18. Indra hath slain first thy progenitor, O snake; of them, being shattered, what forsooth can be their sap?
Ppp. reads vas instead of u in c.
19. Since I have grasped together their heads, as a fisherman the kárvara; having gone away to the middle of the river, I have washed out the snake's poison.
The mss. do not in general distinguish ṣṭ and ṣṭh, and pāuñjiṣṭa would be equally correct here. Ppp. reads pāuñjiṣṭhī ’va.
20. The poison of all snakes let the rivers carry away; slain [are] the cross-lined ones, crushed down the pṛ́dākus.
21. I choose as it were the filaments of herbs successfully; I conduct as it were mares; O snake, let thy poison come out.
Apparently processes analogous to that of extracting the poison are referred to. The pada-division sādhu॰yā́ is prescribed by Prāt. iv. 30. There seems to be no reason why the Anukr. should call the verse kakummatī.
22. What poison is in fire, in the sun, what in the earth, in herbs, kāndā-poison, kanáknaka—let thy poison come out; let it come.
Ppp. has karikradam ⌊cf. vs. 13⌋ instead of kanaknakam, and at the end vahī ⌊intending ahe?⌋ instead of viṣam; and it puts next our vs. 25.
23. Whichever of the snakes [are] fire-born, herb-born, whichever came hither (ā-bhū) [as] water-born lightnings; those of which the kinds are variously great—to those serpents would we pay worship with reverence.
Ppp. reads, for b etc., ye abhrajā vidyutā ”babhūvuḥ: tāsāṁ jātāni bahudhā bahūni tebhyaḥ sarvebhyo etc.
24. Thou art a girl, tāúdī by name; verily thou art by name ghee-like (ghṛtā́cī); I take beneath thy poison-spoiling track.
That is, possibly, 'I put it beneath me, walk in it.' The obscure tāudī (ultimately from tud 'thrust'?) is read also by Ppp., which combines vā ’si in b, and has the easier reading pados for padam in c.
25. Remove thou [it] from every limb; make [it] avoid the heart; then, what keenness (téjas) the poison has, let that go downward for thee.
Ppp. reads hṛdayo in b, and combines tejo av- in c, d. The verse is quoted in Kāuç. 32. 23.
26. He (it ?) hath come to be afar; he hath obstructed the poison; he hath mixed poison in poison; Agni hath put out the snake's poison; Soma hath conducted [it] out; the poison hath gone after the biter; the snake hath died.
