Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 44

44. For cessation of a disease.

[Viçvāmitra.—mantroktadevatyam uta vānaspatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 3. 3-p. mahābṛhatī.]

⌊Partly prose—vs. 3.⌋ The verses 1, 2, are found also in Pāipp., 1 a, b in iii.; 1 c, d and 2 in xix. Used in Kāuç. (31. 6) in a remedial rite against slander (apavāda; but the text ⌊cf. Bloomfield, p. xlv.⌋ reads apavātā), with help of a self-shed cow-horn properly prepared.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 509; Florenz, 304 or 56; Griffith, i. 268; Bloomfield, 10, 481.—Cf. Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 151; Zimmer, p. 390.

1. The heaven hath stood; the earth hath stood; all this living world hath stood; the trees have stood, sleeping erect; may this disease of thine stand.

The peculiar epithet ūrdhvasvapna was applied by Ppp. to a tree also in its version of 30. 3, above. ⌊"Stand," i.e. 'come to a standstill.'⌋

2. What hundred remedies are thine, and [what] thousand, assembled—[with them thou art] the most excellent remedy for flux, the best effacer of disease.

Ppp. has yat for yā in a, and sambhṛtāni (for -gatāni) in b; instead of c, it reads teṣām asi tvam uttamam anāsrāva sarogaṇaṁ* (= ii. 3. 2 c, d); in d, -ṣṭha. The Ppp. reading, and ii. 3. 2, suggest supplying rather 'of them' than 'with them' between the half-verses. The comm. understands a, b as addressed to the patient (vyādhita). *⌊Intending, presumably, anāsrāvam arogaṇaṁ.⌋

3. Rudra's urine art thou, the navel of the immortal (amṛ́ta); viṣāṇakā́ ('horny') by name art thou, arisen from the root of the Fathers, an effacer of the vātī́kṛta.

This prose-stanza is reckoned by the Anukr. as if metrical. Vātī́kṛta, like vātīkārā, is too doubtful to render; its derivation from vāta 'wind' is extremely unsatisfactory, and Zimmer's connection of vāta with our "wound" etc. is also questionable; the comm. understands vātī kṛtanāçanī (vātī = āsrāvasya rogasya çoṣayitrī). The name viṣāṇakā points to some use of a horn, such as is indicated in the Kāuçika (svayaṁsrasta goçṛn̄ga 'a self-shed cow-horn '). ⌊Note that the epithet "deciduous" (svayaṁsrasta) corroborates the etymology of viṣā́ṇā as set forth by W. at iii. 7. 1, note.⌋ The verse (7 + 6: 8 + 8 + 7) does not at all agree with the description of the Anukr.