Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/33

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489
TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK VIII.
-viii. 4

18. Scatter yourselves, O Maruts, among the people (vikṣú); seek, seize, crush (sam-piṣ) the demoniacs, who, becoming birds, fly in the nights, or who have put defilements (rípas) on the heavenly sacrifice.

RV. has bhūtvī́ in c. SPP. reads i3cchata in a, because the great majority of his authorities give it. This is contrary to the established usage of both RV. and AV. (but in accordance with that of SV.), although in nearly every such case a part of the mss. lengthen the vowel; part of ours do the same here, as elsewhere. The comm. glosses ripas with hiṅsas; and dadhire with dhārayanti!


19. Cause the stone to roll forth from the sky, O Indra; [it,] sharpened by Soma, do thou wholly sharpen, O liberal one; from before, from away, from below, from above, do thou smite upon the demoniacs with a mountain.

RV. reads in a áçm- after divó, and some of SPP's authorities do the same. RV. has also prā́ktād ápāktād and údaktād in c; the directions admit also of being understood as from east, west, south, and north.


20. Here fly these dog-sorcerers (çváyātu); Indra the unharmable they the harm-seeking seek to harm; the mighty one (çakrá) sharpens his deadly weapon for the treacherous ones (píçuna); now may he let fly (sṛj) the thunderbolt at the sorcerers (yātumánt).

The epithets like çváyātu in this verse and below in vs. 22 seem by their accent (and by comparison with yātumánt and yātudhā́na) to signify strictly 'one having a dog (etc.) for his familiar demon.' The comm. glosses with çvarūpadhāriṇaḥ çvasahitā []. Ppp. combines at end of b -vo adābhyam.


21. Indra was the crusher-away of the familiar demons (yātú), of the oblation-disturbers, of them who strive to win upon [it]; let the mighty one (çakrá) attack them that are demoniacs as an ax the woods, splitting [them] like vessels.

RV. reads eti in d, and no small share of the AV. mss. (the majority of SPP's) do the same (including our P.s.m.I.D.R.p.m.Kp.); both editions give etu. The AV. pada-text, like the RV., divides and accents in b abhí: ā॰vívāsatām. The Petersburg Lexicons treat the abhi as if in direct combination with the participle; and they translate 'approach with hostile intent,' which is highly arbitrary. The comm. gives no aid, rendering simply abhimukhaṁ gacchatām. Ppp. reads in b -matīnām. ⌊W. would probably have changed "crusher-away" to "demolisher" on the revision.⌋


22. The owl-sorcerer, the owlet-(?)sorcerer smite thou, the dog-sorcerer and the cuckoo-sorcerer, the eagle-(? suparṇá)sorcerer and the vulture-sorcerer—do thou destroy (pra-mṛṇ) the demon, O Indra, as if with a mill-stone.

As to the renderings of these various names for sorcerers, see under vs. 20. For çuçulūka- Ppp. has çulūka-, the comm. çiçulūka-. The translation of it is a mere guess, to avoid transferring the word.