5. Over enviers, over delinquents, over the thoughtless, over haters,—verily all difficult things, O Agni, do thou cross; then mayest thou give us wealth accompanied with heroes.
The translation implies emendation of the impossible nihás to nidás; the comm. shows his usual perverse ingenuity by giving two different etymologies of nihas, from ni + han and from ni + hā; neither of them is worse than the other. The three parallel texts all have níhas, Ppp. nuhas. Both editions read sṛ́dhas, but it is only a common error of the mss., putting ṛ for ri; nearly half of SPP's mss. (though none of ours) have the true reading srídvas, which is that also of VS. and TS. (MS. sṛ́dhas). In c, all the pada-mss. present the absurd reading víçvāḥ; and nearly all the mss. leave tara unaccented, in spite of hí, and both printed texts leave it so, although three of SPP's mss. have correctly tára, as also MS.; VS. and TS. give sáhasva for tara tvam, and Ppp. has cara tvam. For a, b, Ppp. has ati nuho ‘ti ninṛtīr aty arātīr ati dviṣaḥ; for b, VS. TS. ‘ty ácittim áty árātim agne, and MS. áty ácittim áti nírṛtim adyá. The comm. explains sridhas by dehaçoṣakān rogān. In the metrical definition of the verse, prastāra- must be a bad reading for āstāra-.
7. Against curses and cursers: with a plant.
[Atharvan.—bhāiṣajyāyurvanaspatidāivatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 1. bhurij; 4. virāḍupariṣṭādbṛhatī.]
Not found in Pāipp. Used with other hymns (ii. 25; vi. 85, etc.) in a healing rite (Kāuç. 26. 33-35) for various evils, and accompanying especially (ib. 35) the binding on of an amulet. And the comm. reports the hymn as employed by Nakṣ. Kalpa (17, 19) in a mahāçānti called bhārgavī.
Translated: Weber, xiii. 148; Ludwig, p. 508; Grill, 24, 81; Griffith, i. 49; Bloomfield, 91, 285.
1. Hated by mischief, god-born, the curse-effacing plant hath washed away from me all curses, as waters do filth.
Āp. (vi. 20. 2) has a verse much like this: atharvyuṣṭā devajūtā vīḍu çapathajambhanīḥ: āpo malam iva prā ’ṇijann asmat su çapathāṅ adhi. The comm. explains -yopanī in c ⌊discussed by Bloomfield, AJP. xii. 421⌋ as vimohanī nivārayitrī. The comm. states dūrvā (panicum dactylon) to be the plant intended, and the Anukr. also says dūrvām astāut. In our edition read in d máchap- (an accent-sign slipped out of place). The Anukr. refuses this time to sanction the not infrequent contraction málam ’va in c.
2. Both the curse that is a rival's, and the curse that is a sister's, what a priest (? brahmán) from fury may curse—all that [be] underneath our feet.
Sāpatná perhaps here 'of a fellow wife,' and jāmyā́s perhaps 'of a near female relative'; the comm. explains jāmi as "sister, but connoting one's fellows (sahajāta)."
