# Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book V/Hymn 22

22. Against fever (takmán).
[Bhṛgvan̄giras.—caturdaçakam. takmanāçanadevatyam (takmāpabādhāyā ’nena devān aprārthayat takmanāçanam astāut). ānușțubham: 1, 2. trișțubh (1. bhurij); 5. virāṭ pathyābṛhatī.]
Found also (except vss. 2, 11) in Pāipp. Most of it is in xiii., in the order 1, 3, 4, 8, 5, 6, 7 cd, 10; then (beginning a new hymn), 12, 14, 8 cd, 9; but vs. 13 is in i. Used by Kāuç. (29. 18) among various other hymns, in a healing ceremony; reckoned in the gaṇamālā as belonging in the takmanāçana gaṇa (26. 1, note).
Translated: Roth, Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des Weda, 1846, p. 37 (about half); Grohmann, Ind. Stud. ix. 381-423, especially 411 f., as text of an elaborate medical disquisition on takmán (nearly all); Muir, ii$^3$. 351 (part); Ludwig, p. 510; Grill, 12, 154; Griffith, i. 224; Bloomfield, 1, 441 (elaborate comment of almost 12 pages); Weber, xviii. 252.—See also Hillebrandt, Veda-chrestomathie, p. 49; E. W. Fay, Trans. American Philological Ass'n, xxv. (1894), p. viii, who compares it with the Song of the Arval Brothers.—As to Bálhika and Mū́javant, see Weber, Berliner Sb. 1892, p. 985-995; and as to Mū́javant, also Hillebrandt, Ved. Mythol., i. 62 ff.
1. Let Agni drive (bādh) the fever away from here; [let] Soma, the pressing-stone, Varuṇa of purified dexterity, the sacrificial hearth, the barhís, the brightly gleaming (çuc) fuel; be hatreds away yonder.
Amuyā́ 'yonder' has always an implication of disgust or contempt. In our text apa and bādhatām should have been separated in a. Ppp. reads in b marutaṣ pūtadakṣāt, in c saṁçiçāno, and in d rakṣāṅsi. Çóçucānās may mean 'causing great pain,' and it may qualify all the persons and things mentioned.
2. Thou here that makest all [men] yellow, heating (çuc) up like fire, consuming; now then, O fever—for mayest thou become sapless—now go away inward or downward.
Or nyàn̄ 'inward' is another 'downward.' The mss. mostly omit to double the n̄ of nyàn̄, and several (P.M.W.H.) read nyàn̄g; P.M.W. have adharā́g. Ppp. has our vi. 20. 3 instead of this verse.
3. The fever that is spotted, speckled, ruddy like a sprinkling, do thou, O thou of power (-vīryà) in every direction, impel away downward.
The last half-verse occurs again as xix. 39. 10 c, d. 'Rough, rugged' would be more etymological renderings of paruṣá and pāruṣeyá: cf. vājī́ vājineyás, RV. vi. 26. 2. Pāda b, virtually 'as if sprinkled with red.' The address is probably to some remedy. Suvā at the end is a misprint for suva. In place of this verse, Ppp. has takmaṁ sāktinam ichasva vaçī san mṛḍayāsi naḥ (our 9 b): yathe ’hy atra te gṛhān yat pūrteu damyatu. ⌊Then, as its vs. 4, Ppp. has our vs. 3.⌋
4. I send [him] forth downward, having paid homage to the fever; let the fist-slayer of the dung-bearer (?) go back to the Mahāvrishas.
Ludwig (and Grill after him) takes the obscure çakambhará in c as a proper name. We may conjecture that the Mahāvṛṣas are a neighboring tribe, looked down upon as gatherers of dung for fuel, on account of the lack of wood in their territory. Ppp. makes the meter of b easier by reading kṛtvāya.
​5. Its home (ókas) is the Mūjavants, its home is the Mahāvrishas; as long as born, O fever, so long art thou at home among the Balhikas.
The Prāt. rule i. 46 applies, if we may trust the comment, to the name in d, and proves it to be bálhika, and not báhlika ⌊cf. Weber, as cited above⌋; the mss. vary between the two, the majority giving -lh-; but the testimony of no ms. is of any authority on this particular point; Ppp. appears to have -hl-. Some of our mss. (I.H.O.D.) accent tákman in c*; its omission would rectify the meter of c; the Anukr. gives a correct (mechanical) definition of the verse as it stands. We should expect either yā́vān or tā́vat. *⌊So do 11 of SPP's.⌋
6. O fever, trickish one, speak out (?); O limbless one, keep much away (?); seek the fugitive (?) barbarian woman; make her meet a thunderbolt.
Various points in this verse are very doubtful; in a, a vocative vígada seems much more probable, if only a suitable meaning could be found for it; and, if so, one may suspect the same character in bhū́riyāvaya (perhaps bhūryāvaya 'painful,' connected with āvī); the translation is mechanical, and follows the traditional text, since emendation yields so little satisfaction. Ppp. reads vakada for vi gada. In niṣṭákvarīm is doubtless to be seen a word-play on takman, but the sense is only conjectural; the word is quoted as an example under Prāt. ii. 85.
