a. The Pet Lex., s. v. parusha 2) a, endorsed by Henry, renders ‘may the reed turn them into reeds, i.e. make them fragile as reeds. This is rendered very doubtful, because parusha does not elsewhere mean ‘reed, and because Darila at Kaus. 16, 14 renders 4ahva by palasa. Ludwig, having at the time no access to the Sitra, renders ‘diser rauhen feinde schlachtruf mach er heiser, which seems to us intrinsically and grammatically impossible. If any one should be sceptical about ahva in the list of fire- woods, Kaus. 16, 14, the passage would then have to be rendered ‘may (our) disjointed cry render the enemies disjointed,’ or something similar. The Pada is hypermetric, but Henry's suggestion that parushahvaz in the sense of ‘parusha (reed) by name’ is a gloss, deprives the passage of its subject, and its best point.
d. Geldner, Vedische Studien, I, 140, renders-dpavapat by ‘hat gefischt.’ This is excellent sense, as far as the present passage is concerned, but conflicts with the natural etymology and the clearest instances of the occurrence of the word: AV. XIX, 36, 4 (Sayama, apavapatu nasayatu) ; Tatts Ls Og:
The second hemistich is hypermetric. Professor Henry
proposes to eliminate satam! and dasyindm, leaving per-
fect metre. Unfortunately such corrections suggest them-
' The word does not appear in the quotation of the stanza, Muir, Tec, p. 87,
Vill, 8. COMMENTARY. 585
selves so frequently as to render one another nugatory. An uneasy sense is left that we all know how to make better verse-lines than those that have somehow got to be in vogue among the Atharvan writers; carried out to its full consequences this would eliminate one of the more marked peculiarities that render the Atharvan what it is. Doubtless the present translator has at times fallen into the same error.
Cf. XI, 2,19, where the matyam is also Bhava’s weapon.
Ludwig, here, ‘entschluss (satyam?)’ but at XI, 2, Ig
(p. 550) ‘ erfindung.’
For the Sadhyas, see Weber, Indische Studien, IX, 6 ff. ; Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, I?, 10, note.
Stanzas 14, 15.
The first hemistich of st. 14 is repeated at XI, 9, 24;
see the note there. With it goes 15 a, b, as the second
hemistich of XI, 9, 24. The phrases are formulaic, being
worked over into prose form at Kaus. 73,5. In 15 b the
puzyagandh are the sukritaZ, ‘ pious deceased,’ who enjoy
themselves with Yama and the Fathers. Cf. Journ. Amer.
Or. Soc. XVI, 27. ?
d. The meaning of kfifam is not altogether certain. The Pet. Lexs., Ludwig, and Henry, ‘horn;’ this is unlikely because of Kaus. 16, 16: horns of asvattha-wood would be very strange. Geldner, Vedische Studien, I, 139, ren- ders it by trap, which is tempting on account of the seem- ing parallelism of the two halves of the stanza. ‘This is the rendering I had in mind in the treatment of the expression Aasvatthani kfi/4ni in Kaus. 16, 16. Déarila says unintel- ligibly, kitam khadanam, and my comparison of the word khada (according to Darila at Kaus. 38, 7=svabhavagah garta/, ‘a natural cavity’) was undertaken in the belief that the word meant something like ‘ pitfall.’ But now
596 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
prefer to rely upon the expression, tasya na kd/ena praghnanti in Sat. Br. III, 8,1, 15 (cf. also Ait. Br. VI, 24, 12), rather than the general parallelism. Cf. Contri- butions, Sixth Series, Zeitschr. d. Deustch. Morgenl. Ge- sellsch. XLVIII, 546 ff.
ce. The Pet. Lexs. take pr/snibahu% as an independent
noun, ‘a certain mythical being.’ But fanciful colours are
attributed with great predilection to Rudra and all his
forms (see the introduction to XI, 2). Cf. the epithet
‘gold-armed’ in the Satarudriya, Vag. S. XVI, 17, and in
general Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, IV’, p. 322 ff.
I have taken the word with sdrva (nominative with voca-
tive)2, cle RV. DVas0.c10:
a. For osham of the edition the MSS. present asham.
In the Index Verborum, p. 383, |. 1, the word is still
further corrected to osham, ‘quickly. This leaves the
genitive mvztyor without governing word, and we have
supplied ‘fetter, according to well-known parallels (mrztyér
pasam?). One may also think of oshdm in the sense of
‘fire, agony’ (of death).
e. Our translation of akshu is little more than a guess. It seems hard to acquiesce in Geldner’s proposition (endorsed by Henry), Vedische Studien, I, 136, that akshu means ‘pole’ (cf. sts. 5, 12), as long as this involves a ‘ thousand- eyed pole’ in AV. IX, 3, 8 (see the note there). However salient a pole may be in the construction of a house, the epithet sahasraksha is decidedly far-fetched. Further, we should expect the reverse order in the compound (galaksha), since the poles are accessory in their réle of supporters of the net'. Non liquet.
