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II, 29. COMMENTARY.
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presents it to the person not suffering from thirst. 11. (Thus) to him he transfers the thirst. 12. (To the patient) he gives water (freshly) drawn to drink! 13. While reciting the second half of st. 6 he does as there stated (i.e. he covers them with one and the same garment, and lets them drink of the stirred drink).' The performance implies the transference (vaguely suggesting the modern transfusion) of the disease upon some friend or menial. Cf. Kaiyata to Pânini V, 2, 92, as cited by Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 159 note. In the Teutonic folk-practices, transference of disease takes place without knowledge of the healthy; cf. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube, $ 492 ff. The nature of the disease which harasses the patient with thirst is not stated; it is, of course, likely to have been febrile in character.
The hymn figures also at Kaus. 54, 18 in the kûdakarana, the ceremony of tonsure. This in its character as a lifegiving hymn (àyushya; cf. sts. 1, 2). The third stanza, a familiar Yagus-formula, is quoted at Vait. SG. 22, 16. Previous translations: Weber, Ind. Stud. XIII, 194 ff.; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 493.
Stansa 2. The special quality of Agni as a bestower of life is alluded to very frequently, e.g. II, 13, 1; 28, 1; cf. the parallels cited in the introduction to the latter hymn. Påda d is repeated elsewhere, e. g. I, 10, 2 d.
Stanza 3 The stanza, quoted at Vait. Sû. 22, 16, is repeated with variants in Maitr. S. IV, 12, 3; Kåth. S. V, 2; Tait. S. III, 2, 8, 5; Kâty. Sr. X. 5, 3. The second hemistich also in Kath. S. XXXII, 2. In all these the difficult duals dhattam and saketasau are replaced by the singulars dadhâtu and sávarkasam (Kath. súvarkasam), and all these texts understand asír to be the nominative of the stem âsir, milk added to soma ;' see especially Vait. Sû. and Katy. Sr., 1.c. (âsiram
' Cf. stanzas 5 and 6 of the hymn.
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