17. Against various evils: with a plant.
[Çukra.—caturviṅçarcaṁ trayaṁ sūktānām. apāmārgavanaspatidevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]
Verses 1-6 are found as a hymn in Pāipp. v., and hymns 18 and 19 follow it there, with some mixture of the verses. Vs. 8 is found separately in ii. Hymns 17-19 are called by the comm. āvapanīya 'of strewing.' They are used together by Kāuç. (39. 7), with ii. 11 and iv. 40 and others, in the preparation of consecrated water to counteract hostile sorcery; and vs. 17. 5 is reckoned by the schol. (46. 9, note) to the duḥsvapnanāçana gaṇa.
Translated: Zimmer, p. 66; Grill, 37, 130; Griffith, i. 155; Bloomfield, 69, 393; Weber, xviii. 73.
1. Thee, the mistress of remedies, O conquering one (ujjeṣá), we take hold of; I have made thee a thing of thousand-fold energy (-vīryà) for every one, O herb.
Ppp. reads for b nijeṣā ”gṛṇīmahe. We should expect in c -vīryām, and three of SPP's mss. (none of ours) so read; but he has not ventured to admit it into his text; the comm. gives -yam, but explains as if -yām (aparimitasāmarthyayuktām). The comm. regards the plant sahadevī (name of various plants, including Sida cordifolia and rhombifolia, OB.) as addressed. He takes ujjeṣe in b as dative, = ujjetum.
2. The truly-conquering, the curse-repelling, the overcoming, the reverted one (punaḥsará)—all the herbs have I called together, saying "may they (?) save us from this."
The last pāda is translated in accordance with the better reading of Ppp.: ato mā pārayān iti. In b, Ppp. gives punaçcarā; SPP. presents punaḥs-, in closer accordance with the mss. than our punass-. The comm. does not recognize the meaning 'reverted' (i.e. 'having reverted leaves or fruit') as belonging to punaḥsará, but renders it as "repeatedly applied" (ābhīkṣṇyena bahutaravyādhinivṛttaye sarati). He reads in a çapathayopanīm, and in c abhi (for ahvi): and one or two of SPP's mss. support him each time; our O.Op. give addhi, by a recent copyist's blunder; the comm. supplies gacchanti for his sam-abhi to belong to. The Anukr. takes no notice of the excess of two syllables in a.
3. She that hath cursed with cursing, that hath taken malignity as her root, that hath seized on [our] young to take [its] sap—let her eat [her own] offspring.
The verse is a repetition of i. 28. 3, and the comm. again, as there, reads ādade at end of b. He notes that a full explanation has been already given, but yet allows himself to repeat it in brief; this time he gives only mūrchāpradam as the sense of mūram. Ppp. (which has no version of i. 28) gives here, for c, d, yā vā rathasya prāsāre hy ato ‘gham u tvasaḥ. As i. 28. 3, the verse was properly called virāṭpathyābṛhatī. ⌊Correct the verse-number from 6 to 3 in the edition.⌋
4. What [witchcraft] they have made for thee in the raw vessel (pā́tra), what they have made in the blue-red one, in raw flesh what witchcraft they have made—with that do thou smite the witchcraft-makers.
