Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book III/Hymn 9

9. Against viṣkandha and other evils.

[Vāmadeva.—dyāvāpṛthivīyam uta vāiçvadevam. ānuṣṭubham: 4. 4-p. nicṛd bṛhatī; 6. bhurij.]

Found in Pāipp. iii. (with vs. 6 at the beginning). Used by Kāuç. (43. 1) in a charm against demons and the hindrances caused by them.

Translated: Weber, xvii. 215; Griffith, i. 91; Bloomfield, 67, 339.

1. Of the karçápha, of the viçaphá, heaven [is] father, earth mother: as, O gods, ye have inflicted (abhi-kṛ), so do ye remove (apa-kṛ) again.

The whole hymn contains much that is obscure and difficult, and the comm. gives no real help anywhere, being as much reduced to guessing as we are. Ppp. begins with karṣabhasya viṣabhyasya, which rather favors Weber's opinion, that the apha of the two names is a suffix, related with abha; probably two varieties of viṣkandha are intended, though none such are mentioned in the later medicine. The comm. finds çapha 'hoof' in both: one = kṛçaçaphasya (vyāghrādeḥ), the other either vigataçaphasya or vispaṣṭaçaphasya. SPP. reads in b dyāúḥ p-, which is doubtless preferable to our dyāúṣ p-; it is read by the majority of his mss. and by part of ours (H.I.K.); Ppp. also has it. Ppp. further omits abhi in c, and reads api for apa in d.

2. Without claspers they held fast (dhāraya); that was so done by Manu; I make the víṣkandha impotent, like a castrater of bulls.

Ppp. begins with açleṣamāṇo ‘dh-; some of the mss. (including our O.) also give açleṣmā́ṇas, and it is the reading of the comm.; he gives two different and equally artificial explanations; and, what is surprising even in him, three diverse ones of vádhri, without the least regard to the connection; one of the three is the right one. Ppp. adds ca after vadhri in c. Weber plausibly conjectures a method of tight tying to be the subject of the verse; castration is sometimes effected in that way.

3. On a reddish string a khṛ́gala—that the pious (vedhás) bind on; let the binders (?) make impotent the flowing (?), puffing (?) kābavá.

All obscure and questionable. Ppp's version is: for a, sūtre piçun̄khe khugilaṁ; in b, yad for tad; for c, çravasyaṁ çuṣma kābabam (the nāgarī copyist writes kāvardham). The comm. also has in c çravasyam, and three or four of SPP's mss. follow him; the translation assumes it to be for srav-. The comm. explains khṛ́galam by tanutrāṇam 'armor,' quoting RV. ii. 39. 4 as authority; çravasyam by bālarūpam annam arhati (since çravas is an annanāman!); çúṣmam by çoṣakam ⌊see Bloomfield, ZDMG. xlviii. 574⌋; kābava as a hindrance related with a kabu, which is a speckled (karburavarṇa) cruel animal; and bandhúras is either the amulet bound upon us, or it is for -rās, "the amulet, staff, etc., held by us."

5. Wherewith, O flowing ones, ye go about (car), like gods with Asura-magic (-māyā), like the ape, spoiler of dogs, and with the binder (?) of the kābavá.

Or çravasyú is 'quick, lively' (Pet. Lexx.); the comm., "seeking either food or glory." Ppp. reads in c, d dúṣaṇaṁ vandharā kābhavasyaṁ ca. The comm. explains bandhurā by sambaddhā dhṛtā khaḍgādirūpā hetiḥ. The verse is scanned by the Anukr. as 9 + 9: 9 + 8 = 35; the usual abbreviation of iva to ’va would make b and c good anuṣṭubh pādas. ⌊Read çravasyāç, voc. in a?⌋

5. Since I shall bind thee [on] for spoiling, I shall spoil the kābavá; ye shall go up with curses, like swift chariots.

The translation implies emendation of bhartsyā́mi (our edition) or bhatsyā́mi (SPP's and the comm.) to bhantsyā́mi, from root bandh, which seems plainly indicated as called for; the comm. explains bhats- first as badhnāmi, and then as dīpayāmi; the great majority of mss. give bharts-. Ppp. is quite corrupt here: juṣṭī tvā kāṁcchā ’bhi joṣayitvā bhavaṁ. The comm. has at the end cariṣyatha (two or three of SPP's mss. agreeing with him), and he combines in c udāçavas into one word, "harnessed with speedy horses that have their mouths raised for going."

6. A hundred and one víṣkandhas [are] distributed over the earth; thee have they first taken up, of them the víṣkandha-spoiling amulet.

That is, 'an amulet that spoils those víṣkandhas​' (Weber otherwise). In c, for the jaharus of all the mss. and of both editions, we ought of course to have jahrus; this the comm. reads: such expansions of r with preceding or following consonant to a syllable are not rare in the manuscripts. Ppp. has a different second half-verse: teṣāṁ ca sarveṣām idam asti viṣkandhadūṣaṇam. The second pāda is found, in a different connection, as MB. ii. 8. 4 b. The comment on Prāt. ii. 104, in quoting this verse, appears to derive víṣkandha from root skand. The verse is made bhurij only by the false form jaharus. ⌊For "101," see note to iii. 11. 5.⌋