Atharva Veda Book 1

1Now may Váchaspati assign to me the strength and powers of Those
Who, wearing every shape and form, the triple seven are wandering round.

2Come thou again, Váchaspati, come with divine intelligence.
Vasoshpati, repose thou here. In me be Knowledge, yea, in me.

3Here, even here, spread sheltering arms like the two bow-ends strained with cord.
This let Váchaspati confirm. In me be Knowledge, yea, in me.

4Váchaspati hath been invoked: may he invite us in reply.
May we adhere to Sacred Lore. Never may I be reft thereof.

1We know the father of the shaft, Parjanya, liberal nourisher,
Know well his mother: Prithiví, Earth with her manifold designs.

2Do thou, O Bowstring, bend thyself around us: make my body stone.
Firm in thy strength drive far away malignities and hateful things.

3When, closely clinging round the wood, the bowstring sings triumph to the swift and whizzing arrow,
Indra, ward off from us the shaft, the missile.

4As in its flight the arrow's point hangs between earth and firmament,
So stand this Munja grass between ailment and dysenteric ill!

1We know the father of the shaft, Parjanya strong with hundred powers:
By this may I bring health unto thy body: let the channels pour their burthen freely as of old.

2We know the father of the shaft, Mitra, the Lord of hundred powers:
By this, etc.

3We know the father of the shaft, Váruna, strong with hundred powers:
By this, etc.

4We know the father of the shaft, the Moon endowed with hundred powers:
By this, etc.

5We know the father of the shaft, the Sun endowed with hundred powers:
By this may I bring health unto thy body: let the channels pour their burthen freely as of old.

6Whate'er hath gathered, as it flowed, in bowels, bladder, or in groins,
Thus let the conduit, free from check, pour all its burthen as of old.

7I lay the passage open as one cleaves the dam that bars the lake:
Thus let, etc.

8Now hath the portal been unclosed as, of the sea that holds the flood:
Thus let, etc.

9Even as the arrow flies away when loosened from the archer's bow,
Thus let the burthen be discharged from channels that are checked no more.

1Along their paths the Mothers go, sisters of priestly ministrants,
Blending their water with the mead.

2May yonder Waters near the Sun, or those wherewith the Sun is joined,
Send forth this sacrifice of ours.

3I call the Waters, Goddesses, hitherward where our cattle drink:
The streams must share the sacrifice.

4Amrit is in the Waters, in the Waters balm.
Yea, through our praises of the Floods, O horses, be ye fleet and strong, and, O ye kine, be full of strength.

1Ye, Waters, truly bring us bliss: so help ye us to strength and power
That we may look on great delight.

2Here grant to us a share of dew, that most auspicious dew of yours,
Like mothers in their longing love.

3For you we fain would go to him to whose abode ye send us forth,
And, Waters, give us procreant strength.

4I pray the Floods to send us balm, those who bear rule o'er precious things,
And have supreme control of men.

1The Waters be to us for drink, Goddesses, for our aid and bliss:
Let them stream health and wealth to us.

2Within the Waters — Soma thus hath told me — dwell all balms that heal,
And Agni, he who blesseth all.

3O Waters, teem with medicine to keep my body safe from harm,
So that I long may see the Sun.

4The Waters bless us, all that rise in desert lands or marshy pools!
Bless us the Waters dug from earth, bless us the Waters brought in jars, bless us the Waters of the Rains!

1Bring the Kimidin hither, bring the Yātudhāna self-declared
For Agni, God, thou, lauded, hast become the Dasyu's slaughterer.

2O Játavedas, Lord Supreme, controller of our bodies, taste
The butter, Agni, taste the oil: make thou the Yátudhánas mourn.

3Let Yátudhánas mourn, let all greedy Kimídins weep and wail:
And, Agni, Indra, may ye both accept this sacrifice of ours.

4May Agni seize upon them first, may strong-armed Indra drive them forth:
Let every wicked sorcerer come hither and say, Here am I.

5Let us behold thy strength, O Játavedas. Viewer of men, tell us the Yátudhánas.
Burnt by thy heat and making declaration let all approach this sacrifice before thee.

6O Játavedas, seize, on them: for our advantage art thou born:
Agni, be thou our messenger and make the Yátudhánas wail.

