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 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 ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK V ALSO CITED
Against niggardliness and its effects
Read comparison hymn V.7 (10 verses)
Bring to us, stand not about, O niggard; do not prevent (? rakṣ) our sacrificial gift as led [away]; homage be to baffling (vīrtsā́), to ill-success; homage be to the niggard.
What wheedling (? parirāpín) man thou puttest forward, O niggard, to him of thine we pay homage: do not thou disturb my winning (vaní).
Let our god-made winning progress (pra-kḷp) by day and by night; we go forth after the niggard; homage be to the niggard.
Sarasvatī, Anumati, Bhaga, we going call on; pleasant (juṣṭá) honeyed speech have I spoken in the god-invocations of the gods.
Whomever I solicit (yāc) with speech, with Sarasvatī, mind-yoked, him may faith find today, given by the brown soma.
Do not thou baffle our winning nor speech. Let Indra and Agni both bring good things to us. De ye all, willing today to give to us, welcome the niggard.
Go thou far away, O ill-success; we conduct away thy missile; I know thee, O niggard, as one putting (? mīv) down, thrusting down.
Likewise, greatly making thyself naked, thou fastenest on (sac) a person in dreams, O niggard, baffling the plan and design of a man (púruṣa).
She that, being great, of great height (-unmāna), permeated all regions—to her, the golden-haired, to perdition have I paid homage.
Gold-colored, fortunate, gold-cushioned, great—to her, the golden-mantled, to the niggard have I paid homage.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read V.7 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK III ALSO CITED
To command a woman's love
Read comparison hymn III.25 (6 verses)
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.
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 ↗
The work of III.30 is collective
After asking for like-mindedness and non-hostility, III.30 turns to speech among relatives and then to a group working together. Verse 5 pictures people pulling in concert; verse 6 puts food and drink in common. The poem treats cooperation as part of an enduring household relationship, not as a single command issued by one person. Ancient hierarchy is present in earlier family roles, and that prevents us from idealizing the text as a fully equal division of labor. Still, its later verses give a concrete standard for concord: people act together as well as speak agreeably. A modern favor or task would need its own agreement about what someone will actually do.
V.7 begins at the moment of asking
V.7.5 describes soliciting someone with speech and seeking a favorable, confident response. The larger hymn addresses niggardliness in a context of giving, offering, and hoped-for gain; Whitney reports later use of part of it for the success of requests. It is not a household chore text, but it provides a comparison for the first step in asking for help. Persuasive speech can elicit attention without proving that a person has the time, means, or desire to undertake the requested work. Set beside III.30, it separates obtaining a hearing from actual cooperation. Those are often blurred in a modern phrase such as “make them help.”
III.25 exposes the stronger demand
III.25 makes another person's compliance the point of its love charm. The woman is pictured as pierced by an arrow, goaded toward the speaker, and stripped of her own intentions. It is plainly coercive. Although the desired result there is romantic control rather than completion of a task, the hymn is a useful contrast whenever a modern benefit uses the verb make. There is a difference between requesting help from someone who can choose and imagining their refusal removed. III.30's joint work is embedded in a continuing group; V.7's solicitation seeks a response; III.25 attempts to eliminate independent response altogether.
The Willing Task is newly made
“Make a target person carry out a task I ask of them” and The Willing Task are contemporary invented content. The ancient poems do not identify the task, establish that it is reasonable, or guarantee completion. A reader can use their contrasts to ask whether they want cooperation, a fair hearing, or control. The exact benefit is a modern imaginative extension, not an attested Atharvavedic rite. A task becomes genuinely shared when its purpose and effort are understood by those doing it. That present-day criterion is not supplied by the cited verses, although III.30's image of people working together can help frame the question.
WORKED READING
From request to completed work
Compare V.7.5's solicitation through speech with III.30.5's group moving in joint labor. The first passage asks; the second pictures people already cooperating. Then read III.25.6, where a target's own intentions are to be removed. That is a demand of another order. None of the verses narrates the performance of a specified modern task. Their sequence clarifies the stages a reader might otherwise collapse: a request may be spoken, accepted, and acted upon, but the old texts do not certify all three. The most concrete ancient image of action belongs to a household, not to a named individual summoned on command.