Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book II/Hymn 7

7. Against curses and cursers: with a plant.

[Atharvan.—bhāiṣajyāyurvanaspatidāivatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 1. bhurij; 4. virāḍupariṣṭādbṛhatī.]

Not found in Pāipp. Used with other hymns (ii. 25; vi. 85, etc.) in a healing rite (Kāuç. 26. 33-35) for various evils, and accompanying especially (ib. 35) the binding on of an amulet. And the comm. reports the hymn as employed by Nakṣ. Kalpa (17, 19) in a mahāçānti called bhārgavī.

Translated: Weber, xiii. 148; Ludwig, p. 508; Grill, 24, 81; Griffith, i. 49; Bloomfield, 91, 285.

1. Hated by mischief, god-born, the curse-effacing plant hath washed away from me all curses, as waters do filth.

Āp. (vi. 20. 2) has a verse much like this: atharvyuṣṭā devajūtā vīḍu çapathajambhanīḥ: āpo malam iva prā ’ṇijann asmat su çapathāṅ adhi. The comm. explains -yopanī in c ⌊discussed by Bloomfield, AJP. xii. 421⌋ as vimohanī nivārayitrī. The comm. states dūrvā (panicum dactylon) to be the plant intended, and the Anukr. also says dūrvām astāut. In our edition read in d máchap- (an accent-sign slipped out of place). The Anukr. refuses this time to sanction the not infrequent contraction málam ’va in c.

2. Both the curse that is a rival's, and the curse that is a sister's, what a priest (? brahmán) from fury may curse—all that [be] underneath our feet.

Sāpatná perhaps here 'of a fellow wife,' and jāmyā́s perhaps 'of a near female relative'; the comm. explains jāmi as "sister, but connoting one's fellows (sahajāta)."

3. From the sky [is] the root stretched down, from off the earth stretched up; with this, thousand-jointed (-kā́ṇḍa), do thou protect us about on all sides.

Compare xix. 32.3, where darbha-grass is the plant simllarly described and used.

4. Protect me about, my progeny, [and] what riches are ours; let not the niggard get the better (tṛ) of us; let not hostile plotters get the better of us.

Our text reads at the beginning párī ’mā́m, with the majority of our mss. (only P.p.m. W.K.Kp. are noted as not doing so); but pári mā́m, which SPP. gives, and which all his authorities, as reported by him, support, is doubtless better, and the translation follows it. Two of our mss. (H.K.), with one of SPP's, give arātir ṇo m- in c The irregular meter of the verse (8 + 8: 7 + 10 = 33) is very ill described by the Anukr. ⌊The avasāna of c is put after tārīt; but the accent of tāriṣús marks that as the initial of d. RV. ix. 114. 4 suggests that our c is in disorder.⌋

5. Let the curse go to the curser; our [part] is along with him that is friendly (suhā́rd); of the eye-conjurer (-mántra), the unfriendly, we crush in the ribs (pṛṣṭí).

Nearly all our mss. (except P.M.K.), and part of SPP's, read in b suhā́t; many also have in d pṛṣṭhī́s, but the distinction of ṣṭ and ṣṭh is not clearly made in any of the mss. The comm. takes cakṣus and mantrasya in c as two independent words. ⌊See Griflith's note, and mine to xix. 45. 2.⌋