Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/218

ii. 7- 3. From the sky [is] the root stretched down, from off the earth stretched up; with this, thousand-jointed (-kā́ṇḍa), do thou protect us about on all sides.

4. Protect me about, my progeny, [and] what riches are ours; let not the niggard get the better (tṛ) of us; let not hostile plotters get the better of us.

5. Let the curse go to the curser; our [part] is along with him that is friendly (suhā́rd); of the eye-conjurer (-mántra), the unfriendly, we crush in the ribs (pṛṣṭí).

1. Arisen are the (two) blessed stars called the Unfasteners (vicṛ́t); let them unfasten (vi-muc) of the kṣetriyá the lowest, the highest fetter.

The disease kṣetriyá (lit'ly, 'of the field') is treated elsewhere, especially in iii. 7 (mentioned also in ii. 10; 14. 5; iv. 18. 7). The comm. defines it here as kṣetre parakṣetre putrapāutrādiçarīre cikitsyaḥ (quoting for this interpretation Pāṇ. v. 2. 92) kṣayakuṣṭhādidoṣadūṣitapitṛmātrādiçarīrāvayavebhya āgataḥ kṣayakuṣṭhāpasmārādirogaḥ—apparently an infectious disorder, of various forms, appearing in a whole family, or perhaps endemic. The name vicṛtāu 'the two unfasteners' is given later to the two stars in the sting of the Scorpion (λ and ν Scorpionis: see Sūryā-Siddhānta, note to viii. 9), and there seems no good reason to doubt that they are the ones here intended; the selection of two so inconspicuous is not any more strange than the appeal to stars at all; the comm. identifies them with Mūla, which is the asterism composed of the Scorpion's tail. The verse is nearly identical with iii. 7. 4, and its first half is vi.