Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/394

xviii. 3- of our vs. 3.⌋ Besides the use of the verse with the one preceding, as explained under the latter, it again (Kāuç. 80. 37) accompanies the leading of a cow around fuel and fire; and the schol. (note to 81. 33) employ it further at the kindling of the pile. The verse lacks only one syllable of being a regular triṣṭubh (11 + 11: 10 + 11 = 43).

5. Unto sky (div), unto reed, more helpful of streams; O Agni, gall of the waters art thou.

6. Whom thou, O Agni, didst consume, him do thou extinguish again;, let there grow here the kyā́mbū, the çāṇḍadūrvā́, the vyàlkaçā.

RV. (x. 16. 13) has the same verse, but calls two of the plants kiyā́mbu and pākadūrvā́. Vyàlkaçā (p. ví॰alkaçā) might well be an adjective, 'free from alkaça ' or the like, if we only knew what alkaça meant. ⌊W's Op.R. accent vyalkaçā́: and so five of SPP's authorities, against four with vyàl-.⌋ TA. disagrees with both AV. and RV. in reading at vi. 4. 1 kyāmbū́s ⌊both ed's⌋, but agrees with RV. in having pākadūrvā́, ⌊and with both ed's of AV. in accenting vyàlkaçā⌋; it reads jāyatām for rohatu in c, and tvám for tám in b.—The comm. explains çāṇḍadūrvā as dūrvā ('millet') that springs up near water, having egg-shaped roots, or that has long joints, and adds that it is called "big millet" (bṛhaddūrvā); but this is probably without authority. With as little reason he glosses alka by çākhā 'branch,' and declares vyalkoça to mean "furnished with various (vividha) branches"; ⌊so also the comm. on RV. and on TA.⌋. The verse is not directly quoted by Kāuç., but (as was pointed out above) it is regarded by the comm. ⌊and the Paddhati⌋ as included with vss. 5 and 60 in 82. 26, and probably with justice.—This verse and its successor in RV. and TA. (strangely removed to be 3. 60 in AV.) are both plainly intended as remedial and expiatory for the cruel office of Agni in burning a corpse; the fire is not only to be extinguished, but to be followed by its antithesis, the growth of water-plants and the appearance of their attendant frogs: compare Bloomfield in AJP. xi. 342-350 ⌊or JAOS. xv., p. xxxix⌋. ⌊This expiatory and remedial rite is avouched for antiquity by MBh. viii. 20. 50 = 819: Pāṇḍyaḥ...svadhām (= pretaçarīrarūpaṁ haviḥ) ivā ”pya jvalanaḥ pitṛpriyas (= çmaçānāgniḥ)