Table Of Contents
CREATION
DEATH
THE ELEMENTS OF SACRIFICE
THE HORSE SACRIFICE
GODS OF THE SACRIFICE: AGNI AND SOMA
SOMA
INDRA
GODS OF THE STORM
SOLAR GODS
SKY AND EARTH
VARUNA
RUDRA AND VISNU
REALIA
WOMEN
INCANTATIONS AND SPELLS
INCANTATIONS AND SPELLS
The Atharva Veda is the locus classions for magic spells, but the later parts of the Rig Veda also contain many imprecations and chants. Some deal with white magic or medicine (10.97), some with bad dreams (10.164) or sleep (7.5 5), and some with the problem of black magic or sorcery (7.104). Many deal with the rites de passage: the wife hopes to overcome her rivals (10.145), succeeds in overcoming her rivals (10.159), wishes to become pregnant (10.184) and to have a healthy child (10.162). These life-affirming spells culminate in the wish that underlies so much of the Rig Veda – the wish that death will go elsewhere, at least for a little while longer (10.165).
10.97 The Healing Plants
A doctor praises the healing herbs that supply his medicines and blesses the man whose illness he hopes to cure.
1 The tawny plants were born in the ancient times, three ages before the gods; now I will meditate upon their hundred and seven forms.1
2 Mothers, you have a hundred forms and a thousand growths. You who have a hundred ways of working, make this man whole for me.
3 Be joyful, you plants that bear flowers and those that bear fruit. Like mares that win the race together, the growing plants will carry us across.
4 You mothers who are called plants, I say to you who are goddesses : let me win a horse, a cow, a robe – and your very life, O man.2
5 In the sacred fig-tree is your home ; in the tree of leaves3 your dwelling-place has been made. You will surely win a cow as your share if you win a man.4
6 He in whom the plants gather like kings in the assembly, that priest is called a healer, a slayer of demons,5 an expeller of disease.
7 The one that brings horses, the one that brings Soma, the one that gives strength, the heightener of strength – all these plants I have found to stretch out the health of this man.
8 Like cows from the cow-pen, out stream the powers of the plants that will win wealth – and your life, O man.
9 Your mother’s name is Reviver, and so you are the Restorers.6 You are streams that y on wings. Restore whatever has been injured.
10 They have stepped over all barriers like a thief into a cow-pen. The plants have driven out whatever wound was in the body.
11 When I take these plants in my hand, yearning for the victory prize, the life of the disease7 vanishes as if before a hunter grasping at his life.
12 He through whom you plants creep limb by limb, joint by joint, you banish disease from him like a huge man coming between fighters.8
13 Fly away, disease, along with the blue jay and the jay; disappear with the howl of the wind, with the rain storm.
14 Let one of you help the other; let one stand by the other. All of you working together, help this speech of mine to succeed.
15 Those that bear fruit and those without fruit, those without flower and those that bear flowers, sent by Brhaspati9 let them free us from anguish.
16 Let them free me from the effects of a curse, and also from what comes from Varuna,10 and from the fetter sent by Yama and from every o ence of the gods.11
17 Flying down from the sky, the plants spoke: that man shall not be harmed whose life we join.
18 Of all the many plants in hundreds of forms, whose king is Soma, you12 are supreme, a remedy for need and a blessing for the heart.
19 You plants whose king is Soma, spread out over the earth as you were sent by Brhaspati: unite your power in this plant.
20 Do not harm the man who digs you up, nor him for whom I dig you up; let all our two-footed and four- footed creatures be without sickness.
21 You growing plants who hear this, and those who have gone far away, all coming together unite your power in this plant.
22 The plants speak together with King Soma: ‘Whom ever the Brahmin priest treats, we will carry him across, O king.’
23 Plant, you are supreme; the trees are your subjects. Let the man who seeks to injure us be our subjects.
NOTES
1. That is, the 107 types or species of healing herbs.
2. This, as in verse 8, is a direct address to the patient whose life is in danger.
3. The sacred fig is the Asvattha; the tree of leaves is the Parna.
4. That is, if you win back the life of this man.
5. Raksases, local demons, not the grand Asuras of heaven.
6. A pun on Iskrti and Niskiti.
7. The curer is depicted as killing the disease to save the patient. The particular disease named here (yaksa) is a kind of consumption.
8. The ‘mediator’ is a powerful king who remains neutral and intervenes between two warring kings.
9. Brhaspati is the deity who presides over spells.
10. Varuna sends a noose that consists in the disease of dropsy or other diseases.
11. Offences committed by men against the gods, bringing diseases down upon the offender, and offences committed by the gods against men, offences themselves consisting in diseases. Cf. 10.109.1.
