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JUNE, 1910.]
THE ARTHASASTRA OF CHANAKYA.
171
Wherever one may happen to see the corpse burnt or just being burnt of a Brahman who kept sacrificial fire (while alive), there one should fast for three nights; and having on the day of the star of Pushya formed a sack from the garment of the corpse of a man who has died from natural causes, and having filled the sack with the ashes of the Brahman's corpse, one may put on the sack on one's back, and walk invisible to others.
The slough of a snake filled with the powder of the bones and marrow or fat of the cow sacrificed during the funeral rites of a Brahman, can, when put on the back of cattle, render them invisible.
The slough of prachalaka (a bird ?) filled with the ashes of the corpse of a man dead from snake-bite, can render beasts (mriga) invisible.
The slough of a snake (ahi) filled with the powder of the bone of the knee-joint mixed with that of the tail and dung (purisha) of an owl and a vaguli (?), can render birds invisible.
Such are the eight kinds of the contrivances causing invisibility.
(a) I bow to Bali, son of Virochana; to Sanibara acquainted with a hundred kinds of magic; to Bhandirapaka, Naraka, Nikumbha, and Kumbha.
(6) I bow to Devala and Nârada; I bow to Savarṇigâlava; with the permission of these I cause deep slumber to thee.
(c) Just as the snakes, known as ajagara (boa-constrictor) fall into deep slumber, so may the rogues of the army who are very anxious to keep watch over the village,
(d) With their thousands of dogs (bhandaka) and hundreds of ruddy geese and donkeys, fall into deep slumber; I shall enter this house, and may the dogs be quiet.
(e) Having bowed to Manu, and having tethered the roguish dogs (sunakapheiaka), and having also bowed to those gods who are in heaven, and to Brahmans among mankind.
To those who are well versed in their Vedic studies, those who have attained to Kailasa (a mountain of god Siva) by observing penance, and to all prophets, I do cause deep slumber to thee,
The fan (chamari) comes out; may all combinations retire. Oblation to Manu, O Aliti and Paliti.
The application of the above mantra is as follows:
Having fasted for three nights, one should, on the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month, the day being assigned to the star of Pushya, purchase from a low-caste woman (évapûki) vilikhavalekhana (finger nails?). Having kept them in a basket (kandoliká), one should bury them apart in cremation grounds. Having unearthed them on the next fourteenth day, one should reduce them to a paste with kumari (aloe ?) and prepare small pills out of the paste. Wherever one of the pills is thrown, chanting the above mantra, there the whole animal life falls into deep
slumber.
Following the same procedure, one should separately bury in cremation grounds three white and three black dart-like hairs (salyaka) of a porcupine. When, having on the next fourteenth day taken them out, one throws them together with the ashes of a burnt corpse, chanting the above mantra, the whole animal life in that place falls into deep slumber.
(a) I bow to the goddess Suvarnapushpi and to Brahmâni, to the god Rhma, and to Kusadhvaja; I bow to all serpents and goddesses; I bow to all ascetics.
(b) May all Brahmans and Kshattriyas come under my power; may all Vaisyas and Sudras be at my beck and call.7
Oblation to thee, O, Amile, Kimile, Vayujâre, Prayoge, Phake, Kavayuśve, Vihâle, and Dantakatake, oblation to thee.
a-fare in iloka metre.
1a and b are in floka metre.
