Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 138

138. To make a certain man impotent.

[Atharvan (klībakartukāmaḥ).—pañcarcam. vānaspatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 3. pathyāpan̄kti.]

Found (except vs. 5) also in Pāipp. i. Used by Kāuç. (48. 32) in a rite of sorcery, with wrapping, crushing, and burying urine and fæces.

Translated: Weber, Ind. Stud. v. 246; Ludwig, p. 470; Geldner, Ved. Stud. i. 131 (in part and with comment); Griffith, i. 322, 474; Bloomfield, 108, 537.

1. Thou art listened to, O herb, as the most best of plants; make thou now this man for me impotent (klībá), opaçá-wearing.

The opaçá is some head-ornament worn distinctively by women (comm. strīvyañjanam). Geldner holds that opaça, kurīra (vs. 2), and kumba (vs. 3) all mean alike 'horn.' Ppp. reads pāuruṣam in c. The comm. does not attempt to identify the plant addressed.

2. Do thou make him impotent, opaçá-wearing, likewise make him kurī́ra-wearing; then let Indra with the (two) pressing-stones split both his testicles.

Ppp. gives kṛtvā for kṛdhi in a (combining kṛtvo ’p-), and reads throughout klīva and opaçu; in c, d it has ubhābhyām asya gr. indro bhinaitv ā. The comm. explains kurīra as = keça, and quotes from TS. iv. 1. 5³ the phrase sinīvālī́ sukapardā́ sukurīrā́ svāupaçā́; and also, from an unknown source, stanakeçavatī strī syāl lomaçaḥ puruṣaḥ smṛtaḥ.

3. Impotent one, I have made thee impotent; eunuch (vádhri), I have made thee eunuch; sapless one, I have made thee sapless; the kurī́ra and the kúmba we set down upon his head.

The comm. explains kurīra here as 'a net of hair' (keçajāla) and kumba as 'its ornament' (tadābharaṇam), and he quotes from ĀpÇS. x. 9. 5 the sentence atra patnīçirasi kumbakurīram adhy ūhate. Both words plainly signify some distinctively womanish head-dress or ornament. Ppp. reads (as also our P.s.m.) kumbham in e; and, for c, arasaṁ tvā ’karam arasā ’raso ’si.

4. The two god-made tubes that [are] thine, in which stands thy virility, those I split for thee with a peg, on yon woman's loins (muṣká).

Ppp. combines amuṣyā ’dhi in d (but perhaps the true saṁhitā-reading?). ⌊Ppp. has a gap in the place where our çamyayā stands.⌋

5. As women split reeds with a stone for a cushion, so do I split thy member, on yon woman's loins.

In this and the preceding verse, the comm. strangely connects muṣkáyos with the preceding noun (nāḍyāù, çépas) and supplies çilāyās with amúṣyās.