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VI, 26. COMMENTARY.
473
comment upon this Satra at Kaus. 31, 16, and our remarks in the above-cited Contributions, pp. 325-6).
Stanzas 1-3. d. The word vâkâh in the refrain is translated by Kuhn as 'swarms,' by the Pet. Lexs. and Florenz as 'buzzing.' But the apakít are not insects (see VI, 83). and Sayana's vakanîya doshâh designates the low water-mark of his hermeneutical capacity. As it seems impossible to retain the word, we may perhaps resort to the emendation pâkáh, remembering the well-known confusion in the MSS. of v and pl. The sense would then be 'may they (the tumours) pass away like the pustules of the apakít.' The implication would then be that the tumours in question are 'hard and large’ (Wise, 1.c., 316), and that the apakít are more easily brought to the point of breaking open.
VI, 26. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 163.
The ritual treats this as a remedial charm, fit to remove all diseases (sarvarogabhaishagyam). The performances, Kaus. 30, 17. 18, are as follows: By night the hymn is recited, parched grains of corn are poured into a sieve, and then cast away. On the next day three bali-offerings are thrown into the water for Sahasrâksha (the thousand-eyed divinity,' cf. st. 3), and (three) puddings of rice are thrown and scattered upon the cross-roads? The ceremony is symbolic for the most part: the sieve is always the tangible expression of passing through and out (cf. Kaus. 26, 2 in the introduction to I, 12), and general dispersion is the salient motif. The hymn is also rubricated in the Sântikalpa, chapter 15, in a rite directed against the goddess of
Cf. upolava and upolapa, Kausika, Introduction, p. xlviii. * Cf. the sentiment in st. 2 of the hymn: the cross-roads are the most convenient spot at which to part company. For the character of the cross-roads in general, see the nole on p. 519 in the introduction to VI, 111.
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