# Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book X/Hymn 4

4. Against snakes and their poison.
Found also in Pāipp. xvi. (with one or two changes of order: see below). Not noticed in Vāit. Quoted (vs. 1), as addressed to Takṣaka (king of the serpent-divinities), in Kāuç. 32. 20, and also 139. 8, in the ceremonies of beginning Vedic study (see further under vss. 25, 26).
Translated: Ludwig, p. 502; Henry, 11, 56; Griffith, ii. 14; Bloomfield, 152, 605.
1. Indra's [was] the first chariot, the gods' the after chariot, Varuna's the third one; the snakes' chariot, the furthest one (?), hath run against the pillar: then may it come to harm (?).
There are very questionable points here; the translation of d implies emendation of apamā́ (p. apa॰mā́) to apamás; yet apa-mā́ might perhaps be understood adverbially (like upamā́, p. upa॰mā́: twice in RV.). Ppp. reads upamā here. The translation of the last clause implies the reading áthā riṣat, which is given by several mss. (P.M.I.K.) and by Ppp., and which the meter favors; but such variants as arisat for arsat are found elsewhere, and the ms. authority is decidedly in favor of arṣat, as the pada-texts read (but Kp. ardvyat, by a curious blunder)—if only we knew what to make of it. No indicative form not an aorist can be coördinated with ārat.
2. Darbhá-grass, brightness, young shoot (? tarū́ṇaka); horse's tail-tuft, rough-one's tail-tuft; chariot's seat (? bándhura).
The translation, of course, is only mechanical. ⌊Henry, Mém. de la Soc. de Ling., ix. 238, corrects an error of his version.⌋ We should have expected the Anukr. at least to add bhurij to its definition of the verse as a gāyatrī (8 + 11: 6 = 25). O. (and E. in margin) read puruṣasya in b.
3. Smite down, O white one, with the foot, both the fore and the hind; like water-floated wood, sapless [is] the snakes' poison, fierce water (vā́r).
4. The araṁghuṣá, having immerged, having emerged, said again: like water-floated wood, sapless is the snake's poison, fierce water.
The pada-text divides aram॰ghuṣáḥ in a, and the Pet. Lexx. conjecture the meaning accordingly to be 'loud-sounding.' ⌊Pischel discusses the vs., Ved. Stud., ii. 74.⌋ Ppp. is corrupt at the beginning, but seems to read udan̄ghojyonmajya punar etc.; ⌊again it ends with vār id ugram⌋.
5. Pāidva slays the kasarṇī́la (snake), Pāidva the whitish and the black; Pāidva hath split altogether the head of the ratharvī́, of the pṛdākū́.
Pāidva 'of Pedu' is the white snake-destroying horse given by the Açvins to Pedu (RV. i. 117-119). ⌊Cf. Bergaigne, Rel. Véd. ii. 451.⌋ For kasarṇīlam Ppp. reads kvaṣarṣṇīlam, and, for ratharvyās, rathavrihā. The exceptional accent of pṛdākvā́ḥ is noted in the comm. to Prāt. iii. 60. The pada-text divides neither kasarṇī́la nor ratharvī́.
6. Go forth first, O Pāidva; we come after thee; cast thou out the snakes from the road by which we come.
7. Here was Pāidva born; this [is] his going-away; these [are] the tracks of the snake-slaying vigorous steed.
⌊For the difficult and debatable form ahighnyo, BR. and W. assume a stem ahighnī́. This is probably to be considered, not as a feminine formation (cf. my Noun-Inflection, JAOS. x., p. 384), but rather as a masculine, like the masc. proper names Tiraçcī́ (l.c., p. 367 end), or, better, like the masculines ahī́, āpathī́, prāvī́, starī́ etc. (about a dozen of them. l.c., p. 369, middle: genitive ahyò etc.). In the latter case we might regard the printed accent ahighnyó, when contrasted with the ahyò of the RV., as characteristic of the AV. (cf. l.c., p. 369 top): but both W's and SPP's authorities are here uncertain as to the accent: the majority have ahighnyó, p. ahi॰ghnyáḥ; K. and three of SPP's have ahighnyò; while W's D. and SPP's P.$^2$ have áhi॰ghnyaḥ.—Or have we, after all, to assume a stem ahighní (cf. sahasraghní, xi. 2. 12), of which this would be a genitive like ary-ás?—One wonders why the reading is not simply ahighnó; but not a ms., either of W's or of SPP's, gives that reading.—Cf. atighnyàs, xi. 7. 16.⌋
8. What is shut together may it not open; what is opened may it not shut together; in this field [are] two snakes, both a female and a male; those [are] both sapless.
The first half-verse we had above as vi. 56. 1 c, d ⌊see note for suggested emendation⌋, also applied to a snake. The curiously irregular verse (7 + 7: 8 [7?] + 11 = 33) is strangely defined by the Anukr.
9. Sapless here [are] the snakes, they that are near and they that are far; with a club (ghaná) I slay the stinger (vṛ́çcika), with a staff the snake that has come.
