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X, 4. COMMENTARY.
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sure to prevail in the end. For pratyadaya read pratyådhấya with the Pet. Lex. and Roth, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XLVIII, 681.
X, 3. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 81. At Kaus. 19, 22 there is a performance which is supposed to result in the fulfilment of every desire (Kesava, sarvakama). It consists simply in reciting one of four hymns in praise of certain amulets, while fastening the amulet extolled in the hymn, after having steeped it for certain three nights in a mixture of sour milk and honey (in accordance with the Paribhâsha-sútra, Kaus. 7, 19). For the character of the amulet derived from the varana-tree, as treated by the Atharvan poet, cf. the introduction to VI, 85. The third stanza naturally figures in the duhsvapnanåsanagana, a list of hymns designed to remove the effect of evil dreams, in the Ganamâlâ, Ath. Paris. 32, 8 (Kaus. 46, 9, note). Cf. also Såntikalpa 17 and 19. The hymn has been translated by Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 60 ff.
Stanza 3. b. For the epithet,' thousand-eyed,' cf. the note on IV, 20, 4.
X, 4. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 152. The central feature of this charm against serpents is the frequent allusion to the white horse of Pedu (Paidva): from earliest times onwards, this is said to be a slayer of serpents. For its mythic origin, see Bergaigne, La Religion Védique, II, 451-2, 498, who identifies it plausibly with the steed of the sun. In the practices of the Atharvan, Kaus. 32, 20 ff.", some insect is substituted for the unattainable mythical horse?. The hymn is employed at Kaus. 32, 20-25, as follows: 20. While reciting X, 4 the (person bitten) per
1 Cf. also Kaus. 35, 4. 8, and the introductions to VI, 11 and 17.
: Cf. Contributions, Third Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 158; Kausika, Introduction, p. xliv ff.
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