Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 109

109. For healing: with pippalī́.

[Atharvan.—mantroktapippalīdevatyam; bhāiṣajyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found also in Pāipp. xix. Employed in Kāuç. once (26. 33) with vi. 85, 127, and other hymns, and once (26. 38) alone, in a remedial rite against various wounds.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 509; Zimmer, p. 389; Griffith, i. 305; Bloomfield, 21, 516. See Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 154.

1. The berry (pippalī́), remedy for what is bruised (? kṣiptá), and remedy for what is pierced—that did the gods prepare (sam-kalpay-) that is sufficient for life.

As elsewhere, the mss. waver between pippalī and piṣpalī (our Bp.E.O.R.p.m. read the latter). All the pada-mss. stupidly give jī́vita: vāí as two independent words. Ppp. has, in a, kṣupta- for kṣipta-; and, for b, uta ca viçvabh-; further, for d, alaṁ jīvātavā yati.* In the kampa between a and b, SPP. unaccountably reads ū3ta instead of u1ta; the fact that his mss. happen in this case all to agree in giving ū3ta is of no account whatever, since they are wildly inconsistent in this whole class of cases; among our mss. are found ū3, ū1, and u3. The comm. gives two alternatives both for kṣipta- and for atividdha-: for the former tiraskṛta (of other remedies) and vātarogaviçeṣa, and so on. *⌊Intending -tavāi iti?⌋

2. The berries talked together, coming from their birth: whomever we shall reach living, that man shall not be harmed.

The second half-verse is the same, without variant, as RV. x. 97. 17 c, d (found also as VS. xii. 91 c, d, and in TS. iv. 2. 65 and MS. ii. 7. 13: the latter reading -mahe in c); while the first half is a sort of parody of the corresponding part of the same verse: avapátantīr avadan divá óṣadhayas pári; our -vadantā ”yatī́s is probably a corruption of -vadann āy-. There is again, in a, a disagreement among the mss. as to pippalyàs, our Bp.E.I.O., with a number of SPP's authorities, giving piṣp-. The comm. explains the word by hastipippalyādijātibhedabhinnāḥ sarvāḥ pippalyaḥ; and their "birth" to have been contemporaneous with the churning of the amṛta. ⌊Ppp. ends with pāuruṣaḥ.⌋

3. The Asuras dug thee in; the gods cast thee up again, a remedy for the vātī́kṛta, likewise a remedy for what is bruised.

The comm. understands vātikṛta as vātarogāviṣṭaçarīra. ⌊Cf. vi. 44. 3.⌋ ⌊In Ppp., d is wanting, perhaps by accident.⌋