5. O Kirātan, O spotted one, O grass-haunter (?), O brown one! listen ye to me, O black serpents, offensive ones! stand ye not upon the track (? stāmán) of my comrade; calling out (ā-çrāvay), rest quiet in poison.
It is hardly possible to avoid emending stāmā́nam in c to sthā́mānam ⌊'station'⌋ or srāmāṇam ⌊'course,' from sṛ 'run'—but not quotable⌋; Ppp. is very corrupt in c, d, but seems to intend no variants. It reads upatarṇi babhrav in a; our babhra is by Prāt. i. 81, and this passage is quoted in the comment on that rule. It further mutilates to asitalīkā in b. The accents in our text ⌊and SPP's⌋ on ásitās and álikās are against all rule, and doubtless to be regarded as misreadings; the translation implies their absence. In c correct to sákhyuḥ (accent-sign lost over u). A number of ⌊our⌋ mss. (P.M.H.I.O.) ⌊and five of SPP's⌋ read miṣé for viṣé in d (and nimiṣe 'at a wink' would be an acceptable emendation); M.W. end with rabhadhvam. ⌊Griffith identifies kāirāta with karait, the Hindūstānī name (now well known in the Occident) of an awfully venomous little serpent. This would be most interesting, if certain; but friend Grierson writes me that it is improbable on phonetic grounds. We should expect in Hind. kērā.⌋
6. Of the Timātan (?) black serpent, of the brown, and of the waterless, of the altogether powerful (?), I relax the fury, as the bow-string of a bow; I release as it were chariots.
The translation is as if the reading at end of c were manyúm.* The pada-reading in c is sātrā-sahásya, according to Prāt. iii. 23. Ppp. has tayimātasya in a, and in c upodakasya 'water-haunting,' which is better. ⌊Whitney would doubtless have revised this carefully. The divergences of the translators reflect the uncertainties of the exegesis. 'I slacken as it were the cars of the wrath of' etc.—Griffith. 'I release (thee) from the fury of' etc.—Bloomfield. 'Des Asita...des Manyu Streitwagen gleichsam spanne ⌊ich⌋ mir ab' or 'die Streitwagen des Grimmes des Asita' etc.—Weber. For d, 'as the string from off (áva) the bow.'⌋ *⌊Ppp. reads manyum.⌋
7. Both ā́ligī and víligī, both father and mother—we know your connection (bándhu) completely; sapless ones, what will ye do?
The wholly obscure words in a (p. ā́-ligī, ví-ligī) might also be nom. m. of stems in -in; but their accent is against it. Ppp. reads, for a, b, ālakā ca vyaca luptvā yas te mātā. The Anukr. makes no account in b of the two syllables that are lacking to make an anuṣṭubh pāda.
8. Daughter of the broad-knobbed one (?), born of the black barbarian (f.)—of all them (f.) that have pierced defiantly (?) the poison [is] sapless.
The translation conjectures in a a relationship of -gūla to gūḍa and gola, and implies for b emendation to dāsyā́ ásiknyāḥ—since something had to be done to make the line translatable. ⌊One of SPP's authorities has ásiknyāḥ.⌋ Ppp. begins with udakūlāyā 'of the water-bank'; the rest of its version is "without meaning." The first word is quoted by the commentary to Prāt. iii. 72 in the form urū-gūlāyāḥ (so the ms.) ⌊urŭ-?⌋. ⌊W's version 'pierced' implies reference to root dṛ (not drā 'run,' as in Index). For pratán̄kam, both here and at iv. 16. 2, he first wrote 'rapidly,' and then interlined 'defiantly.' Why? BR. take it as gerund, 'of all that have run gliding': i.e., I suppose, 'that dart along on their bellies'?⌋
