Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
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

Page 2175

656
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
XII, 4. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 174. The hymn is an elaborate plea of the Brahmans for one of the numerous sources of income which they managed to devise. Especially all sorts of ominous occurrences are set down as occasions for expiatory performances (pråyaskitti), at which the performing Brahman comes in for his dakshina (see the thirteenth book of the Kausika), and every kind of irregularity in the birth of a domestic animal is amended by ceremonies in which the animal finally expiates its own existence by going over into the possession of the Brahman. See, for instance, AV. III, 28, and Kaus. 109-111. A cow which after a certain time (see st. 16) is discovered to be sterile (vask) is viewed in this light: she belongs to the Brahmans, and the present hymn recounts in picturesque language, accompanied by fierce threats, the urgency of passing her on to the Brahmans whom nothing hurts. Similarly in Tait. S. II, 1, 2, 2, a sterile sheep is said to be cattle for the gods' (i.e. in effect, for the Brahmanas); cf. also Tait. Br. I, 2, 5, 2, and see in general Weber, Ind. Stud. X, 61 ff. In Kaus. 44 and 45 the ceremonies for slaughtering a vaså are described; it seems according to 45, 17 that they are wound up by giving the animal away. The present hymn is rubricated in Kaus. 66, 20 along with X, 10; nothing is stated except that she is bestowed upon the Brahmans, after having been solemnly sprinkled while the hymns are recited. Cf. in general Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 272, and the same scholar's translation of the hymn, ibid. 448 ff. The metre of this composition is regular anushtubh; this, together with the style and contents, betrays the late character of the hymn.
Stanza 1. The parenthetic expression,' and they have noted her,' is admonitory: the Brahmans do not fail to know that a sterile cow exists; they are sure to claim their own! Ludwig suggests abhatsata or abhantsata for ábhutsata, and those who have bound her,' but there is no relative pronoun, and the sense resulting is strained.
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