Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 113 (118)

113 (118). Against a (woman) rival: with a plant.

[Bhārgava.—dvyṛcam. tṛṣṭikādevatyam. 1. virāḍ anuṣṭubh; 2. çan̄kumatī 4-p. bhurig uṣṇih.]

Found also in Pāipp. xx. Used by Kāuç. (36. 38), in one of the rites concerning women, against a wife's lover, with a plant called bāṇāparṇī 'arrow-feather' (Dārila, ⌊çirapun̄khā: for which Bl. conjectures⌋ çarapun̄khā, which is Thephrosia purpurea ⌊Roth⌋, though T. spinosa is the spinous species).

Translated: Weber, Ind. Stud. v. 250; Henry, 44, 122; Griffith, i. 382.

1. O rough one! thou of rough creepers! cut up yon woman, O rough one!—that thou mayest be hateful (?) to yon man of virile power.

Ppp. reads triṣṭ- everywhere, and triṣṭinandanā; and its second half-verse is: adhāgṛdṛṣṭayadyamas tam asmāi çepyāvataḥ. The comm. gives, as one of his suggested synonyms for tṛṣṭikā, dāhajanikā or bāṇāparṇyākhyāuṣadhi; vandanas ⌊cf. below, 115. 2⌋ are, according to him, latānāṁ vṛkṣānāṁ co ¥pari prarūḍhās tadīyaçākhām āveṣṭamānā vibhinnaparṇalatāviçeṣāḥ. Kṛtádviṣṭā in c is literally 'having done what is hated' (dveṣakāriṇī, comm.). The second half-verse is plainly addressed to the rival. There is considerable discordance among the mss. in regard to the concluding word, çeyyā-, çeṣyā-, çaṣyā- being the variants, but evidently only inaccuracies of copyists; the comm. explains the word as = prajananasāmarthyavate. The verse is a good anuṣṭubh, not virāj.

2. Rough art thou, a rough one; poisonous, a poisonous one art thou;—that thou mayest be avoided, as a barren cow (? vaçā́) of a bull.

The first part in Ppp. reads: triṣṭā ’si triṣṭakā ’si vṛṣā vṛṣātaky asi. The comm. tries to find root tañc + ā in viṣātakī́ (= viṣam ātan̄kayati); vaçā he paraphrases with -vandhyā gāuḥ. The verse is rather kakummatī than çan̄kumatī. ⌊It becomes a perfectly regular anuṣṭubh if we add at the end of a (with Ppp.) an asi.⌋