VII, 83. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 12.
At Kaus. 32, 14-15 a hut is built at a point of land between two rivers that flow into one another}, and in it the dropsical patient is washed by means of bunches of grass, and then rinsed off. For the meaning of the practice see the introduction to I, 10. At Kaus. 127, 4 the hymn is
Ci. Kaus. 16a,
vil, 83. COMMENTARY. 563 recited, more secondarily, while an offering is made from an animal devoted to Varuva (cf. Si. 2): the offering is part of a performance for obviating the evil consequences of the obscuration of the constellation, ‘the seven Azshis’ (ursus major), by a comet. Cf. also Vait. Si. 10, 22; Naksha- trakalpa 14; Ath. Paris. 13, 3. The hymn is a mixtum compositum ; st. 2 seems to belong originally to a different sphere (see the note), and its bearing here is not at all clear. The hymn has been rendered by Henry, Le livre VII de l Atharva-véda, pp. 35, 104.
peervaeS VE 22.: Kann SeeViy 10,253) Tait..S. 1, '3; 11,1; Tait. Br. II, 6, 6, 2; Maitr. S. III, 11, 10; Asv. Sr. Ill, 6, 24; Sankh. Sr. VIII, 12, 11. The vulgate’s emendation of dhamno-dhamno to damno-ddmno, as suit- able as it is to the sense, is not supported by any of the parallel passages. Mahidhara at Vag. S. VI, 22 has much the same thing in mind, when he says, yasmad-yasmat tvadiyapdsasamanvitat sthanat’. All the parallel texts read sdpdmahe for d#ima, and in some iti is wanting after aghnyd. Pada c seems to contain the expression of an oath, or curse, which is regarded as sinful. According as iti after aghny4a is read or omitted, it contains two oaths, or one oath. ‘The passage savours of the notion that it is impious to take in vain the holy name of Varuza, or his waters. Sayawa, he apad he aghnyaZ iti he varuvza iti yad ikima yas khapavakyam avokama, yak khapavakyavakanena papam argitas tasmad api mu*kesti sasbandhas...ato deva- tanamadheyakirtanarfipasapathakaravaganitapdpdd asman mofaya. Cf. also the glosses to Vag. S. and Tait. Br.
The stanza is repeated at RV. I, 24,5; AV. XVIII, 4,
69; Maitr. S. I, 2, 18, &c. (see the index to the Maitr. S.).
Cf. also Vait. Sd. 28, 17; Ath. Paris. 17, 2.
' Sayama here, sarvasmad rogasthanat. OO 2
564 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
b. varuzd represents an awkward attempt to vary the
diction: it might be designated as a rhetorical tha or
vikara. The true completion of the expression requires
madhyama..
VII, 115. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 168.
The symbolic rites which attach themselves to this hymn are described in Kaus. 18, 16-18, to wit: 16. ‘ Having fastened a hook to the left leg of a raven, and a rice-cake to the hook (the performing priest), while reciting AV. VII, 115, 1, lets (the crow go) so that. he does not return - 17. Having put on a blue garment, having covered that with a red one”, having wound about a white cloth (as a turban), while reciting the second stanza of the hymn, he sets down the turban by means of a hook, and with his left hand casts it, together with the hook, into the water. 18. While reciting the third stanza of the hymn (he throws) the covering ® (red) garment (into the water); while reciting the fourth stanza the (under, blue) garment. Cf. also Santikalpa 4; Ath. Paris. 33, 3.
The hymn, which is related to I, 18, has been translated
1 This part of the performance executes in practice the state- ment in RV. X,95, 14 where Purfiravas threatens to fly away with- out returning, throwing himself into the lap of Nirvvti, the goddess of misfortune; cf. nirrztyabhimukho in Kesava’s comment, and anavritam iti prapatanaviseshavzam in Darila’s, with the diction of the RV.stanza. The black bird is fit to shoulder the evil (attractio similium), as in AV. I, 22, 1. 4; Kaus, 26, 18.
? For the colours blue and red, cf. the introduction to VII, 116; the notes on IV, ry, 4; VIUI, 8,24; and Kaut-s3) i743 oe 48, 40. Cf. also nilalohita in the Pet. Lex., and Winternitz, Das Altindische Hochzeitsrituell, pp. 6, 12, 23, 67.
