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460
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Stanga 2. The second hemistich is formulaic; see I, 34, 2 ; III, 25, 5; the last Pada at VI, 42, 3 ; 43, 3.
Stanga 3. a. Literally, 'whose relations are a licking,' i.e. 'whose young furnish constant occasion for licking.' Licking the young is typical for fond maternity, e. g. AV. V, 1, 4.
VI, 11. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 97. The hymn is employed in a ceremony calculated to ensure the birth of a male child (Kesava and Darila, pumsavanam) at Kaus. 35, 8-10, to wit: 8. While reciting the hymn a fire is churned from the (two kinds of wood samî and asvattha) mentioned in the hymn, the fire is thrown into ghee (prepared from the milk) of a cow with a male calf, and then the ghee is treated like the paidva (i. e., it is put with the right thumb up the nose into the right nostril of the pregnant woman) 9. (Casting the fire) into a stirred drink with honey it (the stirred drink) is given to the woman to drink. 10. (The fire) is surrounded with the wool of a male animal?, and the wool is tied (as an amulet) upon the woman.' The symbolism of these acts is in general very clear. In the act of churning the fire sami is the female, and asvattha the male; cf. Ad. Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers 1, p. 71 ff.; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 58, 59.
The hymn has been rendered by Weber, Indische Studien, V, 264 ff. ; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 477; Zimmer, 1. c.,
1 Cf. Kaus. 32, 21 in the introduction to X, 4.
? We emend krishnornabhih to vrishna ûrnabhih with double samdhi; cf. Kausika, Introduction, p. lviii ff. Some MSS. rcad vrishno-, and vishno-, and there is apparently no sense in black wool; on the other hand the wool of a male animal is exceedingly suggestive.
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