The second half-verse is found in a suppl. to RV. i. 191; see Aufrecht's RV.$^2$, p. 672; instead of ahim is there read aham. Ppp. reads ye ‘nti te ca in b; and all our mss. ⌊save D., which has áti⌋ leave anti unaccented (it is emended to ánti in our text), as if by some carelessness yé ‘nti had been changed to yé anti; it is one of the strangest of the many strange blunders of the AV. text. ⌊One might think that this vs. or one much like it was had in mind by Karṇa in his address to Çalya, MBh. viii. 40. 33 = 1848.⌋
10. This is the remedy of both, of the ill-horse (aghāçvá) and of the constrictor; the mischievous (aghāy-) snake hath Indra, the snake hath Pāidva put in my power (randhay-).
The Anukr. takes no notice of any deficiency in b; it can only be supplied by the violent resolution su-dj-. Ppp. rectifies the meter by the better reading vṛçcikasya ca ⌊cf. our 15 c, d, below⌋.
11. We reverence Pāidva, the staunch one, of staunch abode (-dhā́man); here behind sit pṛ́dākus, plotting forth.
Ppp. combines at the end -dhyatā ”sate. The Anukr. treats b as regular, thus sanctioning the resolution -dhā-ma-naḥ.
12. Of lost lives, of lost poison [are they], slain by the thunderbolt-bearing Indra; Indra hath slain, we have slain.
13. Slain [are] the cross-lined ones, crushed down the pṛ́dākus; slay thou the whitish [snake] that makes a great hood, the black snake, in the darbhá-grasses.
'Hood,' dárvi, lit. 'spoon.' Ppp. reads in c kanikradam. ⌊The first half recurs as the second of vs. 20.⌋
14. The little girl of the Kirātas, she the little one, digs a remedy, with golden shovels, upon the ridges (sā́nu) of the mountains.
15. Hither hath come the young physician, slayer of the spotted ones, unconquered; he verily is a grinder-up of both, the constrictor and the stinger.
16. Indra hath put the snake in my power, [also] both Mitra and Varuṇa, and Vāta ('wind') and Parjanya, both of them.
The name given by the Anukr. to the verse is of uncertain value; it is possible to read the last pāda either as 8 or as 6 syllables. Ppp. reads in a me ‘hīn ajambhayat. Many of our mss. (P.I.O.R.T.K.) ⌊and the majority of SPP's⌋ read in c -janyò ’bhā́, but it is contrary to all rule and analogy; ⌊and W's Bp. and SPP's pada-text give -janyā̀ ubhā́⌋.
17. Indra hath put the snake in my power, the pṛ́dāku and the she-pṛ́dāku, the constrictor, the cross-lined one, the kasarṇī́la, the dáçonasi.
The accent pṛdākvám (instead of -kvàm) is read by all the mss., and hence by our text; but it is incontestably wrong. The Anukr. takes no notice of the lacking syllable in c. Ppp. reads ⌊for a⌋ pāidvo me ‘hīn ajambhayat, and ⌊for d⌋ kuçirṇīlaṁ naçonaçīṁ.
​18. Indra hath slain first thy progenitor, O snake; of them, being shattered, what forsooth can be their sap?
Ppp. reads vas instead of u in c.
19. Since I have grasped together their heads, as a fisherman the kárvara; having gone away to the middle of the river, I have washed out the snake's poison.
The mss. do not in general distinguish ṣṭ and ṣṭh, and pāuñjiṣṭa would be equally correct here. Ppp. reads pāuñjiṣṭhī ’va.
20. The poison of all snakes let the rivers carry away; slain [are] the cross-lined ones, crushed down the pṛ́dākus.
21. I choose as it were the filaments of herbs successfully; I conduct as it were mares; O snake, let thy poison come out.
Apparently processes analogous to that of extracting the poison are referred to. The pada-division sādhu॰yā́ is prescribed by Prāt. iv. 30. There seems to be no reason why the Anukr. should call the verse kakummatī.
22. What poison is in fire, in the sun, what in the earth, in herbs, kāndā-poison, kanáknaka—let thy poison come out; let it come.
Ppp. has karikradam ⌊cf. vs. 13⌋ instead of kanaknakam, and at the end vahī ⌊intending ahe?⌋ instead of viṣam; and it puts next our vs. 25.
23. Whichever of the snakes [are] fire-born, herb-born, whichever came hither (ā-bhū) [as] water-born lightnings; those of which the kinds are variously great—to those serpents would we pay worship with reverence.
Ppp. reads, for b etc., ye abhrajā vidyutā ”babhūvuḥ: tāsāṁ jātāni bahudhā bahūni tebhyaḥ sarvebhyo etc.
24. Thou art a girl, tāúdī by name; verily thou art by name ghee-like (ghṛtā́cī); I take beneath thy poison-spoiling track.
That is, possibly, 'I put it beneath me, walk in it.' The obscure tāudī (ultimately from tud 'thrust'?) is read also by Ppp., which combines vā ’si in b, and has the easier reading pados for padam in c.
25. Remove thou [it] from every limb; make [it] avoid the heart; then, what keenness (téjas) the poison has, let that go downward for thee.
Ppp. reads hṛdayo in b, and combines tejo av- in c, d. The verse is quoted in Kāuç. 32. 23.
26. He (it ?) hath come to be afar; he hath obstructed the poison; he hath mixed poison in poison; Agni hath put out the snake's poison; Soma hath conducted [it] out; the poison hath gone after the biter; the snake hath died.