7O Agni, bring thou hitherward the Yátudhánas bound and chained.
And afterward let Indra tear their heads off with his thunder-bolt.

1This sacrifice shall bring the Yátudhánas as the flood brings foam:
Here let the doer of this deed woman or man, acknowledge it.

2This one hath come confessing all: do ye receive him eagerly.
Master him thou, Brihaspati; Agni and Soma, pierce him through.

3O Soma-drinker, strike and bring the Yātudhāna's progeny:
Make the confessing sinner's eyes fall from his head, both right and left.

4As thou, O Agni Játavedas, knowest the races of these secret greedy beings,
So strengthened by the power of prayer, O Agni, crushing them down a hundred times destroy them.

1May Indra, Púshan, Varuria, Mitra, Agni, benignant Gods, maintain this man in riches.
May the Ádityas and the Vive Devas set and support him in supremest lustre.

2May light, O Gods, be under his dominion, Agni, the Sun, all that is bright and golden.
Prostrate beneath our feet his foes and rivals. Uplift him to the loftiest cope of heaven.

3Through that most mighty prayer, O Játavedas, wherewith thou broughtest milk to strengthen Indra,
Even therewith exalt this man, O Agni, and give him highest rank among his kinsmen.

4I have assumed their sacrifice, O Agni, their hopes, their glory, and their riches' fulness.
Prostrate beneath our feet his foes and rivals. Uplift him to the loftiest cope of heaven.

1This Lord is the Gods' ruler; for the wishes of Váruna the King must be accomplished.
Therefore, triumphant with the prayer I utter, I rescue this man from the Fierce One's anger.

2Homage be paid, King Váruna, to thine anger; for thou, dread God, detectest every falsehood.
I send a thousand others forth together: let this thy servant live a hundred autumns.

3Whatever falsehood thou hast told, much evil spoken with the tongue,
I liberate thee from the noose of Váruna the righteous King.

4I free thee from Vaisvánara, from the great surging flood of sin.
Call thou thy brothers, Awful One! and pay attention to our prayer.

1Vashat to thee, O Púshan At this birth let Aryaman the Sage perform as Hotar-priest,
As one who bears in season let this dame be ready to bring forth her child.

2Four are the regions of the sky, and four the regions of the earth:
The Gods have brought the babe; let them prepare the woman for the birth.

3Puerpera (infatem) detegat: nos uterum aperimus. Lexa teipsam, puerpera. Tu, parturiens! emitte eum non carni, non adipi, non medullae adhāerntem.

4Descendat viscosa placenta, cani, comedenda placenta; decidat placenta.

5Diffindo tuum urinae ductum, diffindo vaginam, diffindo inguina.
Matrem natumque divido, puerum a placenta divido: decidat placenta.

6Sicut ventus, sicut mens, sicut alites volant, sic, decem mensiumpuer, cum placenta descende: descendat placenta.

1Born from the womb, brought forth from wind and from the cloud, the first red bull comes onward thundering with the rain.
Our bodies may he spare who, cleaving, goes straight on; he who, a single force, divides himself in three.

2Bending to thee who clingest to each limb with heat, fain would we worship thee with offered sacrifice,
Worship with sacrifice the bends and curves of thee who with a vigorous grasp hast seized on this one's limbs.

3Do thou release this man from headache, free him from cough which has entered into all his limbs and joints.
May he, the child of cloud, the offspring of the wind, the whizzing lighting, strike the mountains and the trees.

4Well be it with my upper frame, well be it with my lower parts.
With my four limbs let it be well. Let all my body be in health.

1Homage to thee, the Lightning's flash, homage to thee, the Thunder's roar!
Homage to thee, the Stone which thou hurlest against the undevout!

2Homage to thee, Child of the Flood whence thou collectest fervent heat!
Be gracious to our bodies, give our children happiness and joy.

3Yea, homage be to thee, O Offspring of the Flood! Homage we pay to thee, the dart and fiery flame:
For well we know thy secret and sublimest home, where thou as central point art buried in the sea.

4Thou, Arrow, which the host of Gods created, making it strong and mighty for the shooting,
Be gracious, lauded thus, to our assembly. To thee, that Arrow, be our homage, Goddess!

