9. Against viṣkandha and other evils.
[Vāmadeva.—dyāvāpṛthivīyam uta vāiçvadevam. ānuṣṭubham: 4. 4-p. nicṛd bṛhatī; 6. bhurij.]
Found in Pāipp. iii. (with vs. 6 at the beginning). Used by Kāuç. (43. 1) in a charm against demons and the hindrances caused by them.
Translated: Weber, xvii. 215; Griffith, i. 91; Bloomfield, 67, 339.
1. Of the karçápha, of the viçaphá, heaven [is] father, earth mother: as, O gods, ye have inflicted (abhi-kṛ), so do ye remove (apa-kṛ) again.
The whole hymn contains much that is obscure and difficult, and the comm. gives no real help anywhere, being as much reduced to guessing as we are. Ppp. begins with karṣabhasya viṣabhyasya, which rather favors Weber's opinion, that the apha of the two names is a suffix, related with abha; probably two varieties of viṣkandha are intended, though none such are mentioned in the later medicine. The comm. finds çapha 'hoof' in both: one = kṛçaçaphasya (vyāghrādeḥ), the other either vigataçaphasya or vispaṣṭaçaphasya. SPP. reads in b dyāúḥ p-, which is doubtless preferable to our dyāúṣ p-; it is read by the majority of his mss. and by part of ours (H.I.K.); Ppp. also has it. Ppp. further omits abhi in c, and reads api for apa in d.
2. Without claspers they held fast (dhāraya); that was so done by Manu; I make the víṣkandha impotent, like a castrater of bulls.
Ppp. begins with açleṣamāṇo ‘dh-; some of the mss. (including our O.) also give açleṣmā́ṇas, and it is the reading of the comm.; he gives two different and equally artificial explanations; and, what is surprising even in him, three diverse ones of vádhri, without the least regard to the connection; one of the three is the right one. Ppp. adds ca after vadhri in c. Weber plausibly conjectures a method of tight tying to be the subject of the verse; castration is sometimes effected in that way.
3. On a reddish string a khṛ́gala—that the pious (vedhás) bind on; let the binders (?) make impotent the flowing (?), puffing (?) kābavá.
All obscure and questionable. Ppp's version is: for a, sūtre piçun̄khe khugilaṁ; in b, yad for tad; for c, çravasyaṁ çuṣma kābabam (the nāgarī copyist writes kāvardham). The comm. also has in c çravasyam, and three or four of SPP's mss. follow him; the translation assumes it to be for srav-. The comm. explains khṛ́galam by tanutrāṇam 'armor,' quoting RV. ii. 39. 4 as authority; çravasyam by bālarūpam annam arhati (since çravas is an annanāman!); çúṣmam by çoṣakam ⌊see Bloomfield, ZDMG. xlviii. 574⌋; kābava as a hindrance related with a kabu, which is a speckled (karburavarṇa) cruel animal; and bandhúras is either the amulet bound upon us, or it is for -rās, "the amulet, staff, etc., held by us."
5. Wherewith, O flowing ones, ye go about (car), like gods with Asura-magic (-māyā), like the ape, spoiler of dogs, and with the binder (?) of the kābavá.
