________________
I, 18. COMMENTARY.
with evil characteristics is sprinkled after each verse, commencing at the braid of hair at the right. 20. Having made an offering of chaff from a vessel made of the wood of a palâsa-tree (butea frondosa), he pours the rest (of the chaff) after (the first oblation). 21. Chaff, husks, refuse of grain, and shavings are placed upon the heel of her left foot.'
261
There are good and evil characteristics (lakshmî = lakshana, cf. AV. VII, 115), and the main point of the practices is their removal by washing, and by placing all kinds of offal where it will easily drop from the person under treatment, and cause symbolically the removal of the bad points.
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. IV, 411 ff.; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 498 (cf. also 338); and Geldner, Vedische Studien, I, pp. 313 ff., where the charm is interpreted erroneously as directed against the house-cat. Cf. our brief criticism in the Journ. Am. Or. Soc. XV, 153, note.
Stanza 1.
a. Sâyana reads lakshmam for lakshmyàm, commenting, asaubhagyakaram kihnam. To lalâmyàm he remarks, lalâme bhavam tilakasthânagatam.
d. The Pâda is hypermetric, unless we read pragâyârâtim with double sandhi. Ludwig would cure the passage by substituting nír for pragayai, but the latter word seems guaranteed by AV. V, 25, 8, pragấyai tva (tvâ á) nayâmasi, and possibly this is the original reading (cf. Geldner, 1. c., 314). In adhering to the traditional text I have supposed the meaning to be that she who has the character of an Arâti is rendered fit for marriage and child-birth by the charm. Very problematic this is, to be sure. Sâyana takes pragayai with Pâda c, yâni... saubhagyâni kihnâni tâni... ... asmâkam pragâyâi... bhavantu, . . . yâni pûrvam nihsâritâni asaubhâgyakarâni kihnâni . . . arâtim satrum .. prâpayâmah!
Digitized by
Google
