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Many a verse of Atharva Veda can be understood at different levels just like the
verses of Rig Veda as discussed in the essay on Rig Veda. For
illustration consider AV (8.4.22). It describes the six
psychological foes known to any average student of Sanskrit
literature or Kannada literature namely kāma, lust,
krodha anger or wrath, lobha, greed, moha,
delusion, mada arrogance, mātsarya, jealousy. Each
one of them is symbolised by an animal or bird in Sanskrit
literature, namely, owl with delusion, wolf with anger, dog with
jealousy, chakravāka with lust, eagle with arrogance and
vulture with greed.
Any student in
Sanskrit knows about the love stricken chakravāka birds. In
Indian English a popular phrase is the ‘dog in the manger policy’,
i.e., dog neither eats the grass nor allows the cow to eat the
grass in the manger’.
Again vulture is
translated in the American Heritage Dictionary as “a person of
rapacious and predatory nature”.
In Indian myths
eagles are described as brimming with arrogance with their ability
to cross over any obstacle. There are many stories in the
purāņās of the mythical eagle Garuda and its
humiliation at the hands of the lord Vişhņu.
In Indian myths,
owl is said to be full of dullness or delusion. Since it is awake
at nights unlike all other birds it is supposedly not sure whether
it is a bird or a nocturnal animal.
The translation of the
verse (8.4.22) is:
O Indra, kill the
delusion (owl); kill the anger (wolf), kill the jealousy (dog),
kill the lust (chakravāka), kill the arrogance (eagle),
kill the greed (vulture).
[The clarification of
symbolism in this verse is due to Dr. Narendra of the Sanskrit
Institute, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry]
The translation of this
verse by the “authority” Whitney speaks for itself:
“The owl sorcerer,
the owlet sorcerer smite thou, the dog sorcerer and the cuckoo
sorcerer the eagle sorcerer and the vulture sorcerer-do thou
destroy the demon as if with a mill stone”.
ulūkayātum
shushulūkayātum jahi shvayātum uta kokayātum,
suparņayātum uta
gŗidhra yātum dŗishhadeva pra maņa rakşha indra.
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