Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book V/Hymn 14

14. Against witchcraft: with a plant.

[Çukra.—trayodaçakam. vānaspatyam. kṛtyāpratiharaṇam. ānuṣṭubham: 8, 5, 12. bhurij; 8. 3-p. virāj; 10. nicṛd bṛhatī; 11. 3-p. sāmnī triṣṭubh; 13. svarāj.]

⌊Part of verse 8 is prose.⌋ Found also (except vss. 3, 5, which are wanting, and 9, 13, which occur in ii.) in Pāipp. vii. (in the order 1, 2, 8, 12, 4, 10, 11, 7, 6). Quoted in Kāuç. (39. 7) with ii. 11 and several other hymns, in a ceremony against witchcraft; vs. 9 also separately in 39. 11. Not noticed in Vāit.

Translated: Zimmer, p. 396; Grill, 26, 147; Griffith, i. 210; Bloomfield, 77, 429; Weber, xviii. 216.

1. An eagle (suparṇá) discovered thee; a hog dug thee with his snout; seek thou to injure, O herb, him that seeks to injure; smite down the witchcraft-maker.

We have had the first half-verse already, as ii. 27. 2 a, b. Ppp. has, for d, prati kṛtyākṛto daha.

2. Smite down the sorcerers, smite down the witchcraft-maker; then, whoever seeks to injure us, him do thou smite, O herb.

Ppp. omits, probably by oversight, the first half-verse.

3. Having cut around out of [his] skin a strip (pariçāsá), as it were of a stag, fasten, O gods, upon the witchcraft-maker the witchcraft, like a necklace.

That is, apparently, with a thong cut out of his own skin, like a buck-skin thong. As usual, the mss. vary in a between ṛ́çy- and ríçy-, E. even reading ríṣy-, but the majority have ṛ́çy-, which is undoubtedly the true text, and should be restored in our edition. Three times, in this hymn (vss. 3, 5, 12), the Anukr. insists on regarding iva as dissyllabic, and therefore reckons the verses as bhurij.

4. Lead thou away the witchcraft back to the witchcraft-maker, grasping its hand; set it straight before (samakṣám) him, that it may smite the witchcraft-maker.

Ppp. has, for b, pratiharaṇaṁ na harāmasi (our 8 c); but in book ii. it has the whole half-verse just as it stands here.

5. Be the witchcrafts for the witchcraft-maker, the curse for him that curses; like an easy chariot let the witchcraft roll back to the witchcraft-maker.

6. If woman, or if man, hath made witchcraft in order to evil, it we conduct unto him, like a horse by a horse-halter.

The Anukr. doubtless scans d as áçvam ivā ’çvābhidhā́nyā, instead of áçvam ’va ’çvābhidhā́niā, as it should be.

7. If either thou art god-made, or if made by man, thee, being such, do we lead back, with Indra as ally.

Ppp. has a very different version of this verse: yā kṛtye devakṛtā yā vā manuṣyajā ’si: tāṁ tvā pratyan̄ prahiṇmasi pratīcī nayana brahmaṇā. The ṇ in púnar ṇayāmasi is prescribed by Prāt. iii. 81. Táṁ at beginning of c is a misprint for tā́ṁ.

8. O Agni, overpowerer of fighters, overpower the fighters; we take the witchcraft back to the witchcraft-maker by a returner.

Ppp. reads in b prati instead of punar, thus making a better correspondence with pratiharaṇa in c. The Anukr's definition of the "verse" is purely artificial; the first pāda is distinctly unmetrical, and the third hardly metrical.

9. O practiced piercer (?), pierce him; whoever made [it], him do thou smite; we do not sharpen thee up to slay (vadhá) him who has not made [it].

This verse is found in Ppp. in book ii., much corrupted, with, for d, vadhāya çaṁsamīmahe. Kṛtavyadhanī may possibly be the proper name of the herb addressed: cf. kṛtavedhana or -dhaka, "name of a sort of fennel or anise" (Pet. Lex.).

10. Go as a son to a father; like a constrictor trampled on, bite; go, O witchcraft, back to the witchcraft-maker, as it were treading down [thy] bond.

That is, apparently, escaping and treading on what has restrained thee. Ppp. combines in b svajāiva, and reads for c, d, tantur ivāvyayaṁnide kṛtye kṛtyākṛtaṁ kṛtāḥ. Though the verse is a perfectly good anuṣṭubh, the Anukr., reading iva three times as dissyllabic, turns it into a defective bṛhatī.

11. Up, like a she-antelope (eṇī́), a she-elephant (? vāraṇī́), with leaping on, like a hind, let the witchcraft go to its maker.

A verse of doubtful interpretation; but it is altogether probable that the animal-names are coördinate in construction with kṛtyā́ in c; and they are feminine doubtless because this is feminine; the kṛtyā is to overtake its perpetrator with their swiftness and force. But the Pet. Lex. takes vāraṇī́ as 'shy, wild,' qualifying eṇī́. Ppp. combines enāi ’va and mṛgāi ’va, and reads vāruṇī, and -krandaṁ for -skandaṁ; -krandam seems rather preferable. The unaltered s of abhisk- in b falls under Prāt. ii. 104, and the example is quoted there. Though the verse is a fairly regular gāyatrī, the Anukr. stupidly accounts it a sāmnī triṣṭubh, as if it were prose, and contained only 22 syllables.

12. Straighter than an arrow let it fly, O heaven-and-earth, to meet him; let it, the witchcraft, seize again him, the witchcraft-maker, like a deer.

Ppp. reads, for c, d, sā taṁ mṛgam iva vidat kṛtyā kṛtyākṛtaṁ kṛtā.

13. Let it go like fire up-stream, like water down-stream; like an easyc hariot let the witchcraft roll back to the witchcraft-maker.

'Up-stream,' i.e. contrary to the natural direction (pratikūlam), or upward. Ppp. has the verse in book ii., and reads at the end of d (cf. its version of 12 d) tāḥ (for kṛtā). The meter is svarāj only by twice refusing to abbreviate iva to ’va.