Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book I/Hymn 3
3. Against obstruction of urine: with a reed.
[Atharvan.—navarcam. parjanyamitrādibahudevatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 1-5. pathyāpan̄kti]
Of this hymn, only vss. 7-8 are found in Pāipp. (in xix.), without the refrain. It is doubtless intended at Kāuç. 25. 10, as used in a rite for regulating the flow of urine; vss. 8-9 are specified in 25. 12. The "reed" implies some primitive form of a fistula urinaria, the vastiyantra (one of the nāḍiyantrāṇi) of the later physicians—who, however, do not appear to have made frequent use of it.
Translated: Weber, iv. 395; Griffith, i. 4; Bloomfield, 10, 235.—Cf. Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 130.
1. We know the reed's father, Parjanya of hundredfold virility; with that will I make weal (çám) for thy body; on the earth [be] thine outpouring, out of thee, with a splash!
The last pāda is found also at TS. iii. 3. 102; bā́l iti, again at xviii. 2. 22.
2. We know the reed's father, Mitra of hundredfold virility; with that will etc. etc.
3. We know the reed's father, Varuṇa of etc. etc.
4. We know the reed's father, the moon of etc. etc.
5. We know the reed's father, the sun of etc. etc.
6. What in thine entrails, thy (two) groins (? gavīnī́), what in thy bladder has flowed together—so be thy urine released, out of thee, with a splash! all of it.
The comm. reads in b (with two or three of SPP's mss., which follow him) saṁçritam. He explains the gavīnyāu as " two vessels (nāḍī) located in the two sides, affording access to the receptacles of urine."
7. I split up thy urinator, like the weir of a tank—so be thy etc. etc.
The comm. (with the same mss. as above) has in b vartam. Ppp. reads vṛtraṁ veçantyā: yantyaḥ. ⌊'I pierce or open up thy urethra'—with a metallic catheter, says the comm.⌋
8. Unfastened [be] thy bladder-orifice, like [that] of a water-holding sea—so be thy etc. etc.
Ppp. gives, for b, samudrasyo 'tadhir eva.
9. As the arrow flew forth, let loose from the bow—so be thy etc. etc.
Instead of parā॰ápatat in a, we should expect parā॰pátat, the equivalent of a present.
It is easy to reduce this hymn to the substance of four verses, the norm of the book, by striking out vss. 2-5, as plainly secondary variations of vs. 1, and combining vss. 7-8 (as in Ppp.) into one verse, with omission of the sense-disturbing refrain.