Most of the mss. appear to read avarat in a, but doubtless only owing to the imperfect distinction of ca and va in most Sanskrit writing. So also, for the same reason, in c, they could be read for the most part as either púṣyam or púṣpam (M. has puṣyàm); the former was adopted in our edition as being favored by the meter.
5. Golden were the roads, the oars golden, the ships were golden by which they brought out the kúṣṭha.
Ppp. reads hiraṇmay-, and omits c (doubtless by an oversight). All the mss. agree in accenting áritrāṇi; but this should doubtless be emended to arít-. In a we may emend to pánthās or combine pánthānā ”san.
6. This man of mine, O kúṣṭha—him bring, him relieve (nis-kṛ), him also make free from disease for me.
With c compare the nearly identical vi. 95. 3 d. E.H. read níḥ kuru.
7. From the gods art thou born; of Soma art thou set as companion; do thou be gracious to my breath, out-breathing, sight here.
E.H. accent jātó ‘si in a (p. jātáḥ: asi). Ppp. reads apānāya for vyān- in c, and at the end ‘sya mṛḍa, which is easier. ⌊Cf. Hillebrandt, Mythologie, i. 65.⌋
8. Born in the north from the snowy [mountain], thou art conducted to people (jána) in the eastern [quarter]; there have they shared out the highest names of the kúṣṭha.
"The highest names": i.e. the chief sorts or kinds ⌊brands, as we moderns say⌋. The reading údān in a is assured by quotation under Prāt. iii. 27. Ppp. reads prācyaṁ in b.
9. Highest by name, O kúṣṭha, art thou; highest by name thy father; both do thou efface all yákṣma, and do thou make the fever sapless.
Ppp. has a wholly different second half: yataṣ kuṣṭha prajāyase tad ehy ariṣṭatātaye.
10. Head-disease, attack (? upahatyā́), evil of the eyes, of the body—all that may kúṣṭha relieve, verily a divine virility (vṛ́ṣṇya).
The reading níṣ karat in c falls under Prāt. ii. 63. All the mss. give akṣós, but the proper reading is plainly akṣyós, as the meter shows; the same error is found also in other passages. The Anukr. implies akṣós, as akṣyós (-ṣi-ós) would make the verse a regular anuṣṭubh. The Pet. Lexx. take upahatyā́m as governing akṣyós, and so render it 'blinding.' ⌊Ppp. has for a çīrṣahatyām upahatya, and for c kuṣṭho no viçvatas pād.⌋
5. To a healing plant, lākṣā.
[Atharvan.—navakam. lākṣikam. ānuṣṭubham.]
Found also in Pāipp. vi. (in the verse-order 1, 2, 4, 5, 3, 7, 6, 8, 9). Not textually quoted by Kāuç., but doubtless intended, as pointed out by the schol., in the lākṣālin̄gās of 28. 14, as employed in a healing rite for flesh-wounds.
Translated: Zimmer, p. 67; Grill, 10, 142; Griffith, i. 195; Bloomfield, 20, 419; Weber, xviii. 181.
1. Night [is thy] mother, cloud (nábhas) [thy] father, Aryaman thy grandfather; silācī́, verily, by name art thou; thou art sister of the gods.
