Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book II/Hymn 3
3. For relief from flux: with a certain remedy.
[An̄giras.—ṣaḍṛcam. bhāiṣajyāyurdhanvantariddivatam. ānuṣṭubham: 6. 3-p. svarāḍupariṣṭānmahbṛhatī.]
This hymn in Pāipp. also follows the one that precedes it here; but in Pāipp. vss. 3 and 6 are wanting, and 4 and 5 are made to change places; and vs. 1 is defaced. Kāuç. employs it only once (25. 6), in a healing rite for various disorders and wounds (jvarātīsārātimūtranāḍīvraṇeṣu, comm.), with i. 2.
Translated: Weber, xiii. 138; Ludwig, p. 507; Grill, 17, 79; Griffith, i. 43; Bloomfield, 9, 277.
1. What runs down yonder, aiding (?), off the mountain, that do I make for thee a remedy, that thou mayest be a good remedy.
At the end, ásati would be a very acceptable emendation: 'that there may be.' Avatká (p. avat॰kám: quoted in the comment to Prāt. i. 103; ii. 38; iv. 25) is obscure, but is here translated as from the present participle of root av (like ejatká, v. 23. 7 ⌊cf. abhimādyatká, ÇB., vikṣiṇatká, VS.⌋); this the comm. favors (vyādhiparihāreṇa rakṣakam); Ppp. has in another passage twice avatakam (but evidently meant for avatkam: avatakaṁ mama bheṣajam avatakaṁ parivācanam). In a, our P.M. read -dhā́vasi.
2. Now then, forsooth! how then, forsooth? what hundred remedies are thine, of them art thou the chief (uttamá), free from flux, free from disease (árogaṇa).
In b, me 'are mine' is an almost necessary emendation. Yet Ppp. also has te: ād an̄gāç çataṁ yad bheṣajāni te sahasraṁ vā ca yāni te; and, in d, arohaṇam; cf. also vi. 44. 2. The obscure first pāda is here translated as if uttered exclamatorily, perhaps accompanying some act or manipulation. Āsrāva is rendered by the indefinite term 'flux,' its specific meaning being uncertain; it is associated with roga also in i. 2. 4; the comm. explains it as atīsārātimūtranāḑivraṇādi. ⌊Cf. Zimmer, p. 392.⌋
3. The Asuras dig low down this great wound-healer; that is the remedy of flux; that has made the disease (róga) disappear.
The pada-text in b is aruḥ॰srā́ṇam, and the word is quoted under Prāt. ii. 40 as an example of the assimilation of a final ḥ to an initial sibilant; there can be no question, therefore, that the proper reading is arussrā́ṇa or aruḥsrā́ṇa; yet the abbreviated equivalent (see my Skt. Gram. §232 a) arusrāṇa is found in nearly all the mss., both here and in vs. 5, and SPP. adopts it in his text. The comm. gives two discordant explanations of the word: vraņasya pākasthānaṁ vraņamukham ⌊'place where it gets ripe or comes to a head'?⌋, and aruḥ srāyati pakvam bhavaty anetia. At the end, the comm. has açīçamat (as our text in 4 d).
4. The ants (upajī́kā) bring up the remedy from out the ocean; that is the remedy of flux; that has quieted (çam) the disease.
The comm. explains upajī́kās as valmīkaniṣpādikā vamryaḥ; Ppp. has instead upacīkās; elsewhere is found upadī́kā(see Bloomfield in AJP. vii. 482 ff., where the word is ably discussed); ⌊cf. also Pāli upacikā⌋. The Ppp. form, upacīkā, indicates a possible etymology, from upa + ci; Ppp. says in book vi.: yasyā bhūmyā upacīkā (ms. -kād) gṛham kṛṇvatā ”tmane: tasyās te viçvadhāyaso viṣadūṣaņam ud bhare. The earth which ants make their high nests of, and which contains their moisture, has always been used as having remedial properties. The "ocean" here (cf. udaka in vi. 100. 2), if not merely a big name for the reservoir of water beneath the surface, is a tank or pool. Ppp. has an independent second half-verse: aruspānam asy ātharvaṇo rogasthānam asy ātharvaṇam.
5. This is a great wound-healer, brought up from out the earth; that is the remedy of the flux; that has made the disease disappear.
Ppp. reads aruspānam (or -syā-) in a, and in b pṛthivyā ’bhy.
6. Weal be to us the waters, propitious the herbs; let Indra's thunderbolt smite away the demoniacs {rakṣás); far away let the discharged arrows of the demoniacs fly.
In a all the mss. read apás, which SPP. rightly retains in his text; other examples of the use of this accusative form as nominative occur in the text (see the Index Verborum); the comm. has āpas, as our edition by emendation. We may safely regard this unmetrical "verse" as a later addition to the hymn; so far as regards the number of syllables (12: 12 + 14 = 38), it is correctly described by the Anukr., as the name mahābṛhatī is elsewhere used in the latter, but apparently by no other similar treatise.