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 VI IN FOCUS
For glory
Glorious let the bounteous Indra make me; glorious both heaven-and-earth here; glorious let god Savitar make me; may I be dear here to the giver of the sacrificial gift.
As Indra is possessed of glory in heaven-and-earth, as the waters are possessed of glory in the herbs, so among all the gods may we, among all, be glorious.
Glorious was Indra, glorious was Agni, glorious was Soma born; glorious, of all existence am I most glorious.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.58 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VI ALSO CITED
For glory
Read comparison hymn VI.39 (3 verses)
[As] glory (yáças) let [my] oblation increase, quickened by Indra, of thousand-fold might, well-brought, made with power; me, proceeding mightily onward unto long sight, [me] with my oblation, do thou increase unto chiefhood.
Unto our glorious Indra, rich in glory, would we, rendering homage, with glories pay worship; do thou bestow on us royalty quickened by Indra; in thy bestowal here may we be glorious.
Glorious was Indra, glorious was Agni, glorious was Soma born; glorious, of all existence am I most glorious.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.39 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK I ALSO CITED
Against yellowness (jaundice)
Read comparison hymn I.22 (4 verses)
Let them (both) go up toward the sun, thy heart-burn (-dyota) and yellowness; with the color of the red bull, with that we enclose (pari-dhā) thee.
With red colors we enclose thee, in order to length of life; that this man may be free from complaints (-rápas), also may become not yellow.
They that have the red one for divinity, and the kine that are red—form after form, vigor (váyas) after vigor, with them we enclose thee.
In the parrots, in the ropaṇā́kās, we put thy yellowness; likewise in the hā́ridravas we deposit thy yellowness.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read I.22 at Wikisource ↗
The first verse names audiences for renown
VI.58.1 asks Indra, heaven and earth, and Savitar to make the speaker glorious. Its last line narrows that broad appeal: the speaker wishes to be dear to the giver of a sacrificial gift. Recognition here is relational. The poem does not simply claim private excellence; it asks that valuable work be noticed in a world of divine support and human exchange. The sacrificial donor is a concrete audience, not a synonym for everyone on earth.
Whitney reports that Pāippalāda names Soma, Varuṇa, Vāyu, and Agni in place of the Śaunaka line's heaven and earth. This changes the constellation of divine witnesses. It does not remove the wish to be esteemed. The variant shows that the hymn's argument can keep its social aim while replacing one part of its cosmic support. That is a more revealing difference than treating either witness as a simple list of interchangeable gods.
The second verse carries glory through analogy
Verse 2 compares Indra's glory in heaven and earth with the glory of waters in herbs, then asks for analogous glory among the gods. The movement from deity to water to plant makes renown seem like a quality that can travel and appear in different places. It is a correspondence built into the poem's syntax. The speaker wants the same kind of distinction seen elsewhere in a world that already carries it.
This comparison does not prove a physical transmission of power through water or a guaranteed social result. Its literary strength is in giving an intangible quality visible carriers. Waters nourishing herbs offer a concrete relationship that a listener can grasp. The final request then turns that observed relationship toward the speaker. The member benefit “glory and renown” is a fair condensation of the verse, while any six-phase member working is contemporary symbolic prose.
A repeated ending joins two glory hymns
VI.58.3 repeats VI.39.3, naming Indra, Agni, and Soma as glorious before placing the speaker in that series. In VI.39, the same line follows petitions tied to oblation, royalty, and bestowal. In VI.58, it closes a shorter poem that began with the speaker's wish to be valued by a donor. Repetition creates continuity between two local settings while each hymn gives the shared verse a different buildup.
Pāippalāda preserves the first two verses of VI.58 but lacks its third, according to Whitney. A reader of that shorter witness ends on the water-and-herbs comparison rather than on the superlative declaration. The change alters the poem's rhetorical landing: one version finishes with analogy, the other with emphatic self-placement among glorious beings. Both pursue renown, but they do not deliver the wish with the same force.
Historical use and modern reading have different scopes
Whitney associates VI.58 with a group of glory hymns and notes use by someone desiring glory, as well as use in an introduction to Vedic study. The latter setting gives recognition an educational dimension rather than only a royal or commercial one. Its brief form would have been one element among other hymns and actions, not a complete independent recipe for contemporary career success.
The old jaundice article treated I.22's bodily color imagery. That is an important Atharvavedic subject, but it cannot honestly carry VI.58's social-recognition benefit. This full rewrite keeps the topics distinct. Read VI.58 for its changing network of divine witnesses, analogies, and shared final verse; read I.22 for its own bodily petition. The modern member section responds to a wish for recognition while remaining explicitly separate from the historical poem and its recorded ritual uses.
WORKED READING
Worked reading: where does glory come to rest?
Start with VI.58.1 and list its two audiences: the gods who are asked to confer glory and the human donor whose regard the speaker wants. In verse 2, follow the analogy from Indra through water and herbs to the speaker among the gods. Then compare VI.58.3 with VI.39.3: the same declaration completes two differently framed hymns. The Pāippalāda witness of VI.58 lacks that third verse, so its final impression is the analogy rather than the emphatic claim. These differences explain the paired benefit as a wish for esteem while showing that the source is a short, variable poem, not a guaranteed method for becoming famous.