Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book IV/Hymn 18

18. Against witchcraft: with a plant.

[Çukra.—(etc.: see under hymn 17). 6. bṛhatīgarbhā.]

Found in Pāipp. v. (vs. 6 before 5). Used by Kāuç. only in company with h. 17, as there explained.

Translated: Grill, 25, 131; Griffith, i. 156; Bloomfield, 70, 396; Weber, xviii. 77.

1. The same light with the sun—night possesses the same with the day; I make what is effective (satyá) for aid; sapless be the makers (f.) [of witchcraft].

Kṛ́tvarīs at the end borrows a special sense from its relationship with kṛtyā ⌊a case of "reflected meaning"—see note to iii. 11. 8⌋. The construction in the first half-verse (if here rightly understood) is peculiarly intricate: samám jyótis is, as it were, coördinate with the samá of samā́vatī, as if it were samajyotiṣmatī: i.e. "night has its light as good as the sun's or the day's." Or else jyótis (R.) is to be taken outright as "moonlight" (= later jyotsnā). Ppp. begins with samā bhūmis sū-, and has in c sabhya for satyam. One of our pada-mss. (Op.), like one of SPP's, divides in b sam॰ā́vatī; the comm. defines the word by "of equal length" (samānāyāmā); and kṛtvarīs by kartanaçīlās (taking it from kṛt 'cut'). In our text, the ṛ-sign has dropped out from under the k-sign in this word.

2. Whoso, O gods, having made witchcraft, shall take it to the house of one unknowing—let it, like a sucking (dhārú) calf to its mother, go back unto him.

The comm., with one or two of SPP's mss., reads árāt instead of hárāt in b; dhārús he defines by stanapānaṁ kurvan. There is a redundant syllable in c unless we abbreviate iva to ’va.

3. Whoso, having made evil at home, desires to slay another with it—numerous stones make a loud crash when it (f.) is burned.

Ppp. is partly defaced in this verse; and it gives us no aid in solving the difficulties of the second half. The discordance between the masculines yás and pāpmā́nam in a, b and the feminine tā́syām is perhaps best removed by supposing kṛtyā to have been mentally substituted for pāpman (the comm. supplies kṛtyāyām to tasyām); Grill violently emends amā́ in a to āmā́yām (sc. pātryā́m*), and thinks that this raw vessel bursts noisily in pieces when burnt; R. conjectures that thick stones crack when the kṛtyā is burnt, perhaps so as to wake the intended victim. The comm. paraphrases amā by anukūla iva saha sthitaḥ, i.e. an assistant or confederate, and reads in c dugdhāyām "drained" or made ineffective; the stones are produced by the countermagic, and are called on to do (karikrati = punaḥ-punaḥ kurvantu: a convenient substitution of the imperative!) damage (phaṭ=hiṅsanam) to the kṛtyā-kṛt. The translation given above implies a threat of the destruction of the kṛtyā by burning and by stones tumbling crash! (phaṭ for phaṣ?) upon it. The harsh resolution kṛtu-ā́ makes the verse a full anuṣṭubh. ⌊Bp. also has dugdhā́yām.⌋ *⌊Oxytone, not perispome.⌋

4. O thou of a thousand abodes (? -dhā́man), do thou make them lie (?) crestless, neckless; take back the witchcraft to him that made it, like a sweet-heart (priyā́) to a lover (priyā́vant).

For víçikhān in a, Ppp. reads viṣākhāṁ (our P.M.W.E. have víçīṣān, our Bp.I.H. víçiṣān). In b, SPP. reports all his authorities as reading çāyayā (p. -ya); no such form has been noted among our mss. ⌊but Ppp. has çāyā tvam; Benares ms. R., chāyayā; and T., chayayā⌋; in most mss. y and p are but imperfectly distinguished, and, as some of SPP's authorities are oral, he is to be presumed right; and the translation implies çāyaya ⌊for the saṁdhi, Prāt. ii. 17⌋. The comm. reads instead kṣāyaya, from kṣi (= kṣayam prāpaya). He rehearses the series of diverse senses given by Yāska to dhāman, and declares them all intended by the word in a. The verse he regards as addressed to the sahadevī.

5. I, with this herb, have spoiled all witchcrafts—what one they have made in the field, what in the kine, or what in thy men (púruṣa).

Ppp. reads in c and d the datives gobhyas and puruṣebhyas; the comm. explains puruṣeṣu as "in a place frequented by them"; for vā te he reads vāte 'in the wind.' A few of our mss. (P.M.W.) have adūduṣan in b. The Anukr. takes no notice of the deficiency of a syllable in d.

6. He who hath made hath not been able to make; he hath crushed (çṛ) a foot, a finger; he hath made what is excellent for us, but for himself a burning (tápana).

The verse is repeated below as v. 31. 11, but with a different last pāda, which reads: abhagó bhágavadbhyaḥ. Ppp's version of a-b is yāṁ cakāra na çaçākha çaçire pādam an̄gulim (omitting kartum); yām ⌊sc. kṛtyā́m?⌋ is a preferable reading. The comm. also has an̄gulim; our -rim is authenticated by the comment to Prāt. i. 66. Ppp's d reads as does our v. 31. 11 d, but with abhagā for -gó. The verse is metrically defined in the same way as here at v. 31. 11 ⌊the Anukr. seems to scan it as 8 + 9: 8 + 8 (cf., for example, iii. 8. 4)⌋; but kártum is evidently ⌊as the accent of çaçré shows⌋ to be reckoned to a, and the pada-mss. so divide. ⌊The suspicion is natural that a sá has been lost between ná and çaçā́ka. So ca has been lost at iv. 5. 5 a (cf. RV. vii. 55. 6 a). If we are right in restoring sá, and if we pronounce çaçṛ-é (as the Ppp. reading suggests), we should then scan 11 + 8: 8 + 8.—The accent of çaçā́ka can hardly be more than a blunder.—-The comment to this verse seems to have failed of thorough revision at W's hands.⌋

7. Let the off-wiper wipe off the kṣetriyá and whatever curse [there is]; [wipe] off, forsooth, the sorceresses, off all the hags.

Ppp. reads in c -dhānyas, rectifying the meter. The comm. here defines kṣetriya as hereditary disease (kṣetraṁ mātāpitṛçarīraṁ tatsakāçāt).

8. Having wiped off the sorcerers, off all the hags, O off-wiper, with thee do we wipe off all that.

Ppp. is defaced in this verse. The comm. first explains apamṛ́jya in a into an imperative, apamṛḍḍhi; but then, as an alternative, he allows it its own proper sense.