1As from the tree a wreath, have I assumed her fortune and her fame:
Among her kinsfolk long may she dwell, like a mountain broadly-based.

2King Yama, let this maiden be surrendered as a wife to thee:
Bound let her be meanwhile within her mother's, brother's, father's house.

3Queen of thy race is she, O King: to thee do we deliver her.
Long with her kinsfolk may she sit, until her hair be white with age.

4With Asita's and Kasyapa's and Gaya's incantation, thus
As sisters pack within a chest, I bind and tie thy fortune up.

1Let the streams flow together, let the winds and birds assembled come.
Let this my sacrifice delight them always. I offer it with duly mixt oblation.

2Come to my call, Blent Offerings, come ye very nigh. And, singers, do ye strengthen and increase this man.
Hither come every animal: with this man let all wealth abide.

3All river founts that blend their streams for ever inexhaustible —
With all these confluent streams of mine we make abundant riches flow.

4All streams of melted butter, and all streams of water and of milk
With all these confluent streams of mine we make abundant riches flow.

1May potent Agni who destroys the demons bless and shelter us
From greedy fiends who rise in troops at night-time when the moon is dark.

2Váruna's benison hath blessed the lead, and Agni strengthens it.
Indra hath given me the lead: this verily repels the fiends.

3This overcomes Vishkandha, - this drives the voracious fiends away:
By means of this have I o'erthrown all the Pisāchi's demon brood.

4If thou destroy a cow of ours, a human being, or a steed,
We pierce thee with this piece of lead so that thou mayst not slay our men.

1Those maidens there, the veins, who run their course in robes of ruddy hue,
Must now stand quiet, reft of power, like sisters who are brotherless.

2Stay still, thou upper vein, stay still, thou lower, stay, thou midmost one,
The smallest one of all stands still: let the great vessel e'en be still.

3Among a thousand vessels charged with blood, among a thousand veins,
Even these the middlemost stand still and their extremities have rest.

4A mighty rampart built of sand hath circled and encompassed you:
Be still, and quietly take rest.

1We drive away the Spotted Hag, Misfortune, and Malignity:
All blessings to our children then! We chase Malignity away.

2Let Savitar, Mitra, Váruna, and Aryaman drive away Stinginess from both the hands and feet:
May Favour, granting us her bounties, drive her off. The Gods created Favour for our happiness.

3Each fearful sign upon thy body, in thyself, each inauspicious mark seen in thy hair, thy face,
All this we drive away and banish with our speech. May Savitar the God graciously further thee.

4Antelope-foot, and Bullock-tooth, Cow-terrifier, Vapour-form,
The Licker, and the Spotted Hag, all these we drive away from us.

1Let not the piercers find us, nor let those who wound discover us.
O Indra, make the arrows fall, turned, far from us, to every side.

2Turned from us let the arrows fall, those shot and those that will be shot.
Shafts of the Gods and shafts of men, strike and transfix mine enemies:

3Whoever treateth us as foes, be he our own or strange to us, a kinsman or a foreigner,
May Rudra with his arrows pierce and slay these enemies of mine.

4The rival and non-rival, he who in his hatred curses us
May all the deities injure him! My nearest, closest mail is prayer.

1May it glide harmless by in this our sacrifice, O Soma, God!
Maruts, be gracious unto us.
Let not disaster, let not malison find us out; let not abominable guiles discover us.

2Mitra and Váruna, ye twain, turn carefully away from us
The deadly dart that flies to-day, the missile of the wicked ones.

3Ward off from this side and from that, O Váruna, the deadly dart:
Give us thy great protection, turn the lethal weapon far away.

4A mighty Ruler thus art thou, unconquered, vanquisher of foes,
Even thou whose friend is never slain, whose friend is never overcome.

1Lord of the clans, giver of bliss, fiend-slayer, mighty o'er the foe,
May Indra, Soma-drinker, go before us, Bull, who brings us peace.

2Indra, subdue our enemies, lay low the men who fight with us:
Down into nether darkness send the man who shows us enmity:

3Strike down the fiend, strike down the foes, break thou asunder Vritra's jaws.
O Indra, Vritra-slayer, quell the wrath of the assailing foe.

