Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/109

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565
TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK X.
-x. 1

16. Offward is light for thee, hitherward is no road for thee; make thy goings elsewhere than [toward] us; go thou by a distant [road] beyond ninety difficult navigable streams; do not wound thyself; go away.

One would like to emend kṣaṇiṣṭhās in d, perhaps to kṣamiṣṭhās 'be patient' i.e. 'linger'; Ppp. has instead ghāniṣṭhās, which unfortunately gives no help. Ppp. also combines nāvyā ’ti in c; and the description of the Anukr. appears to sanction it.


17. As the wind the trees, do thou crush (mṛ) down, cause to fall; do not leave of them cow, horse, man; turning back, O witchcraft, from here to thy makers, awaken them unto childlessness.

Here, in c, even a majority of the mss. (W.I.O.D.T.K.) read kartrén. Ppp. combines at the beginning vāte ’va, as the meter demands, and as the Anukr. assumes; úchiṣāi ’ṣām is doubtless also the real reading in b.


18. What [witchcraft] they buried for thee in the barhís, what in the cemetery, [what] witchcraft or secret spell (valagá) in the field, or practised against thee in the householders' fire—they, being wiser, [against thee] who art simple, innocent.

Ppp. helps both meter and sense by inserting cakrus before barhiṣi in a; it also arranges kṛtyāṁ kṣetre in b, combines dhīratarā ’nāg- at the end, and adds, to complete the verse, tam ⌊so Roth's Collation! for tām?⌋ ito nāçayāmasi. The Anukr. notices neither the deficiency in a nor the redundancy in d.


19. We have found out (anu-vid) the hostile sneaking magic (? kártra) that was applied, perceived (? anu-budh), buried: let that go whence it was brought; there let it roll about like a horse; let it slay the progeny of the witchcraft -maker.

Ppp. reads in c āgatam for ābhṛtam, and combines in d açve ’va, as called for by the meter. The Anukr. is as bad in its treatment of this verse as of 15.


20. There are knives of good metal in our house; we know thy joints, O witchcraft, how many they are; just stand up; go away from here; unknown one, what seekest thou here?

That is, 'thou who art no acquaintance of ours.' The Anukr. is much more scrupulous than usual in calling the verse (12 + 11: 8 + 8 = 39) virāj ⌊scanning a perhaps as 11⌋. Ppp. begins with svayasā. The third pāda is quoted in Kāuç. 39. 19.


21. Thy neck-bones (grīvā́), O witchcraft, and thy (two) feet I will cut up; run thou out; let Indra-and-Agni defend us, they who are of progeny rich in progeny.

Prajā́vatī at the end looks like a corruption of prajā́patī, which Ppp. reads ⌊R's collation has prajapatī⌋. Ppp. also has in c enāṁ vṛçcatā. But Kāuç., which quotes the last half-verse in full in 5. 2, reads prajāvatī. The same half-verse appears also by pratīka in Vāit. 8. 6 (unless Vāit. takes it rather from Kāuç.).