sabandhanaragegum lilaya akhidati unmdlayati tadvat, ‘as a noble horse uproots with ease the halter fastened to a peg. Altogether unlikely. Roth, as quoted by Grill, and Bohtlingk’s Lexicon, s.v. przshty4, regard the latter as related to (in fact a feminine of) prashZi, ‘side-horse,’ and accordingly we have translated, without any feeling of certainty. Cf. X, 8, 8. But przshtyd may possibly be identical with pvzsh¢ivah (dsva), XVIII, 4, 10, ‘the horse which carries burdens upon its back,’ and ragasvak simply the ‘horse of the king.’ The point then would be that ordinary horses follow the royal stallion on expeditions, or processions.
e. The edition of Roth and Whitney reads tv¢zma. But
many MSS. read trézam; this is accepted by Whitney in |
the Index Verborum, and is rendered certain by Kaus.
35s 21.
The ingredients of the love-mixture are worked up in
the Kausika; the sweetwood figures especially in charms
of this sort; cf. I, 34,4. In Padac Sdyaza regards turo
as a genitive of tur, agreeing with bhagasya, tvaramazasya
saubhagyakarasya devasya.
VI, 105. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 8.
The practice attached to this hymn in Kaus. 31, 27 is designated by Darila as a cure for coughs, and by Kesava as a cure for coughs and expectoration (kase sleshma- patane fa). The Sitra is as follows: yatha mano-va diva ity arishzena, ‘ While reciting AV. VI, 105 and VII, 107 he performs the practice prescribed (for the cure of the disease called arish¢a).’ This latter disease seems to be a nervous trouble in the nature of epilepsy or St. Vitus dance (Darila, arishéam . . . angaspandanakalahalabhitadi, see Kausika, Introduction, p. xlv). The practice accord- ing to Kaus. 28, 15 consists in making the patient take a few steps away from his house (Darila, kanifit padani grihan nishkramayati [cod. nisramayati]|), after having previously, in accordance with the Paribhasha-satras, Kaus.
[42] Lt
514 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
7, 18 and 7, 7 (cf. also Kes. at 28,15; 31, 27), fed him
with a churned drink and porridge. The patient, as he
leaves his habitual place, is, doubtless, supposed to leave
the disease behind him.
AV. VII, 107, which appears in company with the present hymn, is a formula, consisting of a single stanza, to wit, ‘May the seven rays of the sun bring down (the waters?) from heaven: the waters, the floods of the sea, have caused thy pangs to leave thee (literally, have caused the point, or arrow, to fall out of thee).’
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda,
III, 510; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 385; cf. also
Hillebrandt, Vedachrestomathie, p. 50.
b and sequel. The force of the adverbial suffix -mat is
similar to that of dialectic -like in ‘quicklike’ and similar
expressions.
d. pravayyam, 4m. Aey., literally, ‘the course along which the wind blows;’ see, e.g. RV. V, 83, 4, pra vata vanti. Sayava, pragantavyam avadhim; the Pet. Lexs., etwa ‘fliichtigkeit ;’ Zimmer, ‘fittig;’ Ludwig, ‘wehen;’ Hille- brandt, ‘ flugbahn.’
VI, 106. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 147.
The present charm forms a link in a long chain of prac- tices for quenching fire by means of water-plants (cf. dirvaz in st. 1) and a frog (cf. the Vaitana-sdtra, below). This line of conceptions has been assembled and treated by the translator in Contributions, Second Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XI, p. 342 ff., where the present hymn is also treated’. Allied with it most closely is the passage, RV.
* The numerous passages assembled in that article may be supplemented further by Maitr. S. III, 3, 3.6; Tait. S. V, 4, 2, 1;. Sat. Br. IX, 1,:2,'20 ff/; “XT, 85°93, Way Layer ee a ae cf. also Indische Studien, 1X, 414, and our introductions to III, 13 and VII, .116.
Vi, 106. Commentary. 515
X, 142, 7,8; anent this, the Rigvidhdana, IV, 11, 1, states that it is also employed against danger from conflagrations (agnibhaye sati); see Oldenberg, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XX XIX, 79, and cf. Shadgurusishya (ed. Macdonell), p. 163.
The practices at Kaus. 52, 5-9 present the hymn in the somewhat general character of a samanam, ‘ 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. 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. Toa person who is being cursed (a stirred drink and porridge”) 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. Sa. 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 Grill*, pp. 63, 170. The Anukramawi, dirvasaladevatyam.
Stanza l.
The dirv4-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 RY. Xx, 142, 8.
Stanzas 2, 3.