The second hemistich recurs at VI, 32, 3 (see the note there); cf. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 181. Perhaps
' The word is not mentioned in Goldstiicker’s Sanskrit Lexicon.
Ix, I. Commentary. 587
Ludwig’s simple rendering of g#ataram, ‘der sie kennt,’ is preferable.
The remainder of the hymn is prose in the style of the Brahmavas, The stanza is rubricated along with a number of others at Kaus. 15, 11: the king and his charioteer are made to step upon the war-chariot, preparatory to battle. The renderings are necessarily problematic, owing to want of knowledge of the real properties of the chariot (cf. Zimmer, p. 251): the pakshasi which are compared with heaven and earth are themselves equal to rdodasi, ‘the two hemispheres,’ an allusion doubtless intentional. For pari- rathyam I have followed Nilakaztha’s gloss to parirathya, Mahabh. VIII, 1487, a very reasonable rendering. Ludwig, ‘wagenrand.’ |
Cf. Kaus. 16, 18-20 in the introduction above. From the time of RV. X, 85, 28 onwards ‘ blue and red’ are magic colours. At Vag. S. XVI, 47; Maitr. S. II, 9,9; Tait. S. IV, 5, 10, 1, they are the colours of Rudra. Cf. AV. IV, 17, 4; the introduction to VII, 116; Kaus. 32,17; 40,4; 48, 40; 83, 4. See also the passages quoted by Winternitz, Das Altindische Hochzeitsrituell, p. 67, and especially Baudhayana’s (I, 8) implied explanation of the two colours as representations of night and day, which prob- ably forms the true basis of the conception.
IX, 1. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 2209.
The drink called madhu, ‘honey, is associated from
earliest times with the cult of the Asvins'!, and a more
specific conception endows them with a honey-lash (ma-
dhumati kd4sa or madhukasd), which instils sweetness, food,
and strength into the sacrifice and into men. The allu-
' See Hillebrandt, Soma und verwandte Gotter, p. 239 ff. Cf. also the madhubrahmavzam (madhukanda, madhuvidya), imparied to the Asvins by Dadhya#s: Sat. Br. 1V, 1,5, 18; XIV, 1, 1, 18 ff.; 5, 5, 17 ff.; Ind. Stud. I, 290; Sacred Books, XII, p. xxxiv.
588 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
sions of the Rig-veda and the Srauta-literature to this honey-lash are of the incidental sort; neither the texts nor the commentaries elucidate the point in any way. The Atharvan, however, devotes to it an independent effort’, and that too in the cosmogonic-theosophic style of mock profundity, which allows the writer to attribute to the honey-whip creative and sustaining power, and places men in the attitude of deeply speculative reverence towards it. The apotheosis of the honey-lash resembles therefore that of the ué&hishta, AV. XI, 7 (cf. the introduction there), or the manipulation in the Brahmavas of specific features of the sacrifice or sacrificial implements as divine beings.
The mythic or realistic background of the honey-lash is not at all manifest. The Pet. Lex., under madhukasd, suggests some implement with which the honey was beaten at the sacrifice, but the very slender use of the honey in the ritual (cf. Hillebrandt, l.c., 241) fails to reveal either the act or the occasion. Henry, Les livres VIII et IX de l Atharva-véda, p. 115, assumes ‘an evident allegory of the lightning which whips the clouds and produces the _ rain. This in itself very reasonable explanation is pro- blematic because the whip belongs to Asvins, and their connection with natural phenomena of this sort does not accord with their character in general. And yet, certain allusions in the first ten stanzas of this hymn (cf. especially stanzas 10 and 20) seem to lend support to a construction not very far removed from this. At RV. V, 83, 3 Par- ganya sends his rain-messengers, as a charioteer who whips his horses with the Jash. The patter and the streaming down of the rain (honey) may have suggested the compari- son with the lash?. Bergaigne, La Religion Védique, II,
1 Cf, RV. IX, 11, 2, where it is stated that the Atharvans mixed milk with honey.
* Yaska’s Nighafavas exhibit kasA among the words for voice (vak); cf. Nirukta 1X, 19. Sayama at RV. I, 154, 4 has rain distinctly in his mind, but rather in reference to the word madhu- matya (madhu, udakandma, Nigh. I, 12) than the word kasd. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, p. 209, note, denies this con-
Ix, I. Commentary. 589
433, has collected a sufficient number of passages in which the Asvins set the waters in motion, and cause the heavenly rivers to flow: madhukasd may therefore amount simply to ‘the honey (the water) that lashes.’
