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primarily designed to produce rain, and their employment here, secondarily, may be intended to put the patient into a sweat. The point is problematic and not cleared up by the scholiasts.
I, 23.
COMMENTARY.
The entire hymn is repeated with variants at Tait. Br. II, 4, 4, 1. 2. The third stanza of the next hymn is there added to the charm.
Both this and the next hymn have been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. IV, pp. 416 ff.; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 506, 509; Grill2, pp. 19, 77 ff.; cf. Wise, Hindu System of Medicine, pp. 258 ff.; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 391; and Bergaigne et Henry, Manuel Védique, p. 135. The Anukramanî designates I, 23 as vânaspatyam, and I, 24 as âsurîvanaspatidevatyam.
Stanza 1.
Sâyana refers the adjectives dark, &c., to the plants, indicated by Kausika's commentators. The word ragani (as well as all others designating night) has also the meaning 'curcuma longa.' Cf. the scholiast at Tait. Br. II, 4, 4, 1, ranganakshame oshadhe... atra haridrâ raganî-ti kekit. The two meanings are blended with the idea of 'rich in colour,' by virtue of which the word puns with ragaya.
Stanza 2.
b. A considerable number of MSS., here as well as in 3 d, followed by Sâyana, read prithak for príshat, which also makes good sense. The Tait. Br. also reads príshat.
c. This seems to be addressed to the patient: his natural colour shall return to him. Grill takes offence at the parenthesis1 and proposes to refer sváh to the plant; cf. also Ludwig, and Bergaigne et Henry, l. c., note. But the plants are of a colour different from the leper's spots (hence their virtue), and svá is inappropriate. Sâyana, as in our translation, he rugna svakîyah prâg avasthito varnah.
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1 Cf. Aufrecht, Festgruss an Otto von Böhtlingk, p. 3.
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