12. The particular plant about to be used in the healing of the patient.
10.164 Against Bad Dreams and Sins
The evil thoughts that ruin waking life, that ruin the work of the poet, and that ruin peaceful sleep are all to be banished by an otherwise unknown god, the Master of Thought.
1 Go away, Master of Thought, get out and wander in the far distance. In the far distance say to Destruction,1‘The thought of a living creature is of many kinds.’2
2 ‘They choose the boon that makes them happy; they yoke the lead horse that makes them happy; the eye of the son of Vivasvan3 makes them happy. The thought of a living creature is of many kinds.’
3 If we have done something bad on purpose or not on purpose, or with the wrong purpose, wake or asleep, let Agni place fat away from us all these misdeeds that are displeasing.
4 If we commit an offence, O Indra, O Brahmanaspati, let the prophet descended from Angiras4 protect us from oppression by those who hate us.
5 We have conquered today, and we have won; we have become free of sin. The waking dream, the evil intent -let it fall upon the one we hate; let it fall upon the one who hates us.
NOTES
1. The goddess Nirrti, chaos and death.
2. Cf. C.I 12.1.
3. Yama, king of the dead.
4. Probably Agni or Brhaspati.
7.55 Sleeping Spell
Several different suggestions have been made for the context of this hymn. Sayana relates it to Vasistha’s hymns to Varuna:1 Vasistha, having fasted for three days, entered Varuna’s house to get food; he spoke this hymn to quiet the watchdog. The hymn is also said to have been used by thieves and housebreakers, by lovers on secret nocturnal rendezvous in their mistresses’ houses,2 by mothers singing it as a lullaby to their children, or by the domestic priest (Purohita) praying for a peaceful slumber for the inhabitants of the house.
1 Lord of the House,3 you who drive away diseases and permeate all forms,4 be a gentle friend to us.
2 White and tawny son of Sarama,5 when you bare your teeth they gleam like spears in your snapping jaws. Fall fast asleep !
3 Bark at the thief or at the marauder, as you run up and back again, O son of Saramä. But you are barking at those who sing Indra’s praises; why do you threaten us? Fall fast asleep!
4 Tear apart the wild boar, for he would tear you apart. But you are barking at those who sing Indra’s praises; why do you threaten us? Fall fast asleep!
5 Let the mother sleep; let the father sleep; let the dog sleep; let the master of the house sleep. Let all the kinsmen sleep; let our people all around sleep.
6 The one who rests and the one who moves, and whoever sees us – we close their eyes tightly as we close up this house.
7 The bull with a thousand horns,6 who rises up out of the sea – with the help of that powerful one we put the people to sleep.
8 The women lying on benches or lying in chairs or lying in beds, the wives who smell good – we put all of them to sleep.
NOTES
1. Cf. 7.86, 7.89, and 7.88.5.
2. This Rig Vedic hymn is specifically adapted to use by lovers in the Atharva Veda (4.5).
3. Vastospati, the Lord of the House, is a god to whom the pre vious hymn (7.54) is dedicated.
4. This is usually an epithet of Soma, sometimes of Agni.
5. Sarama is the eponymous ancestor of all brindled dogs. Cf. 10.108 and 10.14.10-11.
6. The moon, ‘horned’ both in the sense of resembling (when crescent) the horns of a bull and of having the rays of moonlight shooting away from him like horns from the head of an animal.
10.145 Against Rival Wives
This hymn is appropriately dedicated to Indrani, wife of the notoriously womanizing Indra.
1 I dig up this plant,1 the most powerful thing that grows, with which one drives out the rival wife and wins the husband entirely for oneself.
2 Broad-leaved plant sent by the gods to bring happiness and the power to triumph, blow my rival wife away and make my husband mine alone.
3 O highest one, I am the highest one, higher than all the highest women, and my rival wife is lower than the lowest women.
4 I will not even take her name into my mouth ; he takes no pleasure in this person.2 Far, far into the distance we make the rival wife go.
5 I have emerged triumphant, and you also3 have triumphed. The two of us, full of the power to triumph, will triumph over my rival wife.
6 I have placed the plant of triumph on you,4 and grasped you with my power to triumph. Let your heart run after me like a cow after a calf, like water running in its own bed.
NOTES
1. The magic plant used in many Vedic spells.
2. That is, the husband does not really love the rival wife or co- wife (or other woman competing for the husband’s love), who is not even worthy of being mentioned.
3. The magic plant is here directly addressed as an ally.
4. This verse is said to the husband, on whose head the plant is placed.
10.159 The Triumphant Wife
This hymn, which is connected with a dawn sacrifice (vv. 1 and 4), expresses a woman’s triumphant conquest of her husband and banishing of her rival wives. Tradition associates it with Indrani, though she is never mentioned in the hymn.
