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606
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
forms the rite to Takshaka (described at Kaus. 28, 1; see the introduction to IV, 6). 21. Having ground up the paidva”, he puts it with his right thumb up the nose in his right nostril. 22. If afraid of serpents he hides (the paidva) away in the seam of his garment. 23. While st. 25 of the hymn is being recited (the patient suffering from a snakebite) is rubbed from (his head) to the tips of his feet. 24. Having heated the bitten spot while reciting the last stanza of the hymn, he throws (the torch with which the heating is done) upon the serpent. 25. (In the absence of the serpent he hurls it upon the spot) where he was bitten.' The hymn is also cited, along with other mantras against serpents, at Kaus. 139, 8, in the course of practices preparatory to the study of the Veda. It has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 520 ff.
Stanga 1. 0, d. apamá (the Padapåtha in perplexity, apa-má) seems untenable, unless we admit an irregular change of final as to â before r; cf. Joh. Schmidt, Die Pluralbildungen der Indogermanischen Neutra, p. 124 ff. We emend to apamó. årad and arishat (! with some MSS.) are prophetic aorists: lit.‘it has hit a post and come to grief.'
Stanza 2. a. The general sense of this passage seems fairly clear, . but it is full of obscure details, and the metre so much dis
turbed as to cast suspicion upon the text. The Pet. Lexs. identify tardnakam with tarunaka in darbhatarunaká, 'a young shoot of darbha-grass ;' it seems therefore best to place tarůnakam in apposition with darbháh. But it is not quite clear what kind of grass is meant, nor what it is meant to do. According to Ait. Br. VII, 33, 1; Sat. Br. III, 1, 2, 7, &c.; Åsv. Grih. IV, 6, 11, the darbha-shoots are employed in the ritual ; possibly its purificatory power is
The paidva is some kind of insect. Most clearly Kesava at Kaus. 32, 22, paidvam hiranyavarnasadrisah kitas kitrito và sa paidva ity ukyate.
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| SR No. | 007681 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 01 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1890 |
| Total Pages | 2695 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 47 MB |