4Turn thou the foeman's thought away, his dart who fain would conquer us:
Grant us thy great protection; keep his deadly weapon far away.

1As the Sun rises, let thy sore disease and yellowness depart.
We compass and surround thee with the colour of a ruddy ox.

2With ruddy hues we compass thee that thou mayst live a lengthened life:
So that this man be free from harm, and cast his yellow tint away.

3Devatyās that are red of hue, yea, and the ruddy-coloured kine,
Each several form, each several force — with these we compass thee about.

4To parrots and to starlings we transfer thy sickly yellowness:
Now in the yellow-coloured birds we lay this yellowness of thine.

1O Plant, thou sprangest up at night, dusky, dark-coloured, black in hue!
So, Rajani, re-colour thou these ashy spots, this leprosy.

2Expel the leprosy, remove from him the spots and ashy hue:
Let thine own colour come to thee; drive far away the specks of white.

3Dark is the place of thy repose, dark is the place thou dwellest in:
Dusky and dark, O Plant, art thou: remove from him each speck and spot.

4I with my spell have chased away the pallid sign of leprosy,
Caused by infection, on the skin, sprung from the body, from the bones.

1First, before all, the strong-winged Bird was born;; thou wast the gall thereof.
Conquered in fight, the Asuri took then the shape and form of plants.

2The Asuri made, first of all, this medicine for leprosy, this banisher of leprosy.
She banished leprosy, and gave one general colour to the skin.

3One-coloured, is thy mother's name, One-coloured is thy father called:
One-colour-maker, Plant! art thou: give thou one colour to this man.

4Sāmā who gives one general hue was formed and fashioned from the earth:
Further this work efficiently. Restore the colours that were his.

1When Agni blazed when he had pierced the Waters, whereat the Law-observers paid him homage,
There, men assever, was thy loftiest birthplace: O Fever, yielding to our prayer avoid us.

2If thou be fiery glow, or inflammation, or if thy birthplace call for chips of fuel,
Rack is thy name, God of the sickly yellow! O Fever, yielding to our prayer avoid us.

3Be thou distress, or agonizing torment, be thou the son King 000Váruna hath begotten,
Rack is thy name, God of the sickly yellow! O Fever, yielding to our prayer avoid us.

4I offer homage to the chilly Fever, to his fierce burning glow I offer homage.
Be adoration paid to Fever coming each other day, the third, of two days running.

1Let that Destructive Weapon be far distant from us, O ye Gods; far be the Stone ye wont to hurl.

2Our friend be that Celestial Grace, Indra and Bhaga be our friends, and Savitar with splendid Wealth.

3hou, Offspring of the waterflood, ye Maruts, with your sun-bright skins, give us protection reaching far.

4Further us rightly, favour ye our bodies with your gracious love.
Give thou our children happiness.

1There on the bank those Vipers lie, thrice-seven, having cast their skins:
Now we with their discarded sloughs bind close and cover up the eyes of the malicious highway thief.

2Far let her go, cutting her way, brandishing, as it were, a club:
Diverted be the new-born's mind: ne'er are the wicked prosperous.

3Not many have had power enough; the feeble ones have not prevailed,
Like scattered fragments of a reed: ne'er are the wicked prosperous.

4Go forward, feet, press quickly on, bring to the house of him who pays.
Unconquered and unplundered, let Indráni, foremost, lead the way.

1God Agni hath come forth to us, fiend-slayer, chaser of disease,
Burning the Yátudhánas up, Kimídins, and deceitful ones.

2Consume the Yátudhánas, God! meet the Kimídins with thy flame:
Burn up the Yātudhānis as they face thee, thou whose path is black!

3She who hath cursed us with a curse, or hath conceived a murderous sin;
Or seized our son to take his blood, let her devour the child she bare.

4Let her, the Yātudhāni eat son, sister, and her daughter's child.
Now let the twain by turns destroy the wild-haired Yātudhānis - and crush down Arāyis to the earth!

1With that victorious Amulet which strengthened Indra's power and might,
Do thou, O Bráhmanaspati, increase our strength for kingly sway.

2Subduing those who rival us, subduing all malignities,
Withstand the man who menaces, and him who seeks to injure us.