1 There the sun has risen, and here my good fortune1 has risen. Being a clever woman, and able to triumph,2 I have triumphed over my husband.
2 I am the banner; I am the head. I am the formidable one who has the deciding word. My husband will obey my will alone, as I emerge triumphant.
3 My sons kill their enemies and my daughter is an empress, and I am completely victorious. My voice is supreme in my husband’s ears.
4 The oblation that Indra made and so became glorious and supreme, this is what I have made for you, O gods. I have become truly without rival wives.
5 Without rival wives, killer of rival wives, victorious and pre-eminent, I have grabbed for myself the attraction of the other women as if it were the wealth of mighty women.
6 I have conquered and become pre-eminent over these rival wives, so that I may rule as empress over this hero and over the people.
NOTES
1. Bhaga, the happiness that consists in being loved by one’s husband.
2. That is, to win out against all the other women, as well as to win over the husband. Cf. 10.145.
10.184 For a Safe Pregnancy and Birth
1 Let Visnu1 prepare the womb; let Tvastr shape the forms. Let Prajapati shed the seed; let Dhatr place the embryo in you.
2 Place the embryo, Sinivali;2 place the embryo, Sarasvati. Let the twin Asvins, the lotus- garlanded gods, place the embryo in you.
3 With golden kindling woods the Asvins churn out fire.3 We invoke that embryo for you to bring forth in the tenth month.
NOTES
1. The gods of this verse are all associated with various forms of begetting.
2. These are goddesses who assist at birth.
3. The churning of the fire-sticks is a sexual metaphor, resulting in the birth of a child, who is fire, born out of water (the fluids of the ocean or the sky) as the child is born out of the fluids of the womb.
10.162 To Protect the Embryo
1 Let Agni the killer of demons1 unite with this prayer and expel from here the one whose name is evil, who lies with disease upon your embryo, your womb.
2 The one whose name is evil, who lies with disease upon your embryo, your womb, the flesh-eater – Agni has driven him away with prayer.
3 The one who kills the embryo as it settles,2 as it rests, as it stirs, who wishes to kill it when it is born – we will drive him away from here.
4 The one who spreads apart your two thighs, who lies between the married pair, who licks the inside of your womb – we will drive him away from here.
5 The one who by changing into your brother, or your husband, or your lover lies with you, who wishes to kill your off spring – we will drive him away from here.
6 The one who bewitches3 you with sleep or darkness and lies with you – we will drive him away from here.
NOTES
1. Raksases, earthly demons.
2. The three stages of the embryo: just conceived, unmoving, and, in the third month, moving.
3. Literally, deludes.
7.104 The Demons in Hell
In banishing all evil spirits to a dark hole (a place that may prefigure the post-Vedic hell of the demons), the poet also takes the opportunity to wish evils upon the head of his rival priest, a ‘sorcerer’ who apparently accuses the author of the hymn of being a sorcerer.
1 Indra and Soma, burn the demon and crush him; bulls, hurl down those who thrive on darkness. Shatter those who lack good thoughts; scorch them, kill, drive out, cut down the devourers.
2 Indra and Soma, let evil heat boil up around him who plots evil, like a pot set on a fire. Set unrelenting hatred against the end,1 the flesh-eating Brahmin-hater with the evil eye.
3 Indra and Soma, pierce the evil-doers and hurl them into the pit, the bottomless darkness, so that not a single one will come up from there again. Let this furious rage of yours overpower them.
4 Indra and Soma, together roll the shattering weapon from the sky, from the earth, upon the one who plots evil. Carve out of the mountains the hissing thing2 with which you burn down the demon who thrives.
5 Indra and Soma, roll it from the sky. With unageing weapons of heat that burn like fire and strike like stone pierce the devourers and hurl them into the abyss. Let them go into silence.
6 Indra and Soma, let this prayer embrace you all around like the girth around two prize- winning horses. Like a pair of princes,3 urge on these prayers, this invocation that I send to you by meditation.
7 Plot against them. Swooping down swiftly, kill the demons who hate us and would break us to bits. Indra and Soma, let nothing good happen to the evil-doer who has ever
tried to injure me with his hatred.
8 Whoever has spoken against me with false words when I was acting with a pure heart, O Indra, let him become nothing even as he talks about nothing, like water grasped in one’s fist.
9 Those who casually seduce the man of pure heart or who wilfully make the good man bad, let Soma deliver them over to the serpent,4 or let him set them in the lap of Destruction.5
10 Agni, whoever wants to injure the sap of our drink, of our horses, of our cows, of our own bodies, he is our enemy, a thief and a robber; let him fall upon hard times; let him perish with his own body and his o spring.
