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284
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
... garbhadrimhanani, gambhagrihîtâya ...syam trir udgrathya badhnati. losh tân anvrikam präsayati. syâmasikatabhih sayanam parikirati. The scene here is child-birth, the passage is part of the strîkarmani, women's rites' (32, 28–36, 40), and the gambhá has seized the baby or the foetus, either at the moment of birth, or prematurely. Hence the title of the ceremony, 'performances for steadying the womb or foetus.' According to Darila, the woman herself receives the treatment, being tied about with a threefold bowstring (gambhena grihito garbho yasyå striyah tasyâ gyam trigunâm kritvå badhnâti), fed with lumps of earth (gambhagrihîtâm [!] prâsayati), and having her bed strewed about with black sand. Here gambhá seems to refer to some irregular behaviour of the foetus ; cf. Wise, Hindu System of Medicine, pp. 423 (middle), and 421 (bottom), and the introduction to VI, 17. The word has at any rate no special connection with the teeth, as may be seen, too, from Tait. S. IV, 5, 11, 2.
Our translation of visará by 'tearing pain' (Sây. sarîravisaranat) is of the etymologising sort. The Pet. Lex., more cautiously, regards it as the name of a demon. Cf. vísarîka at XIX, 34, 10, which Sâyana glosses by viseshena himsakam.
Stanza 5. I am quite agreed with Kesava and Sayana (manibandhanasůtraprakritibhůtah) in not regarding the juxtaposition of the hemp with the gangidá as due to some biological relationship, or therapeutic virtue (cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 142). The hemp represents the thread with which the amulet of gangida was tied on. A thread, or rope of hemp is mentioned also at Kaus. 25, 28; 72, 15. See the introduction to the hymn. The hemp, of course, comes from the sap of the furrow; gangida, the tree, from the forest.
Stanza 6. The same stanza with variants occurs at AV. XIX, 34, 4. The last Pâda is a formula, occurring in addition at IV, 10, 6; XII, 2, 13; XIV, 2, 67.
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