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592
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
sonifications of primeval force; it then does not differ materially from 'the one' (ekam), 'the being' (sat), and the more vigorously personalised Brahma, Pragâpati, Visvakarman, Svayambhû, &c. The Greek mythology similarly connects Eros, the god of love, with the creation of the universe; see Plato's Symposium 6. Of such hymns the Atharvan has two, XIX, 52, in addition to the present. Cf. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, V, p. 402 ff.; Scherman, Philosophische Hymnen, p. 76 ff.
The personification of Kâma as a supreme being suggests very quickly his power to protect those who worship him, and to destroy the enemies of the worshipper. The Atharvan naturally rings the changes upon these more ordinary divine qualities: the personal Kâma is dealt with much in the same spirit as Agni, many of whose attributes are conferred upon him. For the relation of Kâma to Agni, see Weber, Ind. Stud. V, 225 ff. In the ritual the entire hymn, as well as single stanzas of it, degraded into ordinary witchcraft charms against enemies, without special significance: see Kaus. 49, 1; 48, 5; 24, 29, and cf. 46, 9, note; Vait. Sû. 24, 101. The hymn has been translated in full by Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, 529; Henry, Les livres VIII et IX de l'Atharva-véda, pp. 84, 118 ff. More or less fragmentary translations are offered in the two works cited above; cf. also Hillebrandt's Vedachrestomathie, p. 40 ff.
Stanza 1.
a, b. For the distinction between ghritá and ágya, see the Grihyasamgraha I, 106 (Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XXXV, p. 567).
Stanza 2.
This and the following stanza are rubricated along with certain other mantras in the dulsvapnanâsanagana, a series of stanzas designed to obviate the effect of evil dreams, in the Ganamâlâ, Ath. Paris. 32, 8. See Kaus. 46, 9,
note.
'Quoted in the Ath. Parisishtas (e. g. 10) as kâmasûktam.
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