Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book XIX/Hymn 44

44. With an ointment: against diseases etc.

[Bhṛgu.—daça. mantroktāñjanadevatyam. (8, 9. vāruṇe.) ānuṣṭubham: 4. 4-p. çan̄kumaty uṣṇih; 5. 3-p. nicṛd viṣamā gāyatrī.]

⌊Partly prose: verses 4 and 5.⌋ Found also in Pāipp. xv. Used, according to the comm., with an ointment amulet, by Nakṣ.K. 19, in a mahāçānti ceremony called nāirṛtī, when one is seized by nirṛti (destruction). ⌊Verse 4 is quoted in sakalapāṭha by Kāuç. at 47. 16, to accompany the taking of a staff in a witchcraft ceremony.⌋

Translated: Griffith, ii. 300.—He very pertinently notes that this hymn closely resembles in parts iv. 9. See W's notes thereon.

1. Thou art an extender of life-time; all-healing art thou called; so, O ointment, do thou [make] wealfulness; make, O ye waters, weal [and] fearlessness.

The translation follows our text, which is variously emended. In b, the mss. and comm. and SPP. read vípram bheṣajám; the comm. explains vipram as prīṇayitṛ (as if it were somehow priyam) vipravac chuddhaṁ vā. Ppp. gives vipre. In c, all have çaṁtāte, glossed by the comm. with çaṁrūpa ⌊the ms. of the comm. actually has -pam⌋. In d, all accent ā́pas, and also (with one accidental exception) kṛtám; but one of our mss. (probably also by accident) gives kṛtá, which we adopted, with emendation to kṛta; ⌊if I understand W's Collation Book, his B. has kṛta, without accent;⌋ SPP. is satisfied with emending to kṛtam, as if āñjana and āpas could somehow be construed together as a dual subject. Part of the mss. have ucyate at end of b. The pada-mss. read çaṁtāte without division. Ppp. has for second half-verse yad āñjani draṁ çaṁtāte açināyo bhavaṁ kṛtam, which is too corrupt to be of any assistance.

2. What the jaundice is, the jāyā́nya, the limb-splitter, the visálpaka—all yákṣma from thy limbs let the ointment expel (nir-han) out.

The mss. make very bad work with the last pāda, nearly all (the variations are of no account) giving barhír nírahantv (p. barhíḥ: níḥ: ahantu); SPP. makes the same emendation that we had made; and ⌊it is confirmed by⌋ Ppp. and the comm., ⌊which⌋ have the same. ⌊Three or four of SPP's authorities, including two reciters, gave bahís.⌋ In a, the comm. strangely reads and explains jyāyān yaḥ; Ppp. presents jāyāṁyo. For visalpakas (which SPP. reads here also, as in vi. 127 and ix. 8), the comm. gives visarpakas, explaining it as vividhaṁ saraṇaçīlo vraṇaviçeṣaḥ; Ppp. has viçalyakas.

3. The ointment, born on the earth, excellent, giving life to men—let it make [me] unperishing, of chariot-swiftness, free from offense.

Ppp. reads in d rathajūtam. The comm. thinks the word may mean either rathavadvegagāminam or rathavantam.

4. O breath, rescue thou breath; O life-breath (ásu), be gracious to life-breath; O destruction, free us from the fetters of destruction.

⌊Prose.⌋ The comm. follows a different division in verses 4-7, making of them but three verses,* and of the whole hymn but nine. The method of the mss. and the Anukr. is plainly decidedly preferable; it is followed also by SPP. One does not see any justification for the division by the Anukr. of the last five words of this verse into two pādas, with five syllables (çan̄ku-) in the closing one. ⌊It counts 7 + 7: 7 + 5.⌋ Ppp. reads trāyasva aso ‘save. The comm. has mām instead of nas. About half the authorities give at the beginning prā́ṇas. ⌊For the citation of the vs. by Kāuç., see introd. to this hymn, and cf. especially p. 897, ¶3.⌋ *⌊Our 4,5ab = his 4; our 5cd, 6ab = his 5; our 6cd,7 = his 6.⌋

5. Embryo of the river art thou, flower of the lightnings; the wind [thy] breath, the sun [thine] eye, from the sky [thy] milk.

⌊Prose.⌋ SPP. and the comm. read púṣpam, and all the mss. probably are to be regarded as having it; ṣpa and ṣya are practically indistinguishable in the mss. Ppp. also gives puṣpam. At the beginning all the mss. have síndho (p. síndho íti); even SPP. emends to síndhos, the comm. giving it. The comm. curiously explains vidyutām puṣpam by vṛṣṭyudakam: one can hardly help suspecting a misreading. The Anukr. scans the "verse" (restoring the a of asi) as 6 + 5: 12 = 23; its definition is far from acceptable. ⌊Bloomfield discusses the vs., AJP. xvii. 405.⌋

6. O divine ointment, thou from the three-peaked [mountain], do thou protect me all about; the herbs do not surpass (tṛ) thee—those from abroad and those from the mountains.

