Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 95 (100)

95 (100) A spell against some one.

[Kapiñjala.—tṛcam. mantroktagṛdhradevatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 2, 3. bhurij.]

Not found in Pāipp. Used by Kāuç. (48. 40) in a witchcraft rite against enemies, with tying up a striped frog with two blue and red strings under the forelegs, putting it in hot water, and poking and squeezing it at each offering (pratyāhuti).

Translated: Ludwig, p. 517; Henry, 38, 109; Griffith, i. 375.

1. Up have flown his two dark-brown (çyāvá) quiverers (? vithurá), as two vultures to the sky—up-heater-and-forth-heater, up-heaters of his heart.

The comm. renders vithurāú by saṁtataṁ calanaçīlāu (also vyathanaçīlāu bhayavantāu), and understands by them (through the hymn) either the two lips or the breath and expiration of the enemy who is represented by the frog (maṇḍūkātmanā bhāvitasya)—which is very unsatisfactory. To the vultures he applies the epithet tārkṣyāu. Roth suggests, as intended in the second half-verse, the heat and passion of love, which are to be expelled from some woman's heart.

2. I have made them (dual) rise up, like (two) weary-sitting kine, like (two) growling dogs, like (two) lurking (? ud-av) wolves.

The comm. explains udavantāu by goyūthamadhye vatsān udgṛhya gacchantāu; Henry renders "that watch one another." ⌊He would reject úd in a.⌋

3. The (two) on-thrusters, down-thrusters, also together-thrusters: I shut up his urinator who bore [away] from here—[whether] woman [or] man.

Strī́m in d would be a welcome emendation: "of the man who bore away the woman from here"; but the analogy of i. 8. 1 c favors the text as given by the mss. The comm. supplies āsmākīnaṁ dhanam as object of jabhāra; or, alternatively, he takes the latter as = prahṛtavān asmān bādhitavān; meḍhra (mih + tra) he paraphrases with marmasthānopalakṣaṇam. His ignorance of the sense of the hymn is as great as that of Kāuç.—or as ours. SPP. retains the ḥ of itáḥ before strī́ in d, against his usual practice elsewhere, and with only a small minority of his mss.