Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book II/Hymn 8

8. Against the disease kṣetriyá: with a plant.

[Bhṛgvan̄giras.—vānaspatyam; yakṣmanāçanadāivatam. ānuṣṭubham: 3. pathyāpan̄kti; 4.. virāj; 5. nicṛtpathyāpan̄kti.]

Verse 1 occurs in Pāipp. i. It is reckoned (Kāuç. 26. 1, note) to the takmanāçana gaṇa, and is used in a healing ceremony (against kulāgatakuṣṭhakṣayagrahaṇyādirogās, comm.), accompanying various practices upon the diseased person, which are evidently rather adapted to the words of the text than represented by them (26. 41-27.4), and, according to the comm., are rather alternative than to be performed successively.

Translated: Weber, xiii. 149; Ludwig, p. 513; Griffith, i. 50; Bloomfield, 13, 286.

1. Arisen are the (two) blessed stars called the Unfasteners (vicṛ́t); let them unfasten (vi-muc) of the kṣetriyá the lowest, the highest fetter.

The disease kṣetriyá (lit'ly, 'of the field') is treated elsewhere, especially in iii. 7 (mentioned also in ii. 10; 14. 5; iv. 18. 7). The comm. defines it here as kṣetre parakṣetre putrapāutrādiçarīre cikitsyaḥ (quoting for this interpretation Pāṇ. v. 2. 92) kṣayakuṣṭhādidoṣadūṣitapitṛmātrādiçarīrāvayavebhya āgataḥ kṣayakuṣṭhāpasmārādirogaḥ—apparently an infectious disorder, of various forms, appearing in a whole family, or perhaps endemic. The name vicṛtāu 'the two unfasteners' is given later to the two stars in the sting of the Scorpion (λ and ν Scorpionis: see Sūryā-Siddhānta, note to viii. 9), and there seems no good reason to doubt that they are the ones here intended; the selection of two so inconspicuous is not any more strange than the appeal to stars at all; the comm. identifies them with Mūla, which is the asterism composed of the Scorpion's tail. The verse is nearly identical with iii. 7. 4, and its first half is vi. 121. 3 a, b. Ppp. has for c, d sukṣetriyasya muñcatāṁ saṃgranthya hṛdayasya ca. ⌊"Their [the two stars'] healing virtue would doubtless be connected with the meteorological conditions of the time at which their heliacal rising takes place."—Sūryā-siddhānta. l.c., p. 337.⌋

2. Let this night fade away (apa-vas); let the bewitchers (f., abhikṛ́tvan) fade away; let the kṣetriyá-effacing (-nā́çana) plant fade the kṣetriyá away.

The night at time of dawn is meant, says the comm. (doubtless correctly). He gives two renderings of abhikṛtvarīs: one, from root kṛ, abhito rogaçāntiṁ kurvāṇāḥ, the other from kṛt 'cut,' kartanaçīlāḥ piçācyaḥ. According to Kāuç. the hymn accompanies a dousing with prepared water outside the house (? bahis); with this verse it is to be done at the end of the night.

3. With the straw of the brown, whitish-jointed barley for thee, with the sesame-stalk (? -piñjī) of sesame, let the kṣetriyá-effacing etc. etc.

The comm. understands arjuna- in a as a tree so named: "with a splinter of it"; tilapiñjī is to him tilasahitamañjarī. With this verse "what is mentioned in the text" is directed by Kāuç. (26. 43) to be bound on, and also (so the comm. understands the connection) a clod of earth and stuff from an ant-hill etc.

4. Homage to thy ploughs (lān̄gala), homage to thy poles-and-yokes: let the kṣetriyá-effacing etc. etc.

Comm. makes lān̄gala = vṛṣabhayuktasīra: "homage to the specified parts of the plough or to the divinities of them." With this verse, he says, the sick person is put underneath an ox-harnessed plough for his dousing (Kāuç. "with his head under a plough-yoke"). Some allusion to the name of the disease as coming from "field" is perhaps intended. The Anukr. strangely forbids the resolution -bhi-as in a and b.

5. Homage to them of constantly falling eyes, homage to them of the same region (? saṁdeçyà), homage to the lord of the field: let the kṣetriyá-effacing etc. etc.

With this verse, according to Kāuç. (27. 2-4) the patient is put in an empty house (çūnyaçālā), and further in an old hole (jaratkhāta) that has housegrass (çālātṛṇa) in it, and is there doused and mouth-rinsed. In accordance with this, the comm. declares sanisrasākṣā́s to signify "empty houses," as having their round windows (gavākṣa) and other openings in a state of dilapidation. He reads in b saṁdeçebhyas, making it mean "old holes" (jaradgarta), because saṁdiçyante tyajyante tadgatamṛdādānena—which is hardly intelligible; and both words are of obscure meaning. In a charm against all sorts of hurtful beings, Ppp. (vi. 3. 4) reads as follows: abhihastaṁ sarīsṛpaṁ bhrastākṣaṁ mṛdvan̄gulim, and dāsagranthyaṁ sānisrasam ud raṇye daṅçārusyaṁ tāṁ. In this verse again, -bhyas in b is read as one syllable by the Anukr. ⌊SPP. divides the verse after saṁdeçyèbhyaḥ with most of his mss.; but three of them make avasāna after pátaye. Comm. and all five translators take sani- as a possessive compound (sanisrasá + akṣán): accent, Gram.² §1298. b, end.⌋