Cie. 2, 140,47 > Maitr. S, Il, 16, 1; Tait. S..1V, 6, 1,
a: Vag. >. VII, 7; Asv. St. II, 12,2. Pada 3d occurs
1 According to Kesava water is poured into the pond, as a pro- tection against fire.
* Thus if we trust the Paribh4sh4-sfitra, Kaus. 7, 7. But Sayama (after Kesava), taptam4shake divye tailadikam abhimantrya sapatha- kartre (!) prayakhet.
L1l2
516 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
frequently in the Yagus-texts, &c., in the form agnir
himasya bheshagam: Tait. S. VII, 4, 18, 2;° Maitr. S. III,
12,194 Vag. SicX XIII. a0 Asv. Sm Xi.95 29 -cnmame
Br. II], 9, 5, 4. The present version seems adapted for
the occasion.
VI, 109. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 21.
The hymn is rubricated at Kaus. 26, 33 along with five others! in a series which is designated gavakarmagava (!) by the GazamAla, Ath. Paris. 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- shagyam, and Kesava (and Sdyaza) 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 Védique, p. 154.
Sayaza has alternate renderings for kshiptabheshagi, and
atividdhabheshag1, in effect, ‘throwing aside, and suppressing
(other) remedies.’ Hardly probable: note the accents.
a. For the rdle of the Asuras in connection with curative plants, see the introduction to I, 24, and cf. especially IT, 3) 3:
e. Zimmer, l.c., p. 389, has endeavoured to show that vatikv7ta means ‘produced by wounds.” Kesava (and Sayaza) here (not however at VI, 44, 3) seem to agree with this construction of the word. Sayawa, in the introduction, must have this word in mind when he defines the charm as dhanurvata - kshiptavatadi - krztsnavatavyddhisantyartham, 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 Sastras; cf. Wise, Hindu System a ee
TE 72h VE Ses toy vee
Vi, I10. 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, 110. COMMENTARY TO PAGE Iog.
The Kausika, 46, 25, very intelligently, prescribes this charm for one born under an inauspicious constellation (papanakshatre gataya). The sense of the Siitra is obscure!. The word milena refers to some performance undertaken elsewhere either ‘under the constellation midla’—this is identical with the vifr¢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 Kesava, who says: ‘ This rite is performed under the constellation mila. 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 (samila) is spread”; fagots with the roots attached are laid on the fire...’ The entire practice according to Kesava (and Sayawa) consists in washing off and sprinkling (the child, or the parents), and in eating the above-mentioned porridge (cf. Kaus. 46, 26) °.
The hymn has been treated by Weber, Die vedischen
Nachrichten von den Nakshatra, II, 291; Ludwig, Der
Rigveda, III, 431 (under the caption, ‘ Segensgebet fiir den
opferer’); Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 321.
1 The full text is, pratno histi papanakshatre gataya milena.
* Cf. Kaus. 1, 22. 23 and the scholiasts. Of course the word ‘root’ throughout symbolises the constellation mila.
* The practice thus coincides largely with that undertaken in connection with VI, 112 (see the introduction) and, since the word mila occurs also in its first stanza, mfi!ena in Kaus. 46, 25 perhaps simply refers to the practices in Kaus. 46, 26 ff.
518 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Repeated with variants at RV. VIII, 11, 10; Tait. Ar. X, 1 (st. 69). In Pada c Sdyava with these texts reads piprayasva (sariram ... piraya) 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 gyesh/aghni (thus, not gyaishtdaghni, the MSS.) and vifr7tau, see Weber, Nakshatra, II], pp. 292, 310, 374, 389; Zimmer, l.c., pp- 356, 392. In Pada b (formulaic, see VI, 112, 1 b) the expression milabarhavat plays upon two alternate names of the vikrztau, namely, mifila, and mflabarhavi*. The name vikvitau 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 vyaghréshni, cf. vyaghrdu 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, 111. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 32.
The hymn is one of the three matvznamani (sc. siktAni), ‘hymns that contain the names of the mothers,’ Kaus. 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, 111, 4), and matar (VIII,
* 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, 1a, b.
Vi, Iii. Commentary. 519
6, 1'); cf. Kausika, Introduction, p.lviii. The matrvznamdani 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 ?, 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 sieve’, 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 muzga-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; Grill ?,
pp. 23, 170; cf. also Hillebrandt, Vedachrestomathie,
p. 50; Wise, Hindu System of Medicine, p. 279 ff. The
Anukramazi, 4gneyam.
The Anukramawzi designates the first stanza as parda-
nush¢up trishtubh. A considerable variety of textual
emendations, none of which seems warranted by the
exigencies of the case, are suggested by Grill’, 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.