* I now propose to read trztiyayakfannam, i.e. trzttyaya akhan- nam, instead of tr7tiyaya £Aannam, in deference to akAadya in Sf. 17. Even then the translation ‘ covering garment’ for a4/annam is pro- blematic, and based upon our interpretation of Kesava’s comment. It means naturally ‘the covered (blue garment).’
Vii, 116. Commentary. 565
by Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, V, 348; Ludwig, Der
Rigveda, III, 499 (cf. also 338); Grill?, pp. 41, 187 ff.;
Henry, Le livre VII de lAtharva-véeda, pp. 45, 124. The
Anukramazi, savitrasz gatavedasam.
a. patay4lir is dw.Aey. Ludwig, ‘ die zum fall bringende
(Lakshmi) ;’ but note the short a in the first syllable:
pataydmi in the RV. is the causative of pat, not patay4mi,
which is a simple present.
Rubricated at Ath. Paris. 7.
VII, 116. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 4.
The chief interest of this charm against takmdn is its reference to the ancient Hindu custom of quenching fire— here its representative the fever—by a frog. I have else- where assembled from the Vedic writings a considerable number of passages which become intelligible in the light of this custom ; see my article entitled, ‘On a Vedic group of charms for extinguishing fire by means of water-plants and a frog, Contributions, Second Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XI, 342 (24 of the reprint) ff! The réle of the frog here is distinctly the same, and is especially significant for the identification of fire and fever which is indeed superficially obvious in all the hymns and practices connected with the takman. The quaint performance of the Kausika-sitra, 32, 17, is as follows: namo rdrayesti sakunin ive«shika“gi- mandikam nilalohitabhyam sitrabhy4m sakaksham bad- dhva *, ‘ while reciting AV, VII, 116, he does as in the case
1 See also the introduction to VI, 106.
* Shankar Pandit’s reproduction of this Sftra, in the introduction
to the hymn in Sayama’s commentary, is decidedly free.
566 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
of the birds, i.e. he ties a frog that has stripes like reeds (upon his body) by means of a blue and a red thread by the arm-pits (to a low couch upon which the patient is made to recline, and besprinkles him).’ In order to under- stand this difficult Satra we must follow the commentaries. Darila says, sakunin ive karoti, mantroktan! adhastalpe haritasiitrevza savyaganghasu baddhve=ty Adivat, ‘He does as in the case of the birds, i.e, as in the performance indicated in Kaus. 26, 18 with the words mantroktan adhas- talpe, &c.’ The practice in question centres about AV. I, 22,a charm directed against jaundice. In the course of it the patient is seated upon a couch beneath which the yellow birds are tied with a yellow thread by their left legs; then the patient is washed off, and his jaundice is supposed to settle upon the yellow birds where, as it were, it is naturally at home; see the introduction to I, 22. In accordance with that performance, Darila continues to expand and explain the suggestion of the practice in Satra 32, 18, which is connected with the present hymn: ishike=va rekha yasya sa ishikazgih, tam nilasitrevza? lohitena ka stitreva saha kakshabhyasm baddhva sakunin iva karoti, ‘he who has a line like a reed he is a reed-marked (frog); him he ties with a blue and a red thread by the arm-pits and treats as ke does the birds.’ See also Kesava on the passage, and cf. Kaus. 40, 4; 48, 40.
From all these statements it becomes clear that the fever (Darila, gvarabhaishagyam) is washed from the patient down upon the frog, but apparently with this difference, that the birds—homoeopathically as it were—take up the jaundice because they are themselves yellow, while the frog, allopathically, quenches the fever (fire) of the patient,
1 The MSS. of Darila read mantroktén; this appears in the edition as mantroktam, because I did not know at the time that the passage is a quotation of part of Kaus. 26, 18, which see.
