20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

686 JULIETA RotaruTvaṣṭṛ is invoked as giving progeny in his quality as a god of the generativepower 48 .The whole hymn 2.29 is employed by the KauśS 27.9-13 in a rite forcuring a person afflicted with thirst by means of transferring his sufferingto another. WHITNEY reckons this ritual employment “a total perversionof the proper meaning of the hymn”. BAHULKAR (1994: 138) considersthat from the fourth stanzas onwards the hymn (that in the PS forms awhole hymn, 1.13.1-4, following the corresponding hymn of the ŚS 2.28)contains an indication to the rite, whereas the first three stanzas, found in thePS 19.17.10-12, “are clearly a prayer for the long life”. Even postulatingthe composite character of 2.29, it does not change the meaning of the firststanzas, which, all the more, were added to the so-called original hymn dueto their similarity of subject. The only element common to all the three ritesin which they are employed, the pupil’s paridhāpana, the kumārīsnāna,and the healing of thirst affliction, is water. Pārthivasya rase might besuch an indication of the ritual application. WHITNEY postulates “somecharacteristic product of earth applied in the rite”, but actually neither ofthe rites make use of such an object.To conclude the paragraph, the rendering of the ŚS 2.29.1 could be: “In thesap of the earthly womb, in strength of body, may Agni, Sūrya, Bṛhaspaticonfer length of life to this one, vigour.”, wherein the sap of earth is thewater. In the usual Vedic imagery the waters are thought as divine, yetothers are khanitrimāḥ, “dug out of the earth” 49 .The last two stanzas of the abhimantraṇa, ŚS 13.1.59-60, are identicalwith ṚV 10.57.1-2, which are called svastyayanam by the Bṛhaddevatā 50 ,accounting for being recited by the Gaupāyanas for reviving their brother,who was killed by two rival priests appointed by the king Asumāti as hischaplains in their place. We do not know how popular this legend mighthave been in the Atharvavedic circles when they included the two stanzasin their Saṃhitā or when they have used them in their rituals. Above all this48Cf. ŚS 6.81.3, employed by the KauśS in a rite for fertility, in which the womanis worn an amulet, as Aditi, desirous of offspring was bound by Tvaṣṭṛ, mentioned in thehymn; 6.78.3, wherein Tvaṣṭṛ is said of having created the wife and husband for each otherand ensuring their long life. Tvaṣṭṛ is called turpa ŚatBr 13.1.8.7, páyasvat ŚS 9.4.3,6,sujániman ṚV 10.18.6.49ṚV 7.49.2. Cf. Chāndogya Upaniṣad 1,1.2: eṣāṃ bhūtānāṃ pṛthivī rasaḥ | pṛthivyāāpo rasaḥ | oṣadhīnāṃ puruṣo rasaḥ | puruṣasya vāg rasaḥ | vāca ṛg rasaḥ | ṛcaḥ sāma rasaḥ |50For the story of the priest Subandhu’s revival by his brothers with the recitation ofthis and subsequent hymns, see Max MÜLLER 1866: 426-479.