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viii. 7-
BOOK VIII. THE ATHARVA-VEDA-SAṀHITĀ.
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12. Rich in sweets the root, rich in sweets the tip of them, rich in sweets was the middle of the plants; rich in sweets the leaf, rich in sweets the flower of them; partaking of sweet, a drink of nectar (amṛ́ta), let them milk out ghee, food, with milk (gó-) as chief (-purogavá).

The mss. (except D. and R.s.m.?) agree in the unmotived accent babhū́va at end of b. Ppp. has instead balena; also, for sambhaktās, sambhūtās 'originated,' which is easier.


13. However many [may be] these herbs upon the earth, let them, thousand-leafed, free me from death, from distress.

All the mss. leave oṣadhīs unaccented at end of b; and most (all save P.M.D.R.T.) accent -parṇyás at end of c. ⌊Cf. Caland, KZ. xxxi. 265.⌋


14. Let the tigerish amulet of plants, saving, protecting from imprecation, smite far away from us diseases [and] all demons.

The pada-text reads sárvā (not sárvāḥ) in c, and the translation follows it. Ppp. has vyāghro in a, and asmāt at the end. Adhi in d is redundant in respect both to sense and to meter.


15. As at the roaring of a lion do they quake; as at fire do they tremble at [the herbs when] brought; let the yákṣma of kine, of men, go driven by the plants beyond navigable streams.

The usual expression is 'beyond ninety-nine' such streams. Ppp. reads oṣadhīnām for saṁ vijante in a. ⌊Over "quake" W. interlines "shrink with fear." He would probably have changed it to "they are all in a tremble," as in v. 21. 4, 6.⌋


16. The herbs, becoming freed from Agni Vāiçvānara—go ye stretching over the earth, [ye] whose king is the forest-tree.

We should expect vocatives instead of nominatives in the first line.


17. They who, belonging to the An̄girases, grow on mountains and on plains—let those herbs, rich in milk, propitious, be weal to our heart.

In Ppp. this verse follows our vs. 19. ⌊Ppp. inserts after b vírudho viçvabheṣajīs, and continues tā no mayasvatīç çivāḥ: o. s. ç. h.


18. Both what plants I know, and what I see with the eye, the unknown and what we are acquainted with, and those in which we know what is brought together—

That is, probably, their collected or concentrated virtue. Ppp. reads in c janīmasi for jānīmaç ca. ⌊We might render ájñātās by 'what we are not acquainted with,' to correspond with W's version of jānīmás.⌋


19. Let all the entire herbs note (budh) my spell (vácas), that we may make this man pass forth out of difficulty.

Ppp. omits the second half-verse; it is identical with 7 c, d, above.


20. The açvatthá, the darbhá, sóma king of plants, immortal oblation—rice and barley [are] remedial, immortal sons of heaven.

Ppp. reads yavasya bheṣajo in c.