In the Atharvan ritual the hymn is known as the madhu- siktam, ‘honey-hymn. Under this designation it is em- ployed while mixing honey with milk in the course of the agnishZoma (Vait. Si. 16,12). Inthe Kausika and the sub- sidiary texts the hymn is simply a varkasyam (sc. siktam), ‘designed to bestow lustre’ (cf. sts. 11-14, 16, 17); see Kaus. 10, 24; 12,15; 13, 6, and the second varkasyagava of the Gavamala, Ath. Paris. 32, 27 (Kaus. 12, 10, note).
d. The great embryo which is mentioned here, and which figures in the sequel, is apparently described in st. 21 as a part of the honey-lash; in st. 5 the embryo is said to come from the honey-lash. The embryo suggests the lightning (fire , which seems therefore to be viewed here as a child of the waters, represented by the honey-lash, coinciding thus with the conception of the apam napat (cf. Oldenberg, |.c., pp. 99, 118 ff.). But the intolerable mysticism of sts. 5 ff. leaves everything in doubt.
In Pada b kalasak may be thrown out as a gloss which disturbs the metre (gagati). Cf. with Pada c the statement of the use of the madhugraha, ‘ portion of honey, which is given to the Brahmans, Katy. Sr. XI, 4, 17. 18; see Hille- brandt, Soma, p. 242.
By a characteristic leap of fancy the fluid-yielding lash is now regarded as a milch-cow, and the rhetorical properties usually connected with her ecstatic praise are exploited. Por rage Gd, cl. All, 1,45; RV. IV, 42, 10; VI, 48, 11; VIII, 69, 10.
nection with the moisture of the clouds, and suggests the morning dew.
590 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Ch. AV. IX,,.10, 6=RV.1,. 164, 28, and AV. Viliy oea2: For the three gharmas (RV. VII, 33, 7), see the discussions of Geldner, Vedische Studien,-II, 139; Henry, l.c., p, 68. I am disposed to think that there is here at least an allusion to the ritual gharma, either the hot milk, or the pot in which the hot milk is cooked ; cf. Vag. S. XXXVIII, 6 ff., and Haug, Vedische Rathselfragen, p. 40.
Cf. the interesting formula at Lafty. Sr. III, 5,15,... pita upatish¢/anta apo ye sdkvara rzshabha ye svaragas te arshantu te varshantu te kvzzvantv isham Uurgam rayaspo- sham tad videya. The words sékvarad/ and svardgas ailude incidentally to the groups of siman-stanzas of that hame. In Pada d a4pak may possibly be accusative (Whitney, Sanskrit Grammar?, § 393 a), co-ordinated with irgam.
b. Cf. Contributions, Sixth Series, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XLVIII, 566.
Stanzais 11-138.
Rubricated at Vait. Sd. 21, 7, together with other formulas (VI, 47 and 48), designed for the three daily pressures of the soma. Cf. in general Bergaigne, Re- cherches sur l’histoire de la liturgie Védique, Journal Asiatique, vol. xiii (1889); Contributions, Fifth Series. Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 3 ff. More secondary is the employment of the stanzas, Kaus. 139, 15, at the introduc- tion of the pupil to the study of the Vedas, which rests upon. the occurrence of the word varkas in the stanzas. Cf. the first varkasyagava in the Gavamala, Ath. Paris. 32, 10 (Kaus. 13, I, note).
For vamsishiya, read vamsishiya with Whitney, Index
Verborum; cf. Proc. Amer. Or. Soc., May, 1886 (Journ.,
vol. xili, p. cxviii).
Ix, 2. Commentary. 59!
Identical with RV. I, 23, 24; AV. VII, 89, 2; X, 5, 47.
Cf. XIV, 1, 35, and Hillebrandt, Soma, p. 251. In Vait. Sd. 30, 13, the stanza figures at the sautrdmavi-rite, as is suggested by the presence of the word surd. Cf. Contri- butions, Third Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 148 ff. ; Oldenberg, Nachrichten der Gottingischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1893, p. 342 ff.
Repeated almost identically at VI, 69,2; cf. Hillebrandt, Lic. p- 240. .
e, d. In Pada b divi seems to stand ‘secondarily for adhi
in st. 10. At any rate tim in Pada c and sd in d seem to
refer to bhimy4m in b. Very differently Henry in his
note.