11 Let him with his own body and his off spring be beyond, let him be below all three earths. Gods, dry up the glory of the one who wants to injure us by day or by night.
12 For the clever man it is easy to distinguish: true and false words fight against one another. Soma favours the one of them that is true, that is straight; he kills the false.
13 Surely Soma does not push forward the one who is dishonest, nor the ruler who holds power falsely. He kills the demon, he kills the one who speaks lies.6 Both of these lie in Indra’s snare.
14 As if I worshipped false gods, or considered the gods useless – why, Agni knower of creatures, why are you angry with us?7 Gather into your destruction those who speak hateful words.
15 Let me die at once if I am a sorcerer, or if I have burnt up a man’s span of life. Let the one who falsely calls me a sorcerer be cut off from ten heroes.8
16 The one who calls me a sorcerer, though I am not a sorcerer, or the one who says he is pure, though he is demonic – let Indra strike him with his great weapon. Let him fall to the lowest depths under all creation.
17 She9 who ranges about at night like an owl, hiding her body in a hateful disguise, let her fall into the endless pits. Let the pressing-stones slay the demons with their rumblings.
18 Maruts, scatter yourselves among all the peoples. Seek out, grab, and crush the demons who become birds and fly about at night, the ones who have injured the sacrifice of the gods.
19 Roll the stone from the sky, generous Indra. Sharpen it completely when Soma has sharpened it. From in front, from behind, from below, from above, strike the demons with the mountain.
20 There they go ! The dog-sorcerers10 are flying away. Viciously they wish to harm Indra, who cannot be harmed. Indra sharpens his weapon against the slanderers. Now let him loose his bolt at the sorcerers.
21 Indra shattered the sorcerers who snatched away the oblation and waylaid him. Indra splits them as an axe splits a tree, bursting apart the demons as if they were clay pots.
22 Kill the owl-sorcerer, the owlet-sorcerer, the dog-sorcerer, the cuckoo-sorcerer, the eagle-sorcerer, the vulture-sorcerer.11 Indra, crush the demon to powder as if with a millstone.
23 Do not let the demon of the sorcerers get close to us. Let the light12 blot out the ends who work in couples. Let the earth protect us from earthly anguish, and the middle realm of space protect us from the anguish of the sky.
24 Indra, kill the male sorcerer and the female who deceives by her power of illusion. Let the idol-worshippers sink down with broken necks; let them never see the rising sun.
25 Look here, look there, Indra and Soma; stay awake! Hurl the weapon at the demons; hurl the thunderbolt at the sorcerers!
NOTES
1. A creature called Kimidin, who, according to the commentator, goes about saying, ‘What now?’ (kim-idinim). The other demons in this hymn are generally identified as Raksases.
2. The thunderbolt. Cf. 8.14.14.
3. Probably charioteers, like the Asvins.
4. To death by serpents’ bite, perhaps, or to the great serpent Vrtra.
5. Nirrti.
6. Or the one who speaks spells of black magic.
7. That is, I don’t worship false gods, so why do you punish me as if I did?
8. Perhaps from ten generations of heroic sons, or from the assistance that ten heroes could render him in defence against the speaker.
9. A witch or sorceress.
10. Sorcerers who take the form of dogs, or werewolves.
11. Sorcerers in the forms of various animals.
12. The light of dawn, that will end the power of the night-roaming demons.
10.165 The Dove of Death
The dove, the messenger of the god of death, is driven from the house. 1 Gods, a dove has come here seeking someone, sent as a messenger by Destruction.1 We will sing against him; we will perform an expiation. Let all be well with our two-footed creatures, all be well with our four-footed creatures.
2 Let the dove that has been sent to us be kind; gods, let the bird be harmless in our houses. Let the inspired Agni relish our oblation. Let the winged spear2 spare us.
3 Do not let the winged spear attack us; it settles by the fireplace in the kitchen. Let all be well with our cows and with our men; gods, do not let the dove harm us here.
4 What the owl screeches is in vain; vain, too, the settling of the dove by the fire.3 I bow low before Yama, before death, who sent this dove as a messenger.
5 Drive the dove out, pushing him with a verse. Rejoicing in food, lead the cow around and wipe out all the evil traces. Let it4 fly forth, flying its best, and leave us strength to live.
NOTES
1. Nirrti.
2. The dove is likened to a missile flying on wings.
3. The bad omen of the owl’s screech and of the dove’s entrance into the house are both made naught.
4. The dove, who is to leave behind it the strength of those in the house as well as, perhaps, of the dove.
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