Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

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ii. 7- BOOK II. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAMHITA. 48
3. From the sky [is] the root stretched down, from off the earth
stretched up ; with this, thousand-jointed {-kdiida), do thou protect us
about on all sides.
Compare xix. 32.3, where dard/ta-grass is the plant simUarly described and used.
4. Protect me about, my progeny, [and] what riches are ours ; let not
the niggard get the better {(r) of us ; let not hostile plotters get the better
of us.
Our text reads at the beginning /(irf 'mam, with the majority of our mss. (only P.p.m.
W.K.Kp. are noted as not doing so) ; \i\x'!. pdri mam, which SPP. gives, and which all
his authorities, as reported by him, support, is doubtless better, and the translation
follows it. Two of our mss. (H.K.), with one of SPP's, give aratir no m- in c. The
irregular meter of the verse (8 + 8 : 7 -I- 10 = 33) is very ill described by the Anukr.
[The avasana of c is put after tarltj but the accent of tarisus marks that as the initial
of d. RV. ix. 1 14. 4 suggests that our c is in disorder. J
5. Let the curse go to the curser ; our [part] is along with him that is
friendly (stihdrd) ; of the eye-conjurer {-mdtitra), the unfriendly, we crush
in the ribs {prsti).
Nearly all our mss. (except P.M.K.), and part of SPP's, read in b sithat; many
also have in d prsthis, but the distinction of st and sth is not clearly made in any of
the mss. The comm. takes caksus and mantrasya in c as two independent words.
[_See Griflith's note, and mine to xix. 45. 2.
8. Against the disease ksetriyd: with a plant.
\Bhrgvangiras. — vdnaspatyam ; yaksmandfanaddivatam, dnustubham : ^. falhydpaiiiti
4.. virdj ; J. nicrtpathydpankti.'\
Verse i occurs in Paipp. i. It is reckoned (Kaug. 26. i, note) to the iakmana^ana
gana, and is used in a healing ceremony (against kiilagatakusthaksayagrahanyddirogas,
comm.), accompanying various practices upon the diseased person, which are evidently
rather adapted to the words of the text than represented by them (26.41-27.4), and,
according to the comm., are rather alternative than to be performed successively.
Translated: Weber, xiii. 149
; Ludwig, p. 513 ;
Griffith, i. 50 ; Bloomfield, 13,286.
I . Arisen
are the (two) blessed stars called the Unfasteners {vicrt) ;
let
them unfasten {vi-mnc) of the ksctriyd the lowest, the highest fetter.
The disease ksetriyd (lit'ly, ' of the field ') is treated elsewhere, especially in iii. 7
(mentioned also in ii. 10 ; 14. S ; iv. 18. 7). The comm. defines it here as ksetre paraksetre
putrapdutradiqarlre cikitsyah (quoting for this interpretation Pan. v. 2. 92)
ksayakusthddidosadusitapitrmdtrddii;arirdvayavebhya agatah ksayakusthdpasmdrddirogah
— apparently an infectious disorder, of various forms, appearing in a whole
family, or perhaps endemic. The name vicrtau ' the two unfasteners ' is given later to
the two stars in the sting of the Scorpion (X and v Scorpionis : see Siirya-Siddhanta,
note to viii. 9), and there seems no good reason to doubt that they are the ones here
intended ; the selection of two so inconspicuous is not any more strange than the appeal
to stars at all ; the comm. identifies them with Mula, which is the asterism composed
of the Scorpion's tail. The verse is nearly identical with iii. 7. 4, and its first half is vi.