Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/323

153 declare it to be employed elsewhere (29. 1; 32. 20) in similar rites involving Takṣaka. There is no specific reference in the hymn to serpent poison, but distinctly to vegetable poison; and the comm. regards kanda or kandamūla ('tuber' and 'tuber-root') as the plant intended.

Translated: Ludwig, p. 512; Griffith, i. 136; Bloomfield, 25, 373; Weber, xviii. 23.—Cf. Bergaigne-Henry, Manuel, p. 145.

1. The Brahman was born first, with ten heads, with ten mouths; he first drank the soma; he made the poison sapless.

2. As great as [are] heaven-and-earth by their width, as much as the seven rivers spread out (vi-sthā), [so far] have I spoken out from here these words (vā́c), spoilers of poison.

3. The winged (garutmant) eagle consumed (av) thee first, O poison; thou hast not intoxicated (mad), thou hast not racked (rup) [him]; and thou becamest drink for him.

4. He of five fingers that hurled at thee from some crooked bow—from the tip (çalyá) of the apaskambhá have I exorcised (nir-vac) the poison.

Apaskambhá is very obscure; the Pet. Lex. suggests "perhaps the fastening of the arrow-head to the shaft"; Ludwig guesses "barb," but that we have in vs. 5—as we also have çalya, which seems therefore premature here; and, in fact, Ppp. reads instead of it bāhvos; and, as it has elsewhere apaskantasya bāhvos, we might conjecture apa skandhasya etc., 'from shoulder and arms': i.e. from wounds in them. Or, for apaskambha as a part of the body might be compared Suçruta i. 349. 20—unless apastambe