Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book III/Hymn 7

7. Against the disease kṣetriyá.

[Bhṛgvan̄giras.—saptarcam. yakṣmanāçanadāivatam uta bahudevatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 6. bhurij.]

Found in Pāipp. iii., with few variants, but with vs. 5 at the end. Used by Kāuç. (27. 29) in a healing ceremony (its text does not specify the disease); and reckoned (26. 1, note) to the takmanāçana gaṇa. And the comm. quotes it as employed by the Nakṣ. ⌊Çānti?⌋ K. (17, 19) in the mahāçānti called kāumāri.

Translated: Weber, xvii. 208; Grill, 8, 105; Griffith, i.89; Bloomfield, 15, 336.

1. On the head of the swift-running gazelle (hariṇá) is a remedy; he by his horn hath made the kṣetriyá disappear, dispersing.

Viṣā́ṇā is divided (vi॰sā́nā) in the pada-text, as if from vi + sā 'unfasten'—which is, indeed, in all probability its true derivation, as designating primarily a deciduous horn, one that is dropped off or shed; and in this peculiarity, as distinguished from the permanent horns of the domestic animals, perhaps lies the reason of its application to magical remedial uses. The verse occurs also in ĀpÇS. xiii. 7. 16 ⌊where most mss. have raghuṣyato⌋. For the kṣetriya, see above, ii. 8. ⌊☞ See p. 1045.⌋

2. After thee hath the bull-gazelle stridden with his four feet; O horn, do thou unfasten (vi-sā) the kṣetriyá that is compacted (?) in his heart.

Ppp. has a different d: yadi kiṁcit kṣetriyaṁ hṛdi. The word-play in c, between viṣāṇā and vi-sā, is obvious; that any was intended with viṣūcīna in 1 d is very questionable. This verse, again, is found in ĀpÇS. ib., but with considerable variants: anu tvā hariṇo mṛgaḥ paḍbhiç caturbhir akramīt: viṣāṇe vi ṣyāi ’taṁ granthiṁ yad asya gulphitaṁ hṛdi; here it is a "knot" that is to be untied by means of the horn. One of our mss. (O.) has in c paḍbhís, like ĀpÇS. The comm., followed by a couple of SPP's mss., further agrees with ĀpÇS. by reading gulphitam in c, and explains it as gulphavad grathitam. The occurrence of the rare and obscure guṣpita ⌊misprinted guṣṭitam⌋ in ÇB. iii. 2. 2. 20 is also in connection with the use of a deer's horn.

3. What shines down yonder, like a four-sided roof (chadís), therewith we make all the kṣetriyá disappear from thy limbs.

In our edition, téna in c should be ténā, as read by nearly all the saṁhitā-mss. (all save our P.M.), and by SPP. The sense of a, b is obscure to the comm., as to us; he guesses first that it is "the deer-shaped thing extended in the moon's disk," or else "a deer's skin stretched on the ground"; chadís is "the mat of grass with which a house is covered." Weber takes it as a constellation; Grill (mistranslating pakṣa by "post"), as the gazelle himself set up on his four legs, with his horns for roof! If a constellation, it might be the Arab "manzil" γ, ζ, η, π Aquarii, which its shape and name connect with a tent: see Sūrya-Siddhānta, note to viii. 9 (under 25th asterism); this is not very far from the stars mentioned in the next verse ⌊λ and ν Scorpionis⌋.

4. The two blessed stars named Unfasteners (vicṛ́t), that are yonder in the sky—let them unfasten of the kṣetriyá the lowest, the highest fetter.

The verse is nearly identical with ii. 8. 1 above, which see ⌊b recurs at vi. 121. 3 b; v. Schroeder gives the Kaṭha version of a, b, Zwei hss., p. 15, and Tübinger Kaṭha-hss., p. 75⌋. Ppp. makes it in part yet more nearly so, by beginning with ud agātām bhagavatī, but reads in c vi kṣetriyaṁ tvā ’bhy ānaçe ⌊cf. our 6 b⌋; and its end and part of vs. 6 (which next follows) are defaced.

5. The waters verily [are] remedial, the waters disease-expelling, the waters remedial of everything; let them release thee from kṣetriyá.

The first three pādas are RV. x. 137. 6 a, b, c, save that RV. has sárvasya in c; but vi. 91. 3 below represents the same verse yet more closely.

6. If from the drink (? āsutí) that was being made the kṣetriyá hath come upon (vi-aç) thee, I know the remedy of it; I make the kṣetriyá disappear from thee.

The word āsutí is of doubtful and disputed sense; Weber says "infusio seminis" ⌊as immediate cause of the "Erb-übel," which is Weber's version of kṣetriyá⌋; Grill, "gekochter Zaubertrank"; the comm., dravībhūtam annam 'liquidized food.'

7. In the fading-out of the asterisms, in the fading-out of the dawns also, from us [fade] out all that is of evil nature, fade out (apa-vas) the kṣetriyá.

Ppp. has tato ’ṣasām at end of b, and in c āmayat for durbhūtam. Emendation of asmát in c to asmāt (as suggested by Weber) would notably improve the sense. The second pāda has a syllable too many, unless we make the double combination vāsó ’ṣásām.