All the mss. ⌊save one of SPP's⌋ read dévāñjanam (p. déva॰āñj-) trāíkakudam; SPP. emends the former to -na, but not the latter to -da, although this is as indisputably vocative as the other; the comm. ⌊with one of SPP's mss.⌋ makes the same difference, though he regards trāikakudam as vocative (he trāik-). Ppp. reads devāñjani trāikakuda. ⌊As to the rarity of neuter vocatives, see my Noun-Inflection, p. 339.⌋ The great majority of mss. accent bāhyā́s; SPP. reads bā́hyās. The comm. understands the word as meaning "from other localities than the mountains." Our emendation to bāṭyā́s, supported by an article ⌊2. vāṭyá 'cultivated'⌋ in the major Pet. Lex. ⌊vi. 903⌋ is withdrawn by the omission of that article in the minor Lex. Ppp. reads corruptly bāhyaṁ parvatyā.

7. The demon-slayer, disease-expeller, hath crept down over the middle here, expelling all diseases, making portents vanish from here.

The change to masculine here in b is obscure and questionable; emendation to -cā́tanam is desirable; it would allow idám to be understood as 'this [ointment],' which is easier and more natural. Ppp., too, has -cātanaṁ, which gives the emendation sufficient support.* Ppp. has for a vīraṁ madhyam avāsṛjat. The pada-mss. commit the egregious inconsistency of reading cātáyan: nāçáyat in c, d; SPP. emends in pada-text to cātáyat.* Ppp. has in d nāçayatam ivāhitā. ⌊In c of the Berlin ed., correct sárvaç to sárvāç. *⌊Both editions print rakṣohā́mīvacā́tanaḥ, and the pada-reading is rakṣaḥ॰hā́: amīva॰cā́tanaḥ. Whitney, doubtless by oversight, neglects to say how he would emend rakṣohā́ to make a corresponding neuter of it, and the question is a very troublesome one (for details, see Noun-Inflection, p. 478 end, p. 479). The neuter form would properly be -hắ; but none such is quotable, so far as I know, unless here. May it be that we have here that very form, -hắ (neuter), concealed in the combination -hā́mīva-, and that the misunderstanding of it as -hā́ (masculine.) amīva- led to a corruption of an original -cā́tanam into -cā́tanaḥ and also of an original pada-reading cātáyat into cātáyan? If so, all would be in harmony.⌋

8. Much untruth, O king Varuṇa, doth man (pū́ruṣa) say here; from that sin (áṅhas) do thou free us, O thou of thousand-fold heroism.

The mss. vary between rā́jan and rājan, and between ánṛtam, anṛ́tam, and ánṛ́tam. The great majority accent at the end páryaṅhasaḥ, and all the pada-mss. have pári॰aṅhasaḥ. SPP. reads at the beginning bahv ī̀dám, after the manner of the Sāma-Veda; we emended to ìdám, because that is the Atharvan practice (cf. note to Prāt. iii. 65, p. 499), against which the concurrence even of all the mss. ⌊save W's I.⌋, as here, ought not to count. Ppp. reads in b puruṣaḥ.

9. In that we have said O waters, O inviolable [kine], O Varuṇa, from that sin do thou free us, O thou of thousand-fold heroism.

That is, if we have called these divinities to witness an untruth: cf. the nearly equivalent vii. 83. 2 c-e. The translation implies emendation to ághnyās; váruṇa, which can be only vocative, proves each of its predecessors such; the comm. understands all the three as vocative, and paraphrases [he] āpo yūyaṁ jānīdhve, he aghnyā yūyam mama cittaṁ jānīdhve, etc. Ppp. reads in b varuṇena yad. Our mss. read again páryaṅh- (p. pári॰aṅhasaḥ), and so apparently do SPP's, although he does not distinctly say so; ⌊his note to vs. 8 (note 2, p. 455) perhaps makes such an implication⌋.

10. Both Mitra and Varuṇa went forth after thee, O ointment; they, having gone far after thee, brought thee back for enjoyment (bhogá).

All the authorities ⌊save W's E. and one of SPP's reciters⌋, and Ppp. also, give at the end púnar ohatu; but the pada-mss. give púnaḥ; rohatu, which is a blunder, since the corresponding saṁhitā would be púnā rohatu ⌊which W's E. in fact has⌋. SPP. emends to púnar ó ”hatuḥ (p. púnaḥ: ā́: ūhatuḥ), and the translation follows this, rather than our own nearly equivalent and equally acceptable emendation to púnar ó ”hatām. ⌊Whitney here overlooks the lack of accent on the oh-: the Berlin text, the text of W's Collation Book, and his Index, under 1 ūh, all give ohatām without accent. Root 1 ūh does not appear to be quotable with a, and it would seem that SPP's emendation (root vah with a) must of need be preferred.⌋ The comm., ⌊with his text, and with SPP's reciter V., who accented púnar āhatuḥ,⌋ gives punar āhatuḥ (= punar āgantavyam ity ūcatuḥ!). ⌊We might better render bhogāya by ' for our use?⌋ Half the mss. accent with us ánu préy- in b; SPP. gives anu, with the pada-text (anu॰préyatuḥ).