Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

iv. 17- BOOK IV. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAWHITA. 180
The verse is nearly accordant with v. 3 1 . i below. Ppp. reads in b ya sutre nil-.
A raw vessel is one of unburnt clay [apakve mrtpatre, comm.). The coram, defines
" the blue-red one " as fire, blue with smoke, red with flame* ;
and the " raw flesh " as
that of a cock or other animal used for the purposes of the charm. The krtya appears
to be a concrete object into which an evil influence is conveyed by sorcery, and which
then, by depositing or burying, becomes a source of harm to those against whom the
sorcery is directed (jnantrausadhadibhih qatroh pldakarlm, comm. to iv. 18. 2). The
comm. reads tvaya in d, and first pronounces it used by substitution for tvam, then
retains it in its proper sense and makes jahi mean hantavyds: both are examples of
his ordinary grammatical principles. The Anukr. ignores the metrical irregularity of
c Lreject_)'a»V ?\. * LBloomfield, on the basis of Kaug., interprets it as a thread of blue
and red ; and this is confirmed by the Ppp. siitre.\
5. Evil-dreaming, evil-living, demon, monster {abhva), hags, all the
ill-named (f.), ill-voiced — them we make disappear from us.
Ppp. has in a dussvapnam durjtvalam, and, for c, d, durvacas sarvam durbhfitam
tarn ito na^-. A couple of our mss. (l.H.p.m.) read abhum in b. The comm. gives
-jlvatyam in a (with two of SPP's mss.), and (with our P.M.W.E.) asmin instead of
asmdn in d. He first defines abhvam simply as " great," and then as a special kind
of demon or demoniac (quoting RV. i. 185.2); and the durnamnts as pi^acts having
various bad appellations, such as chedika and bhedika. The verse is repeated as
vii. 23. I.
6. Death by hunger, death by thirst, kinelessness, childlessness —
through thee, O off-wiper (apdmdrgd), we wipe off all that.
The translation implies the obvious emendation of anapadydtdm (p. anapaodydtam)
in b to -apatyd-, which is read by the comm. and by three of SPP's mss. which follow
him ; SPP. very properly admits -apatyd- into his text (but forgets to emend his padatext
thoroughly, and leaves in it the absurd division anapaolydtdnt.) [_Weber, however,
discussing avadya, Berliner Sb., 1896, p. 272, defends the reading apadya-.^ The
comm. says nothing of the sudden change here from sahade^n to apdmarga, which
ought to be another plant {Ackyranthes aspera: a weed found all over India, having
very long spikes of retroflected flowers), but may possibly be used here as a synonym
or appellation of the other. In his introduction, he speaks of darbha, apdmarga, and
sahadevi as infused in the consecrated water.
7. Death by thirst, death by hunger, likewise defeat at dice— through
thee, O off-wiper, we wipe off
Ppp. omits this variation on vs. 6.
all that.
8. The off-wiper is indeed of all herbs the sole controller {vagln) ;
with it we wipe [off] what has befallen (dsthitd) thee ; then do thou go
about free from disease.
Ppp. (in book ii.) has for b viqvdsdm eka it patih, combines in c mrjma "sthitam,
and reads at the end carah. Asthitain (also vi. 14. i and VS. vi. 15) has perhaps a
more special sense than we are able to assign to it;
the comm. paraphrases by krtyddibhir
dpatitam rogddikam.