Volume 1 - Sanskrit Web

;
vi. 138- BOOK VI. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAMHITA. 384
138. To make a certain man impotent.
[jitAarvai! (kllbakartukdmali). — pahcarcam. vdnaspatyam. dtiiistubham : ^. pathySpahkti^
Found (except vs. 5) also in Paipp.i. Used by Kau?. (48. 32) in a rite of sorcery,
with wrapping, crushing, and burying urine and fsces.
Translated : Weber, Ind. Stud. v. 246 ; Ludwig, p. 470 ; Geldner, Ved. Stud. \. 131
(in part and with comment) ; Griffith, i. 322, 474
;
Bloomfield, 108, 537.
1. Thou art listened to, O herb, as the most best of plants; make
thou now this man for me impotent {kllbd), o/af^-wearing.
The opa^d is some head-ornament worn distinctively by women (comm. strTvyaujanain).
Geldner holds that opa(a, kurlra (vs. 2), and kumba (vs. 3)
all mean alike
'
horn.' Ppp. reads paurusa/n in c. The comm. does not attempt to identify the plant
addressed.
2. Do thou make him impotent, o/>afd-wearing, likewise make him
kurira-vfearing ; then let Indra with the (two) pressing-stones split both
his testicles.
Ppp. gives krtvd for krdhi in a (combining krtvo '/-), and reads throughout kllva
and opafu; in c, d it has ubhabhydm asya gr. indro bhinaitv a. The comm. explains
kurlra as = ke(;a, and quotes from TS. iv. i. 53 the phrase sinlvdli sukaparda sukurtra
svaupa^d; and also, from an unknown source, stanakeqavatl stri syal lomaqah purusah
smrtah.
3. Impotent one, I have made thee impotent ; eunuch {vddhri), I have
made thee eunuch ; sapless one, I have made thee sapless ; the kurira
and the ktimba we set down upon his head.
The comm. explains kurira here as 'a net of hair' (^ke^ajala) and kumba as 'its
ornament' {tadabharanain), and he quotes from ApQS.x. 9. 5 the sentence atra patni(^irasi
kumbakurlram adhy iihate. Both words plainly signify some distinctively
womanish head-dress or ornament. Ppp. reads (as also our P.s.m.) kumbham in e
and, for c, arasam tva 'karam arasd 'raso 'si.
4. The two god-made tubes that [are] thine, in which stands thy virility,
those I
split for thee with a peg, on yon woman's loins (muskd).
Ppp. combines amusya 'dki in d (but perhaps the true saihhitd-rea.d.mgl).
a gap in the place where our qaniyayd stands.J
LPpp. has
5. As women split reeds with a stone for a cushion, so do I split thy
member, on yon woman's loins.
In this and the preceding verse, the comm. strangely connects muskdyos with the
preceding noun (nddyaH, f^pas) and supplies (ildyds with amiisyds.
139. To compel a woman's love.
[Atharvan. — pancarcam. vdnaspatyam. dnustubham : 1. j-av. 6-p. virddjagati.'\
The hymn is wanting in Paipp. Kaug. (36. 12) uses it in a women's rite, with vi. 129
and vii. 38 : see under the former.