Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/218

3. From the sky [is] the root stretched down, from off the earth stretched up; with this, thousand-jointed (-kā́ṇḍa), do thou protect us about on all sides.

Compare xix. 32.3, where darbha-grass is the plant simllarly described and used.

4. Protect me about, my progeny, [and] what riches are ours; let not the niggard get the better (tṛ) of us; let not hostile plotters get the better of us.

Our text reads at the beginning párī ’mā́m, with the majority of our mss. (only P.p.m. W.K.Kp. are noted as not doing so); but pári mā́m, which SPP. gives, and which all his authorities, as reported by him, support, is doubtless better, and the translation follows it. Two of our mss. (H.K.), with one of SPP's, give arātir ṇo m- in c The irregular meter of the verse (8 + 8: 7 + 10 = 33) is very ill described by the Anukr. ⌊The avasāna of c is put after tārīt; but the accent of tāriṣús marks that as the initial of d. RV. ix. 114. 4 suggests that our c is in disorder.⌋

5. Let the curse go to the curser; our [part] is along with him that is friendly (suhā́rd); of the eye-conjurer (-mántra), the unfriendly, we crush in the ribs (pṛṣṭí).

Nearly all our mss. (except P.M.K.), and part of SPP's, read in b suhā́t; many also have in d pṛṣṭhī́s, but the distinction of ṣṭ and ṣṭh is not clearly made in any of the mss. The comm. takes cakṣus and mantrasya in c as two independent words. ⌊See Griflith's note, and mine to xix. 45. 2.⌋

8. Against the disease kṣetriyá: with a plant.

[Bhṛgvan̄giras.—vānaspatyam; yakṣmanāçanadāivatam. ānuṣṭubham: 3. pathyāpan̄kti; 4.. virāj; 5. nicṛtpathyāpan̄kti.]

Verse 1 occurs in Pāipp. i. It is reckoned (Kāuç. 26. 1, note) to the takmanāçana gaṇa, and is used in a healing ceremony (against kulāgatakuṣṭhakṣayagrahaṇyādirogās, comm.), accompanying various practices upon the diseased person, which are evidently rather adapted to the words of the text than represented by them (26. 41-27.4), and, according to the comm., are rather alternative than to be performed successively.

Translated: Weber, xiii. 149; Ludwig, p. 513; Griffith, i. 50; Bloomfield, 13, 286.

1. Arisen are the (two) blessed stars called the Unfasteners (vicṛ́t); let them unfasten (vi-muc) of the kṣetriyá the lowest, the highest fetter.

The disease kṣetriyá (lit'ly, 'of the field') is treated elsewhere, especially in iii. 7 (mentioned also in ii. 10; 14. 5; iv. 18. 7). The comm. defines it here as kṣetre parakṣetre putrapāutrādiçarīre cikitsyaḥ (quoting for this interpretation Pāṇ. v. 2. 92) kṣayakuṣṭhādidoṣadūṣitapitṛmātrādiçarīrāvayavebhya āgataḥ kṣayakuṣṭhāpasmārādirogaḥ—apparently an infectious disorder, of various forms, appearing in a whole family, or perhaps endemic. The name vicṛtāu 'the two unfasteners' is given later to the two stars in the sting of the Scorpion (λ and ν Scorpionis: see Sūryā-Siddhānta, note to viii. 9), and there seems no good reason to doubt that they are the ones here intended; the selection of two so inconspicuous is not any more strange than the appeal to stars at all; the comm. identifies them with Mūla, which is the asterism composed of the Scorpion's tail. The verse is nearly identical with iii. 7. 4, and its first half is vi.