Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 14

14. Against the balā́sa.

[Babhrupin̄gala (?).—balāsadevatyatn. ānuṣṭubham.]

Occurs also in Pāipp. xix. Used by Kāuç. (29. 30) in a remedial rite against catarrh (çleṣman), with variously administering prepared water to the patient.

Translated: Florenz, 265 or 17; Griffith, i. 252; Bloomfield, 8, 463; vs. 1 also by Grohmann, Ind. Stud. ix. 397, with an excursus on the balā́sa.

1. The bone-dissolving, joint-dissolving, settled (ā́sthita) heart disease, all the balā́sa, cause thou to disappear, that is seated in the limbs and in the joints.

SPP. adopts in a the saṁhitā-reading parusraṅsám (p. paruḥ॰sraṅsám), with nearly all his mss., and with the comm. The majority also of our mss. ⌊not E.O.⌋ omit the ḥ but the Prāt. authorizes no such abbreviation, and the point is one in regard to which the usage of the mss., however seemingly accordant, is not to be trusted. Ppp. reads,

in c, niṣ kṛdhi for nāçaya. The comm. takes the two words in a as names of disorders, which is perhaps preferable, and regards them as occasioned by phlegm (çleṣman); balāsa he defines as kāsaçvāsātmaka çleṣmaroga. ⌊For ā́sthita, see note to iv. 17. 8.⌋ ⌊Delete the accent-sign over -saṁ in c.⌋

2. The balā́sa of him that has balā́sa I destroy like a muṣkará; I cut its bond like the root of a gourd.

The accent urvārvā́s is noted in the commentary to Prāt. iii. 60; Ppp. reads ulvālvo yathā. The comm. defines urvārū as 'the fruit of the karkaṭī' (Cucumis utilissimus) and explains the comparison to be with the stem of this fruit, which becomes loosened of itself when ripe: cf. xiv. 1. 17. Ppp. and the comm. read puṣkaram in b. Ppp. also has kṛṇomi instead of kṣiṇomi, a preferable reading (BR. pronounce kṣiṇomi "false"; but nu-forms of this root occur in Brāhmaṇa and Sūtra; akṣṇomi, however, would be better in place). ⌊See BR. v. 1348 and 838.⌋

3. Fly out forth from here, O balā́sa, like a young āçuṁgá; then, like the [last] year's bulrush, scud away, innocuous to heroes.

Ppp. has, for b, suparṇo vasater iva ⌊cf. RV. i. 25. 4⌋ 'like a bird from its nest': a much easier reading. The comm. explains āçuṁga as an ordinary adjective, 'swiftgoing,' and, instead of çiçuka, reads çuçuka "a wild animal so called." For c, d, Ppp. has adhe ’ṭa ivā ’hano ‘padrāhy avāiraha. The comm. reads itas ⌊that is itás⌋, pple of root i, for íṭas in c. The Anukr. appears to sanction the contraction iṭe ’va in c.