THE TEXT · ATHARVAVEDA
Hymns discussed in this article
Begin with the verses shown here. Open the other cited hymns to compare their images and aims.
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK IV IN FOCUS
Against enemies: with a plant
Both art thou not relative-making, and now art thou kin-making; also do thou cut off (? ā-chid) the progeny of the witchcraft-maker, like a reed of the rainy season (vā́rṣika).
Thou art bespoken (?) by a Brāhman, by Kaṇva son of Nṛshad; thou goest like a brilliant army (?); there is no fear (bhayá) there where thou arrivest (pra-āp), O herb.
Thou goest to the head (ágra) of the herbs, causing to shine (dīp) upon [us] as it were with light; also rescuer art thou of the simple (pā́ka), likewise slayer art thou of the demoniac.
When yonder, in the beginning, the gods by thee removed (nis-kṛ) the Asuras, from thence, O herb, wast thou born, an off-wiper.
Read the remaining 4 verses of IV.19
Splitting apart (vi-bhid), hundred-branched—"splitting apart" by name is thy father; in return (pratyák), do thou split apart him who assails us.
The non-existent came into being (sam-bhū) from the earth; that goes to the sky, the great expanse (vyácas); let that, verily, fuming abroad, come back thence on the maker.
Since thou hast come into being reverted (pratyáñc), having reverted fruit, do thou repel (yu) from me all curses, [repel] very far the deadly weapon.
Protect me around with a hundred; defend me with a thousand; may the forceful (ugrá) Indra, O lord of the plants, assign force (ojmán) unto thee.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read IV.19 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK I ALSO CITED
Against enemies and their weapons
Read comparison hymn I.20 (4 verses)
Let there be the ádārasṛt, O god Soma; at this sacrifice, O Maruts, be gracious to us; let not a portent find us, nor an imprecation; let not the wrong that is hateful find us.
What missile (sénya) weapon of the malignant (aghāyú) shall go up today, do ye, Mitra-and-Varuṇa, keep that off from us.
Both what [is] from here and what from yonder—keep off, O Varuṇa, the deadly weapon; extend great protection (çárman); keep very far off the deadly weapon.
Verily a great ruler (çāsá) art thou, overpowerer of enemies, unsubdued, whose companion (sákhi) is not slain, is not scathed (jyā) at any time.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read I.20 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK IV ALSO CITED
Against witchcraft: with a plant
Read comparison hymn IV.18 (8 verses)
The same light with the sun—night possesses the same with the day; I make what is effective (satyá) for aid; sapless be the makers (f.) [of witchcraft].
Whoso, O gods, having made witchcraft, shall take it to the house of one unknowing—let it, like a sucking (dhārú) calf to its mother, go back unto him.
Whoso, having made evil at home, desires to slay another with it—numerous stones make a loud crash when it (f.) is burned.
O thou of a thousand abodes (? -dhā́man), do thou make them lie (?) crestless, neckless; take back the witchcraft to him that made it, like a sweet-heart (priyā́) to a lover (priyā́vant).
I, with this herb, have spoiled all witchcrafts—what one they have made in the field, what in the kine, or what in thy men (púruṣa).
He who hath made hath not been able to make; he hath crushed (çṛ) a foot, a finger; he hath made what is excellent for us, but for himself a burning (tápana).
Let the off-wiper wipe off the kṣetriyá and whatever curse [there is]; [wipe] off, forsooth, the sorceresses, off all the hags.
Having wiped off the sorcerers, off all the hags, O off-wiper, with thee do we wipe off all that.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read IV.18 at Wikisource ↗
The herb enters an already contested field
IV.19 belongs with the two preceding apāmārga hymns in both Whitney's ritual note and the Pāippalāda witness. Its opening is textually obscure, but verses 2–4 rapidly establish the plant's position. It arrives where there is no fear, protects the vulnerable, and recalls gods removing Asuras. These assertions supply a pedigree of rescue and expulsion before the poem names its immediate human or ritual opponent. The plant is addressed as an actor, not merely described as an ingredient.
Verse 3 says the herb stands foremost among plants and combines rescuer and slayer roles. The pairing matters: the same protective agent shields the speaker and strikes what threatens that protection. It also shows why a simple label such as healing herb is incomplete. IV.19 is not a fever treatment hymn. Its logic is adversarial and public, with an emphasis on fear, hostile works, and the power needed to withstand them.
A named assailant appears in the fifth verse
The fifth verse repeatedly uses the language of splitting and explicitly turns it toward the one who assails “us.” The verb and plant epithet reinforce one another, an example of Vedic wordplay becoming ritual logic. The speaker seeks to reverse an attack by giving the plant the very action its name suggests. The line does not provide evidence about a real individual, nor does it tell a modern reader how to identify an enemy. It shows the ancient speaker's way of framing vulnerability.
Verse 6 then imagines a harmful making returning to its maker. Whitney calls the general sense obscure and compares its return to water rising from earth and falling again as rain. That uncertainty should stay visible. One may read a reversion pattern across the verses without turning the difficult image into a precise mechanical rule. The poem's force comes from repeated direction changes: fear away from the speaker, the attack back toward its supposed source.
Curses and weapons broaden the danger
In verse 7 the plant is asked to repel both curses and a deadly weapon. The combination moves the hymn beyond a single person. An assailant may be imagined through physical force, ritual hostility, or both. Verse 8 closes with protection counted in hundreds and thousands and calls on Indra to give the plant strength. The ascending numbers enlarge a protective perimeter rather than identify a measurable quantity of opponents.
I.20 likewise places imprecation beside a raised missile, but its leading agents are divine protectors Mitra and Varuṇa rather than the addressed apāmārga plant. That comparison isolates IV.19's material logic. The plant is central, and its reversing character drives the poem. The paired member benefit, repelling a direct assailant, is supported especially by verse 5, though the hymn also names curses and weapons. The six-phase working is new symbolic writing, not a recovered Vedic procedure.
A three-hymn sequence matters
Whitney records that IV.19 was ritually used only with IV.17 and IV.18, and that Pāippalāda also keeps the group together. Reading the three as neighbors helps explain why a single verse can sound like a continuation of an argument about reversal and hostile action. It also limits an isolated modern reading that treats the fifth verse as a stand-alone promise. The historical text belonged to a verbal sequence in which plant, attack, and return recur.
The first verse's kin-making phrase and the sixth verse's image remain disputed in Whitney's notes. Those difficulties make the clear moments more valuable, not less: verse 5 names the assailant, verse 7 names curses and a weapon, and verse 8 asks for encompassing defense. A responsible account can describe that arc while admitting where wording is unstable. Its language is forceful, but a present-day article should report the poem's rhetoric rather than promise harm or protection as an empirical outcome.
WORKED READING
Worked reading: reversal across three verses
Read IV.19.5 for the plant whose splitting name is turned against an assailant. Move to verse 6 and ask what returns to the maker: Whitney suggests a harmful act, but the imagery of earth, sky, and water is difficult. Verse 7 becomes more explicit again, asking that curses and a deadly weapon be kept far away. The progression is not simply “attack the enemy.” It moves from a named adversary to an uncertain reversion image to defense against two kinds of danger. Set I.20 beside it: both combine imprecation and weapon, while IV.19 makes a reversing plant the poem's principal agent.