Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/330

most man," like madhyameṣṭhā́ or chief (see under iii. 8. 2), and madhyamaçī used especially of the leader about whom his men encamp, for his greater safety, in the night. JB. has madhyamaçīvan at ii. 408, but the passage is too corrupt to cast valuable light upon the word. To the comm., it is either Vāyu, the wind in mid-air, or else the king, viewed as surrounded first by foes, and further by their foes, his friends (on the principle of arir mitram arer; mitram) ⌊mitra-mitram ataḥ param etc. I find the verse at Kāmandakīya Nītisāra, viii. 16. To judge from the Later Syriac Version (Kalīlah and Dimnah, Keith-Falconer, p. 114), one would expect to find it in Pañcatantra ii., colloquy of mouse and crow, in Kosegarten's ed., p. 110 or thereabouts. Cf. Manu vii. 158 and the comm.⌋

5. Curse attains him not, nor witchcraft, nor scorching; víṣkandha reaches him not who beareth thee, O ointment.

Ppp. reads tam for enam in a, and niṣkandham in c. ⌊it inserts just before our vs. 7 the vs. given under vi. 76. 4 and ending with yas tvāṁ bibharty āñjana.⌋

6. From wrong spell, from evil dreaming, from evil deed, from pollution also, from the terrible eye of an enemy—therefrom protect us, ointment.

Ppp. has, for b, kṣetriyāc chapathād uta. The Pet. Lexx. understand asanmantrá as simply "untrue speech" (so Grill, "Lügenrede"); the comm. reads instead -ntryāt, as adjective qualifying duṣvapnyāt, and signifying "produced by base bewitching spells." Durhā́rdas in c might well be adj., 'hostile' (so comm.).

7. Knowing this, O ointment, I shall speak truth, not falsehood; may I win (san) a horse, a cow, thy soul, O man (púruṣa).

The latter half-verse is RV. x. 97. 4 c, d (which is also, without variant, VS. xii. 78 c, d), where we read vā́sas instead of ahám; Ppp., too, gives vāsās. All the mss. and the comm. have at the end the absurd form puruṣas (nom., but without accent); the comm. (whose text, as SPP. points out in more than one place, is unaccentuated) understands "I, thy man (retainer)." Both editions make the necessary emendation to puruṣa ⌊s. pūruṣa⌋. Ppp. gives pāuruṣa. SPP. makes a note that sanéyam is so accented by all his authorities—as if anything else were possible ⌊does he have in mind sáneyam? see Whitney, Roots, p. 183⌋. The first pāda is defective unless we resolve vi-du-ā́n ⌊or ā-añjana⌋.—⌊R's supplementary report of Ppp. readings ends a with āñjanas and has for d āñjana taṁva pāuruṣaḥ. As noted above, this vs. stands at the end in Ppp. and before it is inserted the vs. given under vi. 76. 4.⌋

8. Three are the slaves (dāsá) of the ointment—fever (takmán), balā́sa, then snake: the highest of mountains, three-peaked (trikakúd) by name, [is] thy father.

For the obscure balāsa, the comm. gives the worthless etymology balam asyati, and adds saṁnipātādiḥ 'collision [of humors] or the like'; "snake" he explains as for snake-poisoning; perhaps, if the reading is genuine, it is rather the name of some (constricting ?) disease.

9. The ointment that is of the three-peaked [mountain], born from the snowy one (himávant)—may it grind up all the familiar demons and all the sorceresses.