Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VII/Hymn 38 (39)
38 (39). To win and fix a man's love: with a plant.
[Atharvan.—pañcarcam. vānaspatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 3. 4-p. uṣṇiḥ.]
The first two verses of this hymn are found in Pāipp. xx., but in a fragmentary and corrupt condition; the remaining three, in iii. Used, according to Kāuç. (36. 12), with vi. 129, 139, in a rite concerning women; the plant is fastened to the head (of the woman ⌊so the comm.⌋), and she enters the village. (Keçava explains differently.) ⌊He regards a man as object of the rite (tasya çirasi baddhvā), as indeed the text of vs. 2 d requires.⌋
Translated: Weber, Ind. Stud. v. 249; Ludwig, p. 515; Grill, 59, 179; Henry, 14, 68; Griffith, i. 344; Bloomfield, 103, 546.
1. I dig this remedy, me-regarding, greatly wailing, the returner of one going away, greeter of one coming.
Only the first half-verse is found in Ppp. The comm., after Kāuç., understands the remedy to be that named sāuvarcala,* "Sochal salt." Māmpaçyam he explains as either mām eva nārīm paçyat or mām eva asādhāraṇyena patye pradarçayat; there can properly be no causative force in -paçya. ⌊Weber suggests that māmpaçyam may be a misprint for sā-; but the mss. of SPP. and W. all appear to have mā-, except W's Bp., which has sā-.⌋ The other difficult epithet, abhirorudam, he makes no difficulty of explaining as if it contained the root rudh instead of rud: patyuḥ anyanārīsaṁsargam abhito nirundhat! That might be convenient, if admissible; the abhi with roruda is obscure: perhaps 'wailing at or after [me].'
*⌊But Kāuç., Dārila and Keçava, and the comm. seem to intend by sāuvarcala a root or flower and not a salt decoction (cf. OB. vii. 195) therefrom. See Bloomfield's note, p. 539. He observes that the Sūtra does not here inspire us with confidence in its exactness.—See further my addition to note on vs. 5.⌋
2. Wherewith the Āsurī put down Indra from among the gods, therewith put I thee down, that I may be very dear ⌊fem.!⌋ to thee.
The comm. explains āsurī alternatively as asurasya māyā, and renders ni cakre by yuddhe svādhīnaṁ kṛtavatī. ⌊Weber, Henry, and Bloomfield understand this vs. as relating to Indra's seduction by an āsurī: cf. Oertel, JAOS. xix2. 120.⌋ ⌊Ppp. corrupt, as noted above.⌋
3. Correspondent (pratī́cī) to Soma art thou, correspondent also to the sun, correspondent to all the gods; as such we address ⌊acha-ā-vad⌋ thee.
'Correspondent,' perhaps 'a match for, as effective as'; Henry translates: "looking in the face." The comm. declares the plant çan̄khapuṣpī to be addressed in the verse, and paraphrases pratīcī by vaçīkaraṇārtham pratyag-añcanā. Ppp. inserts oṣadhe at end of a, and reads anu for uta in b. The verse admits of being read, artificially, as 7 × 4 = 28.
4. I am speaking; not thou; in the assembly verily do thou speak; mayest thou be mine wholly; mayest thou not make mention of other women.
Ppp. has, in a, vadāni mahattvam, and vadāni would be a preferable reading, but it is given by only one of our mss. (D.) and three of SPP's, and is not admitted in either printed text. All the mss. (except our I.) accent váda at end of b, which accent SPP. accordingly properly enough accepts; the accent is no more anomalous than that of kīrtáyās in d: which, however, we might regard as imitated after 37. 1 d above, where the same half-verse is found nearly unchanged.
5. If thou art either beyond people, or if beyond streams, may this herb, having as it were bound [thee], conduct thee in hither to me.
With tirojanám compare the oftener used atijanám*; the virtual meaning is 'in uninhabited regions.' Ppp. makes better meter in c by reading iyaṁ tvā mahyam oṣadhiḥ. The comm. curiously reads tirocanam, "with concealed going" ⌊tiras and acanam⌋. The meter of the second half-verse is too irregular to be passed unnoticed. *⌊See OB. vii. 385 and BR. i. 94.⌋
⌊Henry, in his note, conjectures that a plant was fastened to the man before his departure in order to ensure his return to the woman. Later, 1897, JA. 9. ix. 328, he cites a symbolic practice, reported by Prince Henri d'Orléans from the Upper Irawadi: a young woman fastens a hempen cord on the arm of her husband, who is about to be separated from her for a time, and he does the like. This seems to him (and to me) to confirm his view.—OB., under suvarcalā, reports that some assign to the word the meaning "hemp." Cf. my addition to note to vs. 1.⌋
With this hymn ends the third anuvāka, containing 16 hymns and 31 verses; the Anukr. quotations are, for the hymns, tṛtīyāntyāu ⌊cf. anuvāka-note following h. 118⌋ ṣoḍaça, and for the verses aṣṭāu tisraç cā ’vabodhyās tṛtīye.