Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

153 TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK IV. -iv. 6
declare it to be employed elsewhere (29. i
;
32. 20) in similar rites involving Taksaka.
There is no specific reference in the hymn to serpent poison, but distinctly to vegetable
poison ;
and the comm. regards kanda or kandamiila (' tuber ' and ' tuber-root ') as the
plant intended.
Translated: Ludwig, p. 512 ; Griffith, i. 136 ;
Bloomfield, 25, 373
; Weber, xviii. 23.
— Cf. Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 145.
1. The Brahman was born first, with ten heads, with ten mouths ; he
first drank the soma ;
he made the poison sapless.
The absence of this verse in Ppp., and the normal length of the hymn without it,
together with its own senselessness, suggest strongly the suspicion of its unoriginality.
To put meaning into it, the comm. maintains that the serpents have castes, as men have ;
and that their primal Brahman was Taksaka.
2. As great as [are] heaven-and-earth by their width, as much as the
seven rivers spread out {vi-stka), [so far] have I spoken out from here
these words (vdc),
spoilers of poison.
Tavatim in d for tarn Ms would be a welcome emendation. The first half-verse
occurs in VS. (xxxviii. 26 a, b : not quoted in QB.) and TS. (in iii. 2. 6") : VS. omits
varimndj- TS. has instead mahitvaj both rectify the meter of b by adding ca after
yavat (Ppp. adds instead va) ; and for our rather fantastic vitasthire (p. vi°tasthire)
VS. has -tasthird i.'aA TS. -tastkHs. The comm. also reads -sthire; the lingualization
is one of the cases falling under Prat. ii. 93. The comm. glosses in b sindhavas by
sa/nudrds, and vitasthire by %>ydvartante. This irregular prastdra-pankti is overlooked
by the Anukr. in its treatment of the meter.
3. The winged {ganltmant) eagle consumed (av) thee first, O poison;
thou hast not intoxicated (ntad), thou hast not racked {rup) [him] ; and
thou becamest drink for him.
At beginning of b, visa is read only |_by Ppp. andj by the comm. and by one of
SPP's mss. that follows him; all the rest have the gross blunder visah (both editions
emend to visa). Ppp. gives ddayat in b, and its second half-verse reads nd 'ropayo
nd 'inddayo tdsmd bhavan pitith, thus removing the objectionable confusion of tenses
made by our text. Our ariirupas is quoted as counter-example by the comment to
Prat. iv. 86. The first pada might be rendered also
' the well-winged Garutmant,'
and the comm. so understands it, adding the epithet vdinateya to show that garutmant
=G?iruda.. He also takes the two aorists and the imperfect in c-d alike as imperatives
{nd ^rurupas = vimildham md kdrslK). The Anukr. does not note a as irregular.
4. He of five fingers that hurled at thee from some crooked bow —
from the tip {galyd) of the apaskambhd have I exorcised (nir-vac) the
poison.
Apaskambhd is very obscure ;
the Pet. Lex. suggests " perhaps the fastening of the
arrow-head to the shaft" ; Ludwig guesses " barb," but that we have in vs. 5— as we
also have qalya, which seems therefore premature here ; and, in fact, Ppp. reads instead
of it bdhvosj and, as it has elsewhere apaskantasya bdhvos, we might conjecture apa
skandhasya etc., ' from shoulder and arms ' : i.e. from wounds in them. Or, for apaskambha
as a part of the body might be compared 6'ugruta i. 349. 20 — unless apastainbe