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288
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
stages of the performance, Satra 27, 1 (the plough and the span of cattle), and Sûtras 27, 3. 4, which aim to wash off the illness into the very ground, whence (according to this conception) it has been derived. And the hymn itself is redolent of fields, plants, ploughing, &c., and calls upon (st. 5) the lord of the field 1.' Thus Professor Weber was led repeatedly to look upon this hymn as a charm to counteract injuries to fields ? ; see Ind. Stud. V, 145 note ; XIII, 149; Nakshatra II, 292. And yet, I think, all this is mere play upon the two meanings of kshetra, 'field,' and
womb 3;' the poet, thinking that the disease derives its name from the field, conjures with the properties of the field, or, perhaps, adapts secondarily stanzas constructed originally for practices in the field.
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 149 ff.; and Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 513. The Anukramani describes it as vânaspatyam yakshmana sanadaivatyam.
Stanza 1. The last three Padas are repeated at III, 7, 4; the first half in VI, 121, 3. The point in all these cases is the supposed etymology of the constellation vikritau (later mûlabárhanî, and mdla) from vi krit, 'loosen ;' this enables the word to figure wherever there is question of the 'fetters' of disease. Cf. in general, Weber, Nakshatra II, 292, 310, 374, 389; Zimmer, pp. 356, 392. For an opposite construction of the function of the vikritau, see the note on VI, 110, 2.
See, however, the note on this expression below. : Cf. also Pânini V, 2, 92, and commentaries ; Ind. Stud. V, 145 note; XIII, 150 note; XVII, 208 note; Zimmer, 301 ff.
• Note especially the passage from Kath. S. cited by Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 150 note. The expression svakrila irine does not prove that a field is in the view of a performer. A spot where there is a natural rist in the ground is frequently, in witchcraft, made the theatre of the performance, without any such special end in view. Cf. the passages in the Pet. Lex., and the paribhasha to the abhikâra performances, Kaus. 49, 6.
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