4. Let the rough-called one make yonder men rough (paruṣá); let the slayer slay them with deadly weapons; let them be broken quickly like a reed (çará), tied together with a great net.
Ppp. combines çare ’va in c,* and has at the end (as in 3 d) saṁcitās; it puts the verse before our vs. 3. The Pet. Lexx. conjecture paruṣāhvá to be 'a kind of reed.' ⌊For the materials of the sorcery, and the "net," cf. introd.⌋ *⌊As the meter requires; why then does not the Anukr. call the vs. a purastādbṛhatī and have done with it?⌋
5. The atmosphere was the net; the great quarters [were] the net-stakes; therewith encircling [them], the mighty one (çakrá) scattered away the army of the barbarians (dásyu).
Ppp. has an easier but virtually equivalent version of c, d: tenā ’bhidhāya senām indro dasyūn apā ’vapat. Vss. 5-8 are translated by Muir (v. 88). ⌊"Net-stakes": cf. introd.—For "encircling" W. first had "girding"; abhi-dhā carries the idea of bridling, curbing, or restraining: cf. vss. 7, 8, 9 and note to iii. 11. 8.⌋
6. Since great [is] the net of the great mighty one, the vigorous
(vājínīvant)—therewith do thou crowd (ubj) down upon all [our] foes, that no one soever of them may be released.
Ppp. adds to our first half-verse (with rocanāvatas for vāj- in b) the second half-verse of our 7 (omitting nyarbudaṁ and reading at the end senām), then putting the whole after 7. All the mss. accent múcyātāi, which, though supported by the usage of sundry Vedic texts (including even RV.), was emended in our edition to agree with the Atharvan accentuation elsewhere. ⌊Henry would read móci, of which he holds mucyā́tāi to be a gloss.⌋
7. Great, O Indra, hero (çū́ra), is the net of thee that art great, that art worth a thousand, that hast hundred-fold heroism; therewith encircling the army of the barbarians, the mighty one slew a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred million.
The translation follows Ppp. (see under the preceding verse) in reading senām at the end. Instead of our c, d, Ppp. has tena ny ubja maghavann amitrāṅ çaçvatībhyaḥ.
8. This great world was the net of the great mighty one; by that net of Indra do I encircle all yon men with darkness.
9. Debility, formidable ill-success, and mishap that is not to be exorcised away (an-apavācaná), toil, and weariness, and confusion—with these do I encircle all yon men.
