AtharvaVeda

1Now may Vāchaspati assign to me the strength and powers of
Those
Who, wearing every shape and form, the triple seven, are
wandering round.
2Come thou again, Vāchaspati, 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 Vāchaspati confirm. In me be Knowledge, yea, in me.
4Vāchaspati 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: Prithivī, 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, Varuna, strong with hundred
powers: p. a4
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 p. a6
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: p. a7
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 Jātavedas, Lord Supreme, controller of our bodies, taste
The butter, Agni, taste the oil: make thou the Yātudhānas
mourn.
3Let Yātudhānas mourn, let all greedy Kimidins weep and
wail:
And, Agni, Indra, may ye both accept this sacrifice of ours. p. a8
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 Jātavedas. Viewer of men, tell us
the Yātudhānas.
Burnt by thy heat and making declaration let all approach this
sacrifice before thee.
6O Jātavedas, seize, on them: for our advantage art thou born:
Agni, be thou our messenger and make the Yātudhānas wail.
7O Agni, bring thou hitherward the Yātudhānas bound and
chained.
And afterward let Indra tear their heads off with his thunder-
bolt.

1This sacrifice shall bring the Yātudhānas as the flood brings
foam: p. a9
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 Jātavedas, 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, Pūshan, Varuria, Mitra, Agni, benignant Gods,
maintain this man in riches.
May the Ādityas and the Vive Devas set and support him in
supremest lustre. p. a10
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 Jātavedas, 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 Varuna 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 Varuna, 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 Varuna the righteous King.
4I free thee from Vaisvānara, from the great surging flood of sin.
Call thou thy brothers, Awful One! and pay attention to our
prayer.

1Vashat to thee. O Pūshan At this birth let Aryaman the Sage
perform as Hotar-priest, p. a12
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 mensium
puer, 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 whiz-
zing 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.