a thatch (and sprinkled upon the patient)*.’ It seems quite possible that the ritualist has in mind the particular disease dropsy: the water (Varuva’s infliction) shall flow from the body like a running stream. The word hriddyota (st. 1) would accord with dropsy, since diseases of the heart are fre- quently associated with it. But st. 2 seems to point to a more general and vague conception on the part of the hymn, and accordingly we have expanded the caption. See also Kaus. 9, 2; 18, 3, note; 41,14; Ath. Paris. 41, 1.