> Cod. somewhat indistinctly tatrflasfitreva, obviously for tan nilasftreva, and that again for tam (sc. mamdikam) nflasfitreva, the plural tan being a corruption derived from the plural mantroktan in, 26,:: eee
Vii, 116. Commentary. 567
being himself cold and moist. I would also draw attention to RV. X, 166, 5, where in the course of a hostile charm occurs the expression, 4 vo mirdhanam akramim, adhas- paddn ma tid vadata mazditka ivo«dakat, ‘I have stepped upon your head; from under my feet do ye speak up to me like frogs from the water.’ A touch of this idea also is perhaps worked up symbolically in the present practice, and even more clearly in the related performance at Kaus. 48, 40.
The combination of the colours blue and red is associated everywhere with hostile witchcraft. In RV. X,85, 28=AV. XIV, 1, 26 (cf. Sankh. Grzh. I, 12, 8; Apast. Grth. I, 5, 23) the bridal garment polluted during the consummation is spoken of as, nilalohitasz bhavati kvztyassaktir vy agyate, ‘blue and black it is; the sorcery, the inherent (evil) ”, is driven out. In AV.IV, 17, 4 (see our note on that stanza) a hostile charm is. made in a blue-red vessel, and red and blue threads are spread out against enemies in AV. VIII, 5, 24 (cf. Kaus. 16, 20). This sinister employment of red and blue renders it unlikely that the use of the same colours in German wedding-practices is in any way to be connected with the Hindu conception; see Weber, Indische Studien, V, 308, note 4; Winternitz, Das altindische Hochzeitsrituell nach dem Apastambiya-Grvzhyastitra (Imperial Academy of Vienna, vol. xl), p. 67; Hillebrandt, Mitteilungen der Schlesischen Gesellschaft fiir Volkskunde (1894-95), I, 39 ff. Why, now, is blue and red fit for Hindu sorcery practices? Is nilalohita night and day?
On the other hand it seems difficult to dissociate from the present practice the Bohemian frog-charm which Groh- mann, l.c., reports as a cure against fever: ‘In Bohemia the practice is to cure chills and fever (kaltes fieber) by catching a green frog at the time of the morning dews on the day preceding that of St. George. This is sewn into a bag which is hung about the neck of the patient without his
1 Cf. the Sfitra 26, 20 in connection with the jaundice cure, vadata (sc. sakunin) upasthapayati, and Kesava’s comment thereon. 2 For Asaktf, see Ludwig’s excellent remark, Der Rigveda, vol. v,
568 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
knowing its contents. Then the patient must pronounce the lord’s prayer nine times on nine days before sunrise. On the ninth day he must go with prayer to the river, cast the bag into the water, and return home praying and without turning his face.’
The hymn has been translated and expounded by Groh- mann, l.c., pp. 386, 414; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 381; and Victor Henry, Le livre VII de l’Atharva-véda, pp. 45, 124. The hymn is quoted also as one of the takmana- sanagava in the Gavamala, Ath. Paris. 32, 7 (Kaus. 26, 1, note).
As the verse stands the first half is hopeless prose, and yet the second half is a good gagati-pada. Henry, l.c., p. 125, makes the exceedingly ingenious and plausible suggestion that the first half consisted originally also of two gagati-padas, and stood,
ndmo rfr&ya Ay4vandya dhrishndve, namo rfiraya &édandya dhrzshnave.
These were then by a species of haplology! fused, so as to yield namo rdiraya kyavanaya kddanaya dhrishnave. Still we would not go as far as Henry himself does, and make this reconstruction the basis of a translation, especially as either the word #yavanaya, or kddanaya (more probably the latter), might have entered the text as a gloss. The expulsion of either yields a good gagati-pada, and the tradition may at any rate be respected as long as it does not interfere with good sense.
a. For rirdya, see the note to V, 22, 10a, and cf. I, 25, 4;
for kodanaya, Shankar Pandit with SAyaza and some MSS.
reads nddanaya.
b. pirvakamakz/tvane is obscure. The Pet. Lexs. trans-
late it, ‘alte wiinsche erfiillend ;’ Grohmann and Zimmer,
‘nach altem triebe thiatig.’ Grohmann supposes that the
* For haplology in Vedic Sanskrit, see the author in the
Proceedings of the American Oriental Society for 1893 (Journal, vol. Xvi, p. XXXiv).