3Soma and Savitar the God have strengthened and exalted thee:
All elements have aided thee, to make thee general conqueror.

4Slayer of rivals, vanquisher, may that victorious Amulet
Be bound on me for regal sway and conquest of mine enemies.

5Yon Sun hath mounted up on high, and this my word hath mounted up
That I may smite my foes and be slayer of rivals, rivalless.

6Destroyer of my rivals, strong, victorious, with royal sway,
May I be ruler of these men, and King and sovran of the folk.

1Guard and protect this man, all Gods and Vasus. Over him keep ye watch and ward, Ádityas.
Let not death reach him from the hands of brothers from hands of aliens, or of human beings.

2Listen, one-minded, to the word I utter, the sons, O Gods, among you, and the fathers!
I trust this man to all of you: preserve him happily, and to length of days conduct him.

3All Gods who dwell on earth or in the heavens, in air, within, the plants, the beasts, the waters,
Grant this man life to full old age, and let him escape the hundred other ways of dying.

4You, claiming Anuyājas or Prayājas, sharers, or not consumers, of oblation,
You, to whom heaven's five regions are apportioned, I make companions at his sacred sessions.

1Here will we serve with sacrifice the great Controllers of the world,
The four immortal Warders who protect the regions of the sky.

2Ye, Guardians of the regions, Gods who keep the quarters of the heavens,
Rescue and free us from the bonds of Nirriti, from grief and woe!

3I, free from stiffness, serve thee with oblation, not lame I sacrifice with oil and fatness.
Let the strong Warder God, who keeps the regions bring to us hither safety and well-being.

4Well be it with our mother and our father, well be it with our cows, and beasts, and people.
Ours be all happy fortune, grace, and favour. Long, very long may we behold the sunlight.

1Ye people, hear and mark this well: he will pronounce a mighty prayer:
That which gives breathing to the Plants is not on earth nor in the heaven.

2Their station, as of those who rest when weary, is in midmost air:
The base whereon this world is built, the sages know or know it not.

3What the two trembling hemispheres and ground produced and fashioned forth.
This All, is ever fresh to-day, even as the currents of the sea.

4This All hath compassed round the one, and on the other lies at rest.
To Earth and all-possessing Heaven mine adoration have I paid.

1May they, the golden-hued, the bright, the splendid, they wherein Savitar was born and Agni,
They who took Agni as a germ, fair-coloured, the Waters, bring felicity and bless us!

2They in the midst whereof King Váruna moveth, viewing men's righteous and unrighteous dealing.
They who took Agni as a germ, fair-coloured, — those Waters bring felicity and bless us!

3Whom the Gods make their beverage in heaven, they who wax manifold in air's mid-region,
They who took Agni as a germ, fair-coloured, — those Waters bring felicity and bless us!

4Ye Waters, with auspicious eye behold me: touch ye my skin with your auspicious body.
May they, the bright and pure, distilling fatness, those Waters, bring felicity and bless us.

1From honey sprang this Plant to life; with honey now we dig thee up.
Make us as sweet as honey, for from honey hast thou been produced.

2My tongue hath honey at the tip, and sweetest honey at the root:
Thou yieldest to my wish and will, and shalt be mine and only mine.

3My coming in is honey-sweet and honey-sweet my going forth:
My voice and words are sweet: I fain would be like honey in my look.

4Sweeter am I than honey, yet more full of sweets than licorice:
So mayst thou love me as a branch full of all sweets, and only me.

5Around thee have I girt a zone of sugar-cane to banish hate.
That thou mayst be in love with me, my darling never to depart.

1This Ornament of Gold which Daksha's children bound, with benevolent thoughts, on Satānïka,
This do I bind on thee for life, for glory, for long life lasting through a hundred autumns.

2This man no fiends may conquer, no Pisāchas, for this is might of Gods, their primal offspring.
Whoever wears the Gold of Daksha's children hath a long lengthened life among the living.

3The light, the power, the lustre of the Waters, the strength of
Trees, and all their forceful vigour,
We lay on him as powers abide in Indra: so let him wear this
Gold and show his valour.

4With monthly and six-monthly times and seasons, with the full year's sweet essence do we fill thee,
May Indra, Agni, and all Gods together, showing no anger, grant thee what thou wishest.