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Speculations in the Medical Schools [ch. kāni and krtyā-pratiharaṇāni); 4. Charms pertaining to women (stri-karmāni); 5. Charms to secure harmony, influence in the assembly, and the like (saumanasyāni); 6. Charms pertaining to royalty (rāja-karmāni); 7. Prayers and imprecations in the interest of Brahmins; 8. Charms to secure property and freedom from danger (pausţikāni); 9. Charms in expiation of sin and defilement (prāyaścittāni); 10. Cosmogonic and theosophic hymns; 11. Ritualistic and general hymns; 12. The books dealing with individual themes (books 13-18); 13. The twentieth book; 14. The kuntāpa hymns?; of these we have here to deal briefly with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9, more or less in the order in which they appear in the Atharva-Veda. A.V. 1. 2 is a charm against fever (jvara), diarrhoea (atīsāra), diabetes (atimūtra), glandular sores (nādi-vrana); a string made of muñja grass is to be tied, the mud from a field or ant-hill is to be drunk, clarified butter is to be applied and the holes of the anus and penis and the mouth of the sore are to be aerated with a leather bladder and the charm is to be chanted. The disease ásrāva, mentioned in this hymn, is explained by Sāyaṇa as meaning diabetes (mūtrātisāra)2. I. 3 is a charm against stoppage of urine and stool (mūtra-purișa-nirodha). Along with a chanting of the hymn the patient is to be made to drink either earth from a rat's hole (mūşika-mịttikā), a pūtikā plant, curd, or saw-dust from old wood, or he is to ride an elephant or a horse, or to throw an arrow; a fine iron needle was to be passed through the urinal canal. This is probably the earliest stage of what developed in later times as the vasti-kriyā?. 1. 7 and 1. 8 are charms for driving away evil spirits, yātudhānas and kimīdins, when a man is possessed by them. I. 10 is a charm for dropsy (jalodara): a jugful of water containing grass, etc. is to be sprinkled over the body of the patient. 1. 11 is a charm for securing easy delivery. I. 12 is a charm for all diseases arising from disturbance of vāta, pitta and śleşmanfat, honey and clarified butter or oil have to be drunk. Headdisease (sīrşakti) and cough (kāsa) are specially mentioned. 1. 17
1 Nir Bloomfield's The Atharva-Veda and Gopatha-Brāhmaṇa, p. 57.
2 Bloomfield says that asrāva means atīsāra or diarrhoea (ibid. p. 59). The same physical applications for the same diseases are directed in A.V. 11. 3.
Isrāvu denotes any disease which is associated with any kind of diseased ejection. Thus in II. 3.2 Sāyaṇa says that asrāva means atisarātimūtra-nādi-uraņādayah.
3 Pra te bhinadmi mehanam vartram vesantyā iva evā te mutram mucyatām buhir bāl iti sarvakam (1 open your urinal path like a canal through which the waters rush. So may the urine come out with a whizzing sound-A.V.1.3.7). All the verses of the hymn ask the urine to come out with a whizzing sound.
