# Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book II/Hymn 25

25. Against káṇvas: with a plant.
[Cātana.—vānaspatyam. ānuṣṭubham: 4. bhurij.]
Found in Pāipp. iv. Both Weber and Grill regard the hymn as directed against abortion; but no sufficient indications of such value are found in its language, though some of the native authorities intimate their discovery of such. Kāuç. (8. 25) reckons it to the cātana hymns; and it is employed, with ii. 7 and other hymns, in a remedial ceremony (26. 33-36) against various evils, specially accompanying the smearing of the designated plant with sacrificial dregs (sampāta) upon the patient.
Translated: Weber, xiii. 187; Grill, 20, 92; Griffith, i. 64; Bloomfield, 36, 302.
1. Weal for us, woe (áçam) for Nirṛti ('perdition') hath the divine ​spotted-leaf made; since it is a formidable grinder-up (-jámbhana) of káṇvas, it, the powerful, have I used (bhaj).
The comm. makes no attempt to identify the pṛçniparṇī as any particular plant, but simply paraphrases it with citraparṇy oṣadhiḥ. R. discusses the word as follows: "the pṛçniparṇī is, 1. according to the commentary to KÇS. xxv. 7. 17, the same with māṣaparṇī, i.e. Glycine debilis; 2. according to other schol., the same with lakṣmaṇā, a plant having upon its leaves red spots, in which the form of a child is claimed to be seen. Bhāvapr., i. 208, calls it also putrajanī, and Rājanigh., vii. 114, putrakandā, or putradā, or puṁkandā, indicating a bulbous plant; it is credited with the power to cure barrenness of women; 3. according to Am. Koç. and the other Nighaṇṭus, it is a leguminous plant, identified by Chund Dutt (Mat. medica) with Uraria lagopodioides Dec., having hairy leaves without colored spots. The second of these identifications would suit the hymn." Abhakṣi might mean 'I have partaken of or drunk'; but neither Kāuç. nor the comm. know of such a use of the plant. The strange appearance in this hymn (only) of káṇva as name of evil beings is passed by the comm. without a word of notice; he simply paraphrases the word with pāpa. ⌊But see Bergaigne, Rel. véd. ii. 465, and Hillebrandt, Ved. Mythol. i. 207.⌋ Ppp. reads in b nirṛtaye karat, and in d tvā ’harṣam for abhakṣi.
2. This spotted-leaf was first born overpowering; with it do I hew [off] the head of the ill-named ones, as of a bird (çakúni).
⌊Çakú- is misprinted çakṛ́-.⌋ The reading vṛçcāmi, without accent (which is given in both editions, on the authority of all the mss.) implies that the fourth pāda begins with çíras, the preceding three words being (as is easy) resolved into eight syllables; and the pada-mss. also mark the pāda-division before çíras. The Anukr., however, regards the verse as a simple anuṣṭubh, which it plainly is, çíras belonging to c; the accent should therefore be emended to vṛçcā́mi. Ppp. reads sadānvāghnī pr- for a, and, in c, d, tayā kaṇvasyāṁ çiraç chinadmi çak-. The comm. explains the "ill-named" as dadruvisarpakaçvitrādikuṣṭharogaviçeṣās, or varieties of leprosy.
3. The blood-drinking wizard, and whoso wants to take away fatness, the embryo-eating káṇva do thou make disappear, O spotted-leaf, and overpower.
One or two of our mss. (W.I.), and several of SPP's, read in b jíhīriṣati ⌊I. has -īrīṣ-.⌋ Ppp. has at the end sahasvatī.
4. Make them enter the mountain, the life-obstructing (-yopana) káṇvas; do thou, O divine spotted-leaf, go burning after them like fire.
⌊As to kaṇvāṅ, cf. i. 19. 4 n. As to -yopana, see Bloomfield, AJP. xii. 423.⌋ This verse and the next are too much defaced in Ppp. to admit comparison in detail; but its text differs somewhat from ours. The Anukr. refuses to sanction the common abbreviation to agnir ’va in d.
5. Thrust them forth to a distance, the life-obstructing káṇvas; where the darknesses go, there have I made the flesh-eaters go.