Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/513

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
343
TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK VI.
-vi. 84

Translated: Ludwig, p. 500; Bloomfield, JAOS. xiii., p. ccxviii (= PAOS., Oct. 1887), or AJP. xi. 324; Griffith, i. 290; Bloomfield, again, SBE. xlii. 17, 503.


1. O apacíts, fly forth, like a bird (suparṇá) from its nest; let the sun make remedy; let the moon shine you away.

It was Bloomfield (in the article referred to above) who first maintained that the apacít is a pustule or sore. The comm. directly identifies the apacits with the gaṇḍamālās, "scrofulous swellings of the glands of the neck" (BR.), and explains all the processes implied in the hymn as referring to such. His etymology of the word under this verse is 'gathered offward by reason of defect' (doṣavaçād apāk cīyamānāḥ), and he describes them as 'beginning from the throat [and] proceeding downward' (galād ārabhya adhastāt prasṛtāḥ). The accent of kṛṇótu in c is the usual antithetical one; SPP. makes a wholly unnecessary and very venturesome suggestion to explain it.


2. One [is] spotted, one whitish (çyénī), one black, two red; of all have I taken the name; go ye away, not slaying [our] men.

The comm. explains enī as īṣadraktamiçraçveta.


3. Barren shall the apacít, daughter of the black one, fly forth; the boil (glāú) shall fly forth from here; it shall disappear from the neck (? galuntás).

The translation here given of 'galuntás is the purest conjecture, as if the word were a corruption of some form of gala (our W.O.D. read galantás), with ablative-suffix tas. It might contain gaḍu 'excrescence on the throat'; indeed, the comm. etymologizes it as gaḍūn + √tas! He uderstands na çiṣyati as two independent words. Ppp. has sakalaṁ tena çudhyati (or çuṣyati), perhaps 'thereby it dries wholly up.' For rāmāyaṇī, compare vii. 74. 1.


4. Partake () of [thine] own oblation, enjoying with the mind; hail! as now I make oblation with the mind.

This verse, which breaks the uniformity of the book, is evidently an intrusion, and has no apparent connection with the rest of the hymn, although it is acknowledged by both Anukr. and comm. The latter curiously mixes it up with vs. 1 of the next hymn, reckoning it with 84. 1 a, b as one verse, and reckoning 84. 1 c, d and 2 as the following verse, thus ⌊making 83 a tṛca and 84 a caturṛca.⌋ ⌊An āṛcy amiṣṭubh would seem to be 24 syllables.⌋


84. For release from perdition.

[An̄giras.—caturṛcam. nāirṛtam. 1. bhurig jagatī; 2. 3-p. ārcī bṛhatī; 3, 4. jagatī; 4. bhurik triṣṭubh.]

This hymn is not found in Pāipp. Kāuç. applies it (52. 3), with vi. 63 and 121, in a rite for welfare. The comm. takes no notice of this, but regards the hymn as implied in 31. 21: see under the preceding hymn. In Vāit. (38. 1) it is found used in a healing rite in the puruṣamedha: this also the comm. overlooks.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 444; Griffith, i. 291.


1. Thou in whose terrible mouth I make oblation, in order to the release of these bound ones; people think of thee as "earth"; I know thee completely as "perdition" (nírṛti).