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III, 9.
339
pression, and the close parallelism with II, 8, 2 c, d (cf. also VI, 83, 1), where kshetriyám is an accusative dependent upon ápa.. ukhatu. For the subject of the verb cf. sá in st. 1. Perhaps apavâsé in Pâdas a, b is also to be taken transitively, 'when the constellations shine away (as they fade out in the morning the evil powers of night), &c.' Sâyana, as the Pet. Lex. s. v. ápa vas, construes all the derivatives from root vas in this stanza intransitively; cf. our note on II, 8, 2.
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COMMENTARY.
III, 9. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 67.
The hymn, one of the most perplexing in the AV., is directed against a variety of bodily disorders, or demoniacal forces, among which víshkandha and kâbavá stand out most clearly. For víshkandha see our discussion in the introduction, and in the note on the first stanza of II, 4. The Kausika rubricates the hymn at 43, 1, 2, where Dârila describes the performance as a pisâkanâsanam, Kesava (and Sâyana in his introduction) as a vighnasamanam, to wit: 43, 1. While reciting III, 9, an amulet of aralu (calosanthes indica, a tree) is fastened (to the sufferer) by a reddish brown thread (cf. st. 3); he is given a staff to carry (cf. st. 2), and he also carries a weapon1. 2. He is fumigated with (the smoke of burning) grain-chaff.'
The hymn has been translated by Weber, Ind. Stud. XVII, 215 ff. The Anukramanî designates it as dyâvâprithiviyam uta vaisvadevam.
Stanza 1.
a. The Pet. Lexs. and Weber see in karsápha and visaphá (both aπ. Xey.) the designations of certain demons or diseases (Weber, 'des Abmagernden, Durchdringenden '). Sâyana operates on the same line by means of characteristic etymologies, karsaphasya (karasaphasya) krisasaphasya
1 The commentators prescribe that the staff shall be anointed with the dregs of ghee and then be polished off, as in Kaus. 23, II. The same treatment is also prescribed for the weapon.
Z 2
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