Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 100

100. Against poison.

[Garutman.—vānaspatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Used by Kāuç. (31. 26) in a remedial rite against various poisons, with aid of earth from an ant-hill etc.; and the comm. ⌊considers this (and not xviii. 4. 2) to be intended at 81. 10⌋ when the sacrificial cake is laid on the breast of a deceased sacrificer on the funeral-pile.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 511; Griffith, i. 300; Bloomfield, 27, 511.—See also Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 153; Bloomfield, AJP. vii. 482. Griffith quotes an interesting paragraph about the moisture of the white-ants.

1. The gods have given, the sun has given, the sky has given, the earth has given, the three Sarasvatīs have given, accordant, the poison-spoiler.

Ppp. combines devā ’duḥ in a, and has sarvās instead of tīsras in c. The comm. renders the first verb correctly, by dattavantas, but the others as imperatives.

2. The water which the gods poured for you, O upajī́kās, on the waste, with that, which is impelled by the gods, spoil ye this poison.

All the authorities* read upajīkās, vocative, which was, without good reason, altered to upajī́kās in our edition. The comm., however, with his ordinary disregard of accent, understands devā́s as vocative, and upajīkās as nominative. He quotes from TA. v. i. 4 the passage which describes the upadī́kās (so called there) as 'penetrating to water, wherever they dig'; they are a kind of ant: cf. note to ii. 3. 4. Ppp. reads upacīkā, and combines -kā ”siñcan; also, in b, dhanvann. *⌊But SPP's Bh. has upajīkā́s!⌋

3. Thou art daughter of the Asuras; thou, the same, art sister of the gods; arisen from the sky, from the earth, thou hast made the poison sapless.

Ppp. omits sā in b, and reads jajñiṣe instead of sambhatā in c. The second pāda is found also as v. 5. 1 d. The comm. has, in d, cakarṣa instead of cakartha; he regards earth from the ant-hill (valmīkamṛttikā) as addressed in the verse.