32. Against demons.
[1, 2. Cātana; 3. Atharvan.—agnidāivatam. trāiṣṭubham: 2. prastārapan̄kti.]
The first two verses found also in Pāipp. xix.* Kāuç. has the hymn (or vss. 1, 2) in a remedial rite against demons (31. 3); the fire is circumambulated three times, and a cake is offered; and it is reckoned (note to 8. 25) to the cātana gaṇa. Verse 3 is by itself reckoned (note to 16. 8) to the abhaya gaṇa, and also (note to 25. 36) to the svastyayana gaṇa. *⌊Ppp. then has a third verse, whose a = vi. 40. 1 a, and whose b is corrupt. Roth's note seems incomplete.⌋
Translated: Florenz, 291 or 43; Griffith, i. 262; Bloomfield, 36, 475.
1. Within the flame, pray, make ye this sorcerer-destroying libation with ghee; from afar, O Agni, do thou burn against the demons; mayest thou not be hot toward our houses.
Our mss. (so far as noted) and nearly all SPP's, accent juhutā́ in a; but his text, as well as ours, emends to juhutā. The comm. understands at the beginning antar dāve as two separate words; and that is a preferable, and probably the true, reading. The gen. in d is peculiar; we should expect with it tītapāti, in impers. sense: 'may there be no sickness befalling our houses.' Ppp. reads ghṛhaṁ naḥ at end of b; and, for d, mā ’smākaṁ vasū ’pa tītipanthā. The verse (10 + 10: 12 + 11 = 43) is ill-defined as a mere triṣṭubh.
2. Rudra hath crushed (çṛ) your necks, O piçācás; let him crush in (api-çṛ) your ribs, O sorcerers; the plant of universal power hath made you go to Yama.
A few of SPP's authorities (also the Anukr., in citing the verse) read açarīt in a. Some of our mss. accent piçācā́ḥ at end of a (P.M.I.p.m.), and yātudhānā́ḥ (P.M.I.); all the pada-mss. absurdly have viçvátaḥ॰vīryāḥ at end of c. Ppp. has, for a, b, çarvo vo grīvāy açarīṣ piçācā vo ’pa çṛṇāty agniḥ and in d it gives mṛtyunā for yamena. ⌊The "verbal forms with suspicious āi" in the AV. (çarāis etc., asaparyāit: cf . Gram. §§555 c, 904 b, 1068 a) have been treated by Bloomfield, ZDMG. xlviii. 574 ff., and Böhtlingk, ibidem, liv. 510 ff. Cf. also note to xviii. 3. 40.⌋
3. Fearlessness, O Mitra-and-Varuṇa, be ours here; drive ye backward the devourers with your gleam; let them not find a knower, nor a foundation (pratiṣṭhā́); mutually destroying one another let them go unto death.
The verse occurs also in AGS. (iii. 10. 11), which has, in a, b, -ṇā mahyam astv arciṣā çatrūn dahatam pratītya; in c, vindantu; in d, bhindānās. The latter half-verse is found again as viii. 8. 21 c, d. Pāda a has a redundant syllable unheeded by the Anukr.