7. O fever, go to the Mūjavants, or to the Balhikas, further off; seek the wanton Çūdra woman; her, O fever, do thou shake up a bit (iva).
Some of our mss. (O.R.K.) read tā́ṅs in d, as if the word were tā́n instead of tā́m. Ppp. has giriṁ gaccha girijā ’si rāutena māyuṣo gṛhāḥ; dāsīm ṛtyuccha prapharvyaṁ tāṅs takman nī ’va dhūnuhi.
8. Going away, eat thou thy connection (bándhu), the Mahāvrishas [and] Mūjavants; those [fields] we announce to the fever; others' fields verily [are] these.
'Thy connection,' i.e. 'those with whom thou hast a right to meddle'; 'fields,' i.e. 'territories': d, "these territories here belong to some one else." Pāda b is corrupt in Ppp.; for d, it reads ‘nyakṣetrāṇi vāyasām, and it has further on this verse: nārkavindāṁ nārvidālāṁ nādīyaṁ rvatukāvatīṁ: prajā ni takinane brūmo ‘nyakṣetrāṇi vā yumāṁ. At Ppp. v. 5. 1, 2 we find: takmann imaṁ te kṣetrabhāgam apābhajaṁ pṛthivyāḥ pūrve ardhe.
9. In another's field thou restest (ram) not; being in control, mayest thou be gracious to us; the fever hath become ready (?); it will go to the Balhikas.
The pada-reading in c is pra॰árthaḥ; prá-ar- would better suit the meaning given, 'ready to set out,' lit. 'having an object in front' (comm. to PB. xi. 1. 6, prakarṣeṇa iyarti gacchati ’ti prārtho ‘naḍvān!). Pāda b is identical with vi. 26. 1 b; Ppp. has instead sahasrākṣo ‘martyaḥ; in d it reads bahlikaṁ.
10. In that thou, being cold, then hot (rūrá), didst cause trembling, together with cough—fearful are thy missiles, O fever; with them do thou avoid us.
Ppp. begins with yas for yat, and leaves atho unelided in a. Most of our mss. have tābhi sma in d.
11. Do not thou make them thy companions—the balā́sa, the cough, the udyugá (?); come not back hitherward from there: for that, O fever, I appeal to thee.
Zimmer (who translates vss. 10-12, at pp. 381-5) understands udyugá in b as 'sich anschliessend'; Ludwig as 'angestrengt,' qualifying kāsám as adjective; perhaps it means 'hiccough'; balāsa may be 'expectoration.' In c the pada-text has ā́: āíḥ (Bp. ā́: éḥ), accent on the verb-form being false. ⌊SPP's mss. have ā́ with āíḥ, āiḥ, éḥ, and eḥ.⌋
12. O fever, together with thy brother the balā́sa [and] thy sister the cough, together with thy cousin the scab (pāmán), go to yon foreign people.
Ppp. begins with this verse a new hymn, and has, for c, d, apāṁ bhrātrātṛvyena naçye ’to marayaṁm abhi. Read in our text at end of b sahá (an accent-sign slipped out of place). ⌊Without note of variants, SPP. gets papmā́ in both texts instead of our pāmnā́, and our H. reads pāpmánā́. In spite of the possibility of taking pāpmā́ as instrumental (cf. drāghmā́, raçmā́, JAOS. x. 533), we must deem pāmnā́ the true reading and pāpmā́ a blunder, due perhaps to the frequent collocation pāpmán bhrā́tṛvya, AB. etc.⌋
13. The fever of the third day, of two days out of three, the constant, and the autumnal, the cold, the hot, that of the hot season, that of the rainy season, do thou cause to disappear.
In a the intermittent phases of the disease, of course, are referred to. The pada-text divides sadam॰dím in b, perhaps lit. 'ever-binding.' Pāda c lacks a syllable; the Anukr. takes no notice of it; we might add ca at the end. Ppp. has in b hāyanaṁ instead of çāradam; and in c viçvaçāradam instead of çītaṁ rūram.
14. To the Gandhāris, the Mūjavants, the An̄gas, the Magadhas, like one sending a person a treasure, do we commit the fever.
The translation implies in c the easy emendation to préṣyan (pra-íṣyan); the accent and pada-reading (pra॰eṣyán) view the word as future from pra-i; the translators assume -ṣyám, and reach no acceptable sense. The comm. to Prāt. ii. 11 correctly quotes the case as one of the assimilation of final n to initial j. The Anukr. this time takes no notice of the extra syllable in c if we should read iva instead of ’va. Ppp. reads gāndhāribhyo māujamadbhyaṣ kāçibhyo mayebhyaḥ: jāne priyam iva çev-. ⌊As to the proper names, cf. JRAS. 1890, p. 477.⌋