Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/43

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499
TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK VIII.
-viii. 7

3. Waters [were] the beginning, heavenly herbs; they have made disappear from every limb thy sinful (enasyà) yákṣma.

The first pāda is a fragment, in meter and in construction; the omission of ágram would fairly rectify both. As in sundry other like cases, most of the mss. read at the end anīnaçam (or -çaṁ); only P.M.W. have -çan.


4. The spreading, the bushy, the one-spathed, the extending herbs do I address; those rich in shoots, jointed (kāṇḍín), that have spreading branches (víçākha); I call for thee the plants that belong to all the gods, formidable, giving life to men.

Viçākha might also signify 'branchless.' Ppp. reads in a-b ekaçṛn̄gāṣ pradhanvatīr.


5. What power [is] yours, ye powerful ones, [what] heroism and what strength [is] yours, therewith, O herbs, free ye this man from this yákṣma; now (átho) do I make a remedy.

The last pāda is wanting in Ppp.


6. The lively, by-no-means-harming, living herb, the non-obstructing, up-guiding, flourishing (? puṣyá) one, rich in sweets, do I call hither, for this man's freedom from harm.

Compare 2. 6, with which this agrees in the first two pādas and in most of the last two. The mss. again are much at variance as to the reading of naghāriṣā́m; Bp.P.M.p.m.E.p.m.O. read ⌊Bp. with -ghā-naghāṛṣā́m. ⌊Ppp. reads naghāriṣām (as does Berlin ed.) and omits iha and pāda e.⌋ The omission of the obscure puṣyā́m would rectify the meter; the Pet. Lexx. regard the word as proper name of a plant.


7. Let the forethoughtful ones come hither, allies (medín) of my spell (vácas), that we may make this man pass forth out of difficulty.

Read medínīr in b (two accent-signs slipped out of place leftward).


8. Food of fire, embryo of the waters, they that grow up renewed, fixed, thousand-named—be they remedial [when] brought.

9. Wrapped in ávakā, water-natured, let the herbs, sharp-horned, thrust away difficulty.

Literally, 'having the avakā as fœtal envelop.'


10. Releasing, free from Varuṇa, formidable, that are poison-spoiling, also balā́sa-dispelling, and that are witchcraft-spoiling—let those herbs come hither.

'Free from Varuṇa': i.e., doubtless, 'freeing from the bonds of Varuṇa,' with which he visits guilt on the guilty. Ppp. reads in c-d balāsanāçinī rakṣonāçanīṣ kṛtyād-. Read in our text kṛtyāduṣaṇīç (for -yad-) in d.


11. Let the purchased, very powerful plants that are praised save in this village cow, horse, man, beast.

Ppp. prefixes an additional pāda to each half-verse: çivās te santv oṣadhir apak-; and apā sarasvatī jyeṣṭhaṁ trāy-.