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484
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
at Kaus. 46, 9-10 is as follows: With VI, 45 and 46 the person that has an (evil) dream rinses his mouth. If he has had an excessively frightful dream he offers a cake of mixed grain, and deposits a second in the territory of an enemy. Kesava tells what constitutes an evil dream, mentioning the svapnâdhyâya, probably Matsya-purâna 242, as his authority. Cf. also Märkandeya-purâna 43 ; Vayupurana 19 ; Ait. Ar. III, 5, 16 ff. (Sacred Books, I, 262 ff.); Aufrecht, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch., XXXII, 574; and Hultzsch, Prolegomena zu des Vasantaraga Såkuna, pp. 15 ff. Both hymns figure in the duhsvapnanasanagana of the Ganamála, Ath. Paris. 32, 8 (Kaus. 46, 9, note); cf. also Ath. Paris. 33, 1.
The present hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 443, and Florenz, Bezzenberger's. Beiträge, XII, 305 ff. The Anukramani, duhsvapnanâsanadevatyam.
Stansa 1. a. Såyana, contrary to the Padapâtha, reads manas påpa, 'O mind devoted to evil that hast become the cause of dreams ;' cf. the introduction. The text of the Pâda seems to be an Atharvanic contortion of RV. X, 164, 1 a, ápe-hi manasas pate.
Stanza 2. Cf. RV. X, 164, 3 with the variant asaså nihsáså sbhisáså ; Tait. Br. III, 7, 12, 4, åsáså nisáså yát parâsáså. The exact meaning of the words in our text is not easily definable ; Såyana transcribes them all by compounds of sasana= himsana, “injury. Ludwig leaves them untranslated, and regards them as various kinds of imprecations; but compare his version of the RV. words (927, vol. ii, p. 552). Florenz, durch unrecht verlangen, abweis, verwünschung.'
Stanga 3.
Cf. RV.X, 164, 4. Sayana identifies the lightly personified Praketas with Varuna. The word is indeed a frequent epithet of Varuna. But the patronymic Argirasa suits
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