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457
TRANSLATION AND NOTES. BOOK VII.
-vii. 96

95 (100) A spell against some one.

[Kapiñjala.—tṛcam. mantroktagṛdhradevatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 2, 3. bhurij.]

Not found in Pāipp. Used by Kāuç. (48. 40) in a witchcraft rite against enemies, with tying up a striped frog with two blue and red strings under the forelegs, putting it in hot water, and poking and squeezing it at each offering (pratyāhuti).

Translated: Ludwig, p. 517; Henry, 38, 109; Griffith, i. 375.


1. Up have flown his two dark-brown (çyāvá) quiverers (? vithurá), as two vultures to the sky—up-heater-and-forth-heater, up-heaters of his heart.

The comm. renders vithurāú by saṁtataṁ calanaçīlāu (also vyathanaçīlāu bhayavantāu), and understands by them (through the hymn) either the two lips or the breath and expiration of the enemy who is represented by the frog (maṇḍūkātmanā bhāvitasya)—which is very unsatisfactory. To the vultures he applies the epithet tārkṣyāu. Roth suggests, as intended in the second half-verse, the heat and passion of love, which are to be expelled from some woman's heart.


2. I have made them (dual) rise up, like (two) weary-sitting kine, like (two) growling dogs, like (two) lurking (? ud-av) wolves.

The comm. explains udavantāu by goyūthamadhye vatsān udgṛhya gacchantāu; Henry renders "that watch one another." ⌊He would reject úd in a.⌋


3. The (two) on-thrusters, down-thrusters, also together-thrusters: I shut up his urinator who bore [away] from here—[whether] woman [or] man.

Strī́m in d would be a welcome emendation: "of the man who bore away the woman from here"; but the analogy of i. 8. 1 c favors the text as given by the mss. The comm. supplies āsmākīnaṁ dhanam as object of jabhāra; or, alternatively, he takes the latter as = prahṛtavān asmān bādhitavān; meḍhra (mih + tra) he paraphrases with marmasthānopalakṣaṇam. His ignorance of the sense of the hymn is as great as that of Kāuç.—or as ours. SPP. retains the of itáḥ before strī́ in d, against his usual practice elsewhere, and with only a small minority of his mss.


96 (101). For quiet kidneys (?).

[Kapiñjala.—prākṛtam ⌊?⌋; vāyasam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Found in Pāipp. xx. Occurs in Kāuç. (48. 41) just after the preceding hymn, but in a different rite against an approaching enemy, who is made to drink a preparation. *⌊Berlin ms. prāg uktam.

Translated: Henry, 39, iii; Griffith, i. 376.


1. The kine have sat in their seat; the bird has flown to its nest; the mountains have stood in their site; I have made the (two) kidneys stand in their station.

Instead of the unsatisfactory and questionable* vṛkkāú, the comm. reads vṛkāu, and understands it to mean "the he-wolf and the she-wolf"; they are to be made to stay in an enemy's house. He also reads in c a sthāne, regarding ā as prefix to asthuḥ. SPP. combines again (cf. 95. 3 d) in his text, with the minority of his authorities,