Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book II/Hymn 24

24. Against kimīdíns, male and female.

[Brahman.—aṣṭarcam. āyuṣyam. pān̄ktam....]

⌊Not metrical.⌋ Part of the hymn is found in Pāipp. ii., but in a very corrupt condition: see under the verses below. Kāuç. makes no use of it that is characteristic, or that casts any light upon its difficulties, but prescribes it simply as to be employed in a certain ceremony (19. 9-13) for prosperity (according to the comm., for removal of a bad sign), called "of the sea" (sāmudra: the comm. says, offering in a çāpeṭastha fire, in the midst of the sea); it is also reckoned (19. 1, note) to the mantras called puṣṭika 'for prosperity.' The words that precede the refrain in each verse are apparently the names of kimīdíns. The Anukr. says that Brahman in each verse praised with verses the deity mentioned in it; and gives a long description of the meters that is too confused and corrupt to be worth quoting in full.

Translated: Weber, xiii. 182; Griffith, i. 62.

1. O çerabhaka, çerabha! back again let your familiar demons go; back again your missile, ye kimīdíns! whose ye are, him eat ye; who hath sent you forth, him eat ye; eat your own flesh.

Ppp. reads: çarabhaka ṣeraçabha punar bho yānti yādavaṣ punar hatiṣ kimīdinaḥ yasya stha dam atta yo va prāhī tam uttam māsāṅsa manyatā. The comm. in the last phrase gives sā instead of svā and has much trouble to fabricate an explanation for it (as = tasya, or else for sā hetiḥ). Çerabhaka he takes as either sukhasya prāpaka or çarabhavat sarveṣām hiṅsaka, but is confident that it designates a "chief of yātudhānas." Of the refrain, the first part seems metrical, and the second prose, in three phrases; and it may be counted as 8 + 8: 6 + 7 + 5 (or 7) = 34 (or 36): the prefixed names add 7 syllables (vss. 1, 2), or 5 (vss. 3, 4), or 3 (vss. 6-8), or 2 (vs. 5). ⌊Bloomfield comments on áhāit and the like, ZDMG. xlviii. 577.⌋

2. O çevṛdhaka, çévṛdha! back again let your familiar etc. etc.

3. O mroká, anumroka! back again let your familiar etc. etc.

4. O sarpá, anusarpa! back again let your familiar etc. etc.

5. O júrṇī! back again let your familiar demons go; back again your missile, ye she-kimīdíns; whose ye are etc. etc.

6. O upabdi! back again let your familiar etc. etc.

7. O árjunī! back again let your familiar etc. etc.

8. O bharūjī! back again. let your familiar etc. etc.

To represent all these verses, we find in Ppp. çevṛka çevṛdha sarpān sarpa mrokān mro jyarṇyatro jarjūnvapaprado punar vo yanti yādavaḥ: punar jūtiṣ kimīdinaḥ yasya stha dam atta yo na prāhi tam utvas sā māṅsāṇy attā. It has not seemed worth while to try to translate the names, though most of them contain intelligible elements ⌊see Weber, p. 184, 186⌋, and the comm. forces through worthless explanations for them all. In vs. 8 he reads bharūci, and makes an absurd derivation from roots bhṛ and añc ("going to take away the body"). ⌊In the first draft, W. notes that the four feminine names of vss. 5-8 might be combined to one triṣṭubh pāda, which with the common refrain would give us the normal five "verses."⌋