Translator – Maurice Bloomfield
I. CHARMS TO CURE DISEASES AND POSSESSION BY DEMONS OF DISEASE (BHAISHAGYKNI).
V, 22. Charm against takman (fever) and related diseases.
1. May Agni drive the takman away from here, may Soma, the press-stone, and Varuna, of tried skill; may the altar, the straw (upon the altar), and the brightly-flaming fagots (drive him away)! Away to naught shall go the hateful powers!
2. Thou that makest all men sallow, inflarning them like a searing fire, even now, O takman, thou shalt become void of strength: do thou now go away down, aye, into the depths!
3. The takman that is spotted, covered Nvith spots, like reddish sediment, him thou, (O plant) of unremitting potency, drive away down below!
4. Having made obeisance to the takman, I cast him down below: let him, the champion of Sakambhara, return again to the Mahâvrishas!
5. His home is with the Mûgavants, his home with the Mahâvrishas. From the moment of thy birth thou art indigenous with the Balhikas.
6. O takman, vyãla, ví gada, vyánga, hold off (thy missile) far! Seek the gadabout slave-girl, strike her with thy bolt!
7. O takman, go to the Mûgavants, or to the Balhikas farther away! Seek the lecherous Sûdra female: her, O takman, give a good shaking-up!
8. Go away to the Mahâvrishas and the Mûgavants, thy kinsfolk, and consume them! Those (regions) do we bespeak for the takman, or these regions here other (than ours).
9. (If) in other regions thou dost not abide, mayest thou that art powerful take pity on us! Takman, now, has become eager: he will go to the Balhikas.
10. When thou, being cold, and then again deliriously hot, accompanied by cough, didst cause the (sufferer) to shake, then, O takman, thy missiles were terrible: from these surely exempt us!
11. By no means ally thyself with balâsa, cough and spasm! From there do thou not return hither again: that, O takman, do I ask of thee!
12. O takman, along with thy brother balâsa, along with thy sister cough, along with thy cousin pâman, go to yonder foreign folk!
13. Destroy the takman that returns on (each) third day, the one that intermits (each) third day, the one that continues without intermission, and the autumnal one; destroy the cold takman, the hot, him that comes in summer, and him that arrives in the rainy season!
14. To the Gandhâris, the Mâgavants, the Angas, and the Magadhas, we deliver over the takman, like a servant, like a treasure!
VI, 20. Charm against takman (fever).
1. As if from this Agni (fire), that burns and flashes, (the takman) comes. Let him then, too, as a babbling drunkard, pass away! Let him, the impious one, search out some other person, not ourselves! Reverence be to the takman with the burning weapon!
2. Reverence be to Rudra, reverence to the takman, reverence to the luminous king Varuna! Reverence to heaven, reverence to earth, reverence to the plants!
3. To thee here, that burnest through, and turnest all bodies yellow, to the red, to the brown, to the takman produced by the forest, do I render obeisance.
I, 25. Charm against takman (fever).
1. When Agni, having entered the waters, burned, where the (gods) who uphold the order (of the universe) rendered homage (to Agni), there, they say, is thy origin on high: do thou feel for us, and spare us, O takman!
2. Whether thou art flame, whether thou art heat, or whether from licking chips (of wood) thou bast arisen, Hrûdu by name art thou, O god of the yellow: do thou feel for us, and spare us, O takman!
3. Whether thou art burning, whether thou art scorching, or whether thou art the son of king Varuna, Hrûdu by name art thou, O god of the yellow: do thou feel for us, and spare us, O takman!
4. To the cold takman, and to the deliriously hot, the glowing, do I render homage. To hirn that returns on the morrow, to him that returns for two (successive) days, to the takman that returns on the third day, homage shall be!
VII, 116. Charm against takman (fever).
1. Homage (be) to the deliriously hot, the shaking, exciting, impetuous (takman)! Homage to the cold (takman), to him that in the past fulfilled desires!
‘2. May (the takman) that returns on the morrow, he that returns on two (successive) days, the impious one, pass into this frog!
V, 4. Prayer to the kushtha-plant to destroy takman (fever).
1. Thou that art born upon the mountains, as the most potent of plants, come hither, O kushtha, destroyer of the takman, to drive out from here the takman!
2. To thee (that growest) upon the mountain, the brooding-place of the eagle, (and) art sprung from Himavant, they come with treasures, having heard (thy fame). For they know (thee to be) the destroyer of the takman.
