THE TEXT · ATHARVAVEDA
Hymns discussed in this article
These verses give the wording and sequence examined in the article below.
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK III IN FOCUS
To command a woman's love
Let the up-thruster thrust (tud) thee up; do not abide (dhṛ) in thine own lair; the arrow of love (kā́ma) that is terrible, therewith I pierce thee in the heart.
The arrow feathered with longing (ādhī́), tipped with love, necked with resolve (? saṁkalpá-)—having made that well-straightened, let love pierce thee in the heart.
The well-straightened arrow of love which dries the spleen, forward-winged, consuming (vyòṣa)—therewith I pierce thee in the heart.
Pierced with consuming pain (çúc), dry-mouthed, do thou come creeping to me, gentle, with fury allayed, entirely [mine], pleasant-spoken, submissive.
Read the remaining 2 verses of III.25
I goad thee hither with a goad (ā́janī), away from mother, likewise from father, that thou mayest be in my power (krátu), mayest come unto my intent.
Do ye, O Mitra-and-Varuṇa, cast out the intents from her heart; then, making her powerless, make her [to be] in my own control.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read III.25 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VI IN FOCUS
To win a woman's love
As the creeper (líbujā) has completely embraced the tree, so do thou embrace me—that thou mayest be one loving me, that thou mayest be one not going away from me.
As the eagle, flying forth, beats down his wings upon the earth, so do I beat down thy mind—that thou etc. etc.
As the sun goeth at once about heaven-and-earth here, so do I go about thy mind—that thou etc. etc.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.8 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK III IN FOCUS
For concord
Like-heartedness, like-mindedness, non-hostility do I make for you; do ye show affection (hary) the one toward the other, as the inviolable [cow] toward her calf when born.
Be the son submissive to the father, like-minded with the mother; let the wife to the husband speak words (vā́c) full of honey, wealful.
Let not brother hate brother, nor sister sister; becoming accordant (samyáñc), of like courses, speak ye words auspiciously (bhadráyā).
That incantation in virtue of which the gods do not go apart, nor hate one another mutually, we perform in your house, concord for [your] men (púruṣa).
Read the remaining 3 verses of III.30
Having superiors (jyā́yasvant), intentful, be ye not divided, accomplishing together, moving on with joint labor (sádhura); come hither speaking what is agreeable one to another; I make you united (sadhrīcī́na), like-minded.
Your drinking (prapā́) [be] the same, in common your share of food; in the same harness (yóktra) do I join ⌊yuj⌋ you together; worship ye Agni united, like spokes about a nave.
United, like-minded I make you, of one bunch, all of you, by [my] conciliation; [be] like the gods defending immortality (amṛ́ta); late and early be well-willing yours.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read III.30 at Wikisource ↗
A sudden strike in III.25
III.25 does not measure time in hours. Its recurring action is the love arrow piercing the woman's heart. Verse 2 imagines the arrow's construction, verse 3 repeats the penetration with consuming force, and verse 4 describes the desired bodily suffering. By verses 5 and 6 the speaker demands her arrival and the loss of her independent intention. The idea of steady affectionate remembrance is therefore a poor paraphrase. This hymn imagines a dramatic seizure of desire, not someone periodically recalling a pleasant encounter while going about a day. Its coercive language is central to its logic, not an incidental flourish a modern article can discard.
VI.8 makes a mind a landscape
VI.8 is closer to a spatial image than a clock. Its first comparison wraps a creeper around a tree. In the second, an eagle's downward movement becomes a figure for bearing down on the beloved's mind. In the third, the sun's movement around heaven and earth becomes a figure for circling that mind. The same closing desire for love and nondeparture follows each comparison. Moving from plant to bird to cosmos increases the scale of the speaker's imagined reach. It does not establish that a beloved will actually think of the speaker from morning to night, and it does not make the pressure on that person's mind harmless.
The anthology also imagines shared thought
III.30.1 names like-heartedness and like-mindedness as part of a wish for concord among a group. Later verses specify siblings, spouses, work, and a common place for food and drink. Thought here is a relationship among many people living together, not an individual head occupied by one admirer. Comparing III.30 with III.25 changes the question from how to enter another person's mind to what kind of agreement people might sustain. Yet the concord hymn has household hierarchies too, so its ideal of one mind should be understood within its social setting rather than converted into a timeless promise of equal romantic partnership.
What a contemporary daylong wish means
The line “Make a target person think of me throughout the day” and The Daylong Thought are contemporary inventions. No verse above names a modern workday, continuous remembrance, or a technique that verifies another person's thoughts. A responsible modern reading might notice that attention can be invited by memorable conduct and reciprocal contact, but the ancient hymns themselves are petitions that speak in metaphors of influence. Their images can illuminate why longing feels expansive and intrusive at once. They cannot demonstrate the promised effect in an actual person's mind, and the sharp difference between concord and overpowering remains part of their history.
WORKED READING
Follow the scale of VI.8
Read VI.8.1–3 in order: a vine around a tree, an eagle's wings beating downward, then a sun moving around the world. Each verse seeks the same nondeparture. The poem magnifies its reach without adding a timetable. Now place III.25.1 beside it: the arrow aims directly at the heart rather than surrounding a mind through repeated analogies. Finally compare III.30.1, where like-mindedness is wished for a household, not imposed on one absent beloved. Those three grammatical targets—heart, mind, and group—show why the phrase “think of me all day” is a new scenario rather than the straightforward meaning of an old hymn.