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578
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Stanza 20. c, d. The passage is highly metaphorical. According to Pañk. Br. XIII, 9, 17, methi (methî) is the post to which cattle is fastened with a rope (rággu). The amulet with its cord (cf. II, 4, 5) seems to be likened to it: the tertium comparationis is the protective quality of each. As the cattle is secure when attached to the post, thus the presence of the amulet affords security. Possibly the passage is derived secondarily from a different practice and a different sphere of conceptions.
Stanza 22. Cf. RV. X, 152, 2, almost identical with this stanza.
VIII, 7. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 41. This compilation of stanzas in diverse metres, in praise of the curative qualities of plants, is analogous to the socalled oshadhi-stuti, RV. X, 97; Maitr. S. II, 7, 13; Tait. S. IV, 2, 6; Vâg. S. XII, 75-96. Its employment in the ritual is as a universal remedy (sarvabhaishagyam). At Kaus. 26, 33 it is rubricated along with five other hymns in a series (gana) which is styled ganakarmågana (!) in the Ganamâlâ, Ath. Paris. 32, 24. Its particular function is indicated at Kaus. 26, 40: while it is being recited an amulet consisting of chips from ten kinds of (holy) wood, described at Kaus. 27, 5 in connection with AV. II, 9 (cf. also Kaus. 13, 5), is fastened upon the patient. See the introduction to II, 9. At Vait. Sa. 30, 6, similarly, the hymn is employed while the curative surâ (spirituous liquor) for the sautrâmani-ceremony is being mixed with herbs. Cf. Contributions, Third Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 153-154; Oldenberg, Nachrichten von der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 1893, no. 9, p. 342 ff.; Weber, Rågasûya, p. 100 ff.
The hymn has been translated by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 504 ff.; Henry, Les livres VIII et IX de l'Atharvavéda, pp. 20, 58 ff.
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