3. The asvattha-tree is the seat of the gods in the third heaven from here. There the gods procured the kushtha, the visible manifestation of amrita (ambrosia).
4. A golden ship with golden tackle moved upon the heavens. There the gods procured the kushtha, the flower of amrita (ambrosia).
5. The paths were golden, and golden were the oars; golden were the ships, upon which they carried forth the kushtha hither (to the mountain).
6. This person here, O kushtha, restore for me, and cure him! Render him free from sickness for me!
7. Thou art born of the gods, thou art Soma’s good friend. Be thou propitious to my in-breathing and my out-breathing, and to this eye of mine!
8. Sprung in the north from the Himavant (mountains), thou art brought to the people in the east. There the most stiperior varieties of the kushtha were apportioned.
9. ‘Superior,’ O kushtha, is thy name; ‘superior’ is the name of thy father. Do thou drive out all disease, and render the takman devoid of strength!
10. Pain in the head, affliction in the eye, and ailment of the body, all that shall the kushtha heal-a divinely powerful (remedy), forsooth!
XIX, 39. Prayer to the kushtha-plant to destroy takman (fever), and other ailments.
1. May the protecting god kushtha come hither from the Himavant: destroy thou every takman, and all female spooks!
2. Three names hast thou, O kushtha, (namely: kushtha), na-ghâ-mâra (‘forsooth-no-death’), and na-ghâ-risha (‘forsooth-no-harm’). Verily no harm shall suffer (na ghâ . . . rishat) this person here, for whom I bespeak thee morn and eve, aye the (entire) day!
3. Thy mother’s name is gîvalâ (‘quickening’), thy father’s name is gîvanta (‘living’). Verily no harm shall suffer this person here, for whom I bespeak thee morn and eve, aye the entire day!
4. Thou art the most superior of the plants, as a steer among cattle, as the tiger among beasts of prey. Verily no harm shall stiffer this person here, for whom I bespeak thee morn and eve, aye the entire day!
5. Thrice begotten by the Sâmbu Angiras, thrice by the Âdityas, and thrice by all the gods, this kushtha, a universal remedy, stands together with soma. Destroy thou every takman, and all female spooks!
6. The asvattha-tree is the seat of the gods in the third heaven from here. There came to sight the amrita (ambrosia), there the kushtha-plant was born.
7. A golden ship with golden tackle moved upon the heavens. There came to sight the amrita, there the kushtha-plant was born.
8. On the spot where the ship glided down, on the peak of the Himavant, there came to sight the ambrosia, there the kushtha-plant was born. This kushtha, a universal remedy, stands together with soma. Destroy thou every takman, and all female spooks!
9. (We know) thee whom Ikshvâku knew of yore, whom the women, fond of kushtha, knew, whom Vâyasa and Mâtsya knew: therefore art thou a universal remedy.
10. The takman that returns on each third day, the one that cominues without intermission, and the yearly one, ao thou, (O plant) of unremitting strength, drive away down below!
I, 12. Prayer to lightning, conceived as the cause of fever, headache, and cough.
1. The first red bull, born of the (cloud-)womb, born of wind and clouds, comes on thundering with rain. May he, that cleaving moves straight on, spare our bodies; he who, a single force, has passed through threefold!
2. Bowing down to thee that fastenest thyself with heat upon every limb, we would reverence thee with oblations; we would reverence with oblations the crooks and hooks of thee that hast, as a seizer, seized the limbs of this person.
3. Free him from headache and also from cough, (produced by the lightning) that has entered his every joint! May the flashing (lightning), that is born of the cloud, and born of the wind, strike the trees and the mountains!
4. Comfort be to my upper limb, comfort be to my nether; comfort be to my four members, comfort to my entire body!
I, 22. Charm against jaundice and related diseases.
1. Up to the sun shall go thy heart-ache and thy jaundice: in the colour of the red bull do we eovelop thee!
2. We envelop thee in red tints, unto long life. May this person go unscathed, and be free of vellow colour!
3. The cows whose divinity is Rohini, they who, moreover, axe (themselves) red (róhinin)-(in their) every form and every strength we do envelop thee.
4. Into the parrots, into the ropanâkâs (thrush) do we put thy jaundice, and, furthermore, into the hâridravas (yellow wagtail) do we put thy jaundice.
