18. Against witchcraft: with a plant.
[Çukra.—(etc.: see under hymn 17). 6. bṛhatīgarbhā.]
Found in Pāipp. v. (vs. 6 before 5). Used by Kāuç. only in company with h. 17, as there explained.
Translated: Grill, 25, 131; Griffith, i. 156; Bloomfield, 70, 396; Weber, xviii. 77.
1. The same light with the sun—night possesses the same with the day; I make what is effective (satyá) for aid; sapless be the makers (f.) [of witchcraft].
Kṛ́tvarīs at the end borrows a special sense from its relationship with kṛtyā ⌊a case of "reflected meaning"—see note to iii. 11. 8⌋. The construction in the first half-verse (if here rightly understood) is peculiarly intricate: samám jyótis is, as it were, coördinate with the samá of samā́vatī, as if it were samajyotiṣmatī: i.e. "night has its light as good as the sun's or the day's." Or else jyótis (R.) is to be taken outright as "moonlight" (= later jyotsnā). Ppp. begins with samā bhūmis sū-, and has in c sabhya for satyam. One of our pada-mss. (Op.), like one of SPP's, divides in b sam॰ā́vatī; the comm. defines the word by "of equal length" (samānāyāmā); and kṛtvarīs by kartanaçīlās (taking it from kṛt 'cut'). In our text, the ṛ-sign has dropped out from under the k-sign in this word.
2. Whoso, O gods, having made witchcraft, shall take it to the house of one unknowing—let it, like a sucking (dhārú) calf to its mother, go back unto him.
The comm., with one or two of SPP's mss., reads árāt instead of hárāt in b; dhārús he defines by stanapānaṁ kurvan. There is a redundant syllable in c unless we abbreviate iva to ’va.
3. Whoso, having made evil at home, desires to slay another with it—numerous stones make a loud crash when it (f.) is burned.
Ppp. is partly defaced in this verse; and it gives us no aid in solving the difficulties of the second half. The discordance between the masculines yás and pāpmā́nam in a, b and the feminine tā́syām is perhaps best removed by supposing kṛtyā to have been mentally substituted for pāpman (the comm. supplies kṛtyāyām to tasyām); Grill violently emends amā́ in a to āmā́yām (sc. pātryā́m*), and thinks that this raw vessel bursts noisily in pieces when burnt; R. conjectures that thick stones crack when the kṛtyā is burnt, perhaps so as to wake the intended victim. The comm. paraphrases amā by anukūla iva saha sthitaḥ, i.e. an assistant or confederate, and reads in c dugdhāyām "drained" or made ineffective; the stones are produced by the countermagic, and are called on to do (karikrati = punaḥ-punaḥ kurvantu: a convenient substitution of the imperative!) damage (phaṭ=hiṅsanam) to the kṛtyā-kṛt. The translation given above implies a threat of the destruction of the kṛtyā by burning and by stones tumbling crash! (phaṭ for phaṣ?) upon it. The harsh resolution kṛtu-ā́ makes the verse a full anuṣṭubh. ⌊Bp. also has dugdhā́yām.⌋ *⌊Oxytone, not perispome.⌋
4. O thou of a thousand abodes (? -dhā́man), do thou make them lie (?) crestless, neckless; take back the witchcraft to him that made it, like a sweet-heart (priyā́) to a lover (priyā́vant).
