13. Against snakes' poison.
[Garutman.—ekādaçarcam. takṣakadevatyam. jāgatam: 2. āstārapan̄kti; 4, 7, 8. anuṣṭubh; 5. triṣṭubh; 6. pathyāpan̄kti; g. bhurij; 10, 11. nicṛd gāyatrī.]
Found (except vs. 1) also in Pāipp. viii. (in the verse-order 3, 2, 4, 6, 5, 7-11). It is not quoted in Vāit.; but in Kāuç. 29. 1-14 all the verses are brought in in their order, in connection with a ceremony for healing poison-wounds; verse 1 (or the hymn) is also used at 48. 9, in a witchcraft rite. ⌊The London Anukr., in 6 places and for 7 poison-hymns, gives Garutmā (not -mān) as ṛṣi.⌋
Translated: Griffith, i. 208; Bloomfield, 27, 425; Weber, xviii. 211.
1. Since Varuṇa, poet of heaven, hath given [them] to me, with formidable spells (vácas) do I dissolve thy poison; what is dug, undug, and attached (saktá) have I seized; like drink (írā) on a waste hath thy poison been wasted (ni-jas).
The epithets in c are of obscure application: probably buried in the flesh by the bite, or unburied but clinging.
2. What waterless poison is thine, that of thine have I seized in these; I seize thy midmost, thine upmost juice (rása); also may thy lowest then disappear for fright.
'These' in b is fem. (etā́su); doubtless 'waters' is to be supplied. Ppp. reads in a padakam (for apod-), and in b tat tābhir. Yát ta in a in our edition is a misprint for yát te. Kāuç. (29. 2) calls the verse grahaṇī. ⌊For neçat, see Skt. Gram. §847 end, and §854 b.⌋
3. A bull [is] my cry, like thunder through the cloud (nábhas); with thy formidable spell do I then drive it off (bādh) for thee; I have seized that juice of his with men ⌊?⌋; like light out of darkness let the sun arise.
One is tempted to emend nábhasā in a to -sas or -sām, 'the thunder of the clouds.' Ppp. reads tam (which is better) vacasā bādhāitu te in b, grabhis for the strange nṛbhis ⌊Weber, 'kräftig'⌋ in c, and jyotiṣe ’va tamaso ’dayatu sāryaḥ in d. The i of iva is uncounted in the meter of d. Kāuç. calls the verse prasarjanī.
4. With sight I smite thy sight; with poison I smite thy poison; die, O snake, do not live; let thy poison go back against thee.
All the mss. ⌊including SPP's⌋ read áhes at beginning of c, but our edition makes the necessary emendation to áhe. Ppp. has for a balena te balaṁ hanmi; its b is wholly corrupt; for c etc. it reads ṛṣaṇa hanmi te vidam ahe mariṣṭā mā jīvī praty anveta vā viṣaṁ. ⌊As for d—the later Hindus thought that snake poison did not hurt a snake; cf. Indische Sprüche, 3001. But see the interesting experiments of Sir Joseph Fayrer, in his Thanatophidia of India,2 London, 1874, p. 74-5. My colleague. Dr. Theobald Smith, Professor of Comparative Pathology, has most kindly examined for me the recent literature concerning the auto-toxic action of snake-venoms. The evidence is not conclusive as yet, but points to the immunity of snakes to snake-poison.—Cf. vii. 88, below.⌋
