Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 18

18. Against jealousy.

[Atharvan (?).—īrṣyāvināçanadevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Used by Kāuç. (36. 25), with vii. 45 and 74. 3, in a rite against jealousy.

Translated: Weber, Ind. Stud. v. 235; Ludwig, p. 514; Florenz, 270 or 22; Grill, 28, 159; Griffith, i. 254; Bloomfield, 106, 467.

1. The first blast of jealousy, and the one after the first, the fire, the heat of the heart—this we extinguish for thee.

Ppp. has readings in part better: for b, madhyamām adhamām uta; for agnim in c, satyaṁ; at end, nir mantrayāmahe. The comm. explains dhrājim by vegayuktāṁ gatim.

2. As the earth [is] dead-minded, more dead-minded than a dead man, and as [is] the mind of one who has died, so of the jealous man the mind [be] dead.

"Feeling" would be in this verse an acceptable equivalent for manas 'mind.'

3. That fluttering mind (manaská) that has found place in (çritá) thy heart—from it I set free thy jealousy, like the hot vapor from a bag of skin.

The translation implies at the end the emendation (first proposed in BR.) of the apparently senseless nṛ́tes into dṛ́tes, which the comm. reads, and which SPP. has accordingly admitted into his text; the result of fermentation, escaping when the vessel is opened, is apparently intended. Ppp., however, has nṛtes, although it gives sundry various readings (in part mere corruptions): for a, yad yan me hṛdi srukaṁ; in b, prathayiṣṇukam; in c, taṁ te riṣyāmi mu-. The comm. divides b into manas kam patayiṣṇu kam.