Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book II/Hymn 31

31. Against worms.

[Kāṇva.—mahīdevatyam uta cāndram. ānuṣṭubham: 2. upariṣṭāvirāḍbṛhatī; 3. ārṣī triṣṭubh; 4. prāguktā bṛhatī; j. prāguktā triṣṭubh.]

Found also in Pāipp. ii. Used by Kāuç. (27. 14 ff.) in an extended healing rite against worms; the detail of the ceremonial has nothing to do with that of the hymn, and does not illustrate the latter.

Translated: Kuhn, KZ. xiii. 135 ff.; Weber, xiii. 199; Ludwig, p. 323; Grill, 6, 98; Griffith, i. 71; Bloomfield, 22, 313.—Cf. Zimmer, pp. 98, 393; Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus der Germanen, p. 12 ff.; K. Müllenhoff, Denkmäler deutscher Poesie aus dem 8. bis 12. Jahrhundert ³, i. 17, 181; and especially the old Germanic analogues adduced by Kuhn, l.c. Griffith cites Harper's Magazine, June, 1893, p. 106, for modern usages in vogue near Quebec.

1. The great mill-stone that is Indra's, bruiser (tárhaṇa) of every worm—with that I mash (piṣ) together the worms, as khálva-grains with a mill-stone.

Our mss. and those of SPP., as well as Ppp., vary, in this hymn and elsewhere, quite indiscriminately between krími and kṛ́mi, so that it is not at all worth while to report the details; SPP. agrees with us in printing everywhere krími. Two of our mss. (O. Op.), with one of SPP's, read dhṛṣát in a. Ppp. gives at the end khalvān̄ iva. The comm. explains krimīn by çarīrāntargatān sarvān kṣudrajantūn.

2. The seen, the unseen one have I bruised, also the kurū́ru have I bruised; all the algáṇḍus, the çalúnas, the worms we grind up with our spell (vácas).

The distinction of -lga- and -lā- in the manuscripts is very imperfect; I had noted only one of our mss. as apparently having algáṇḍūn, here and in the next verse; but SPP. gives this as found in all his authorities, including oral ones; and the comm. presents it, and even also Ppp.; so that it is beyond all question the true reading. The comm. explains it here as etannāmnaḥ krimiviçeṣān, but in vs. 3 as çoṇitamāṅsadūṣakāñ jantūm—which last is plainly nothing more than a guess. Instead of kurū́rum in b, he reads kurīram, with three of SPP's mss., and Ppp.; other mss. differ as to their distribution of u and ū in the syllables of the word, and two of ours (Op. Kp.) give kurū́ram. Two of SPP's authorities give várcasā in d. Ppp. further has adraham for atṛham both times, and çalūlān in c. The omission of krímīn in d would ease both sense and meter. ⌊As to sarvāṅ ch-, cf. iii. 11. 5, iv. 8. 3, and Prāt. ii. 17, note.⌋

3. I smite the algáṇḍus with a great deadly weapon; burnt [or] unburnt, they have become sapless; those left [or] not left I draw down by my spell (vā́c), that no one of the worms be left.

It seems hardly possible to avoid amending at the end to uchiṣyā́tāi, passive. Ppp. reads in b dunāddunā, and its last half-verse is defaced.

4. The one along the entrails, the one in the head, likewise the worm in the ribs, the avaskavá, the vyadhvará—the worms we grind up with our spell (vácas).

The comm., and two of SPP's mss., read in b pā́rṣṇeyam 'in the heel'; and SPP. admits into his text after it krímīn, against the great majority of his mss. and against the comm.; none of ours have it, but three (O. Op. Kp.) give krímīm, which looks like an abortive attempt at it. For vyadhvaram in c, Ppp. has yaraṁ; all the mss. have vyadhvarám; unless it is to be emended to vyadvarám (cf. vi. 50. 3, note), it must probably be derived from vyadh 'pierce'; but the pada-reading vi॰adhvarám points rather to vi-adhvan; the comm. takes it from the latter, and also, alternatively, from vi and a-dhvara; avaskavá is, according to him, avāggamanasvabhava; it seems rather to come from √sku 'tear.' The expression prāgukta 'as heretofore defined' is not used elsewhere in the Anukr.; it is used by abbreviation for upariṣṭādvirāḍ (vs. 2); but why the two verses were not defined together, to make repetition needless, does not appear. ⌊in d, again, krímīn is a palpable intrusion.⌋

5. The worms that are in the mountains, in the woods, in the herbs, in the cattle, within the waters, that have entered our selves (tanū́)—that whole generation (jåniman) of worms I smite.

Two of SPP's mss. agree with the comm. in reading té for yé at beginning of c; and the comm. has further tanvas for tanvam. Ppp. inserts ye before vaneṣu, and ye (with an avasāna before it) also before oṣadhīṣu; for second half-verse it gives ye ‘smākaṁ tanno (i.e. tanvo) sthāma cakrir (i.e. cakrur or cakrire) indras tān hantu mahatā vadhena. Prāguktā in the Anukr. apparently repeats this time the superfluous ārṣī of vs. 3.

The anuvāka ⌊5.⌋ has 5 hymns and 29 verses, and the extract from the old Anukr. says tato ‘parātāi or ‘parānte.