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
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 III ALSO CITED
For concord
Read comparison hymn III.30 (7 verses)
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).
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 II ALSO CITED
To secure a woman's love
Read comparison hymn II.30 (5 verses)
As the wind here shakes the grass off the earth, so do I shake thy mind, that thou mayest be one loving me, that thou mayest be one not going away from me.
May ye, O Açvins, both lead together and bring [her] together with him who loves her. The fortunes (bhága) of you (two) have come together, together [your] intents, together [your] courses (vratá).
What the eagles [are] wanting to say, the free from disease [are] wanting to say—there let her come to my call, as the tip to the neck of the arrow (kúlmala).
What [was] within, [be] that without; what [was] without, [be] that within; of the maidens of many forms seize thou the mind, O herb.
Hither hath this woman come, desiring a husband; desiring a wife have I come; like a loud-neighing (krand) horse, together with fortune have I come.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read II.30 at Wikisource ↗
III.25 wants control over desire
The first three verses of III.25 build and aim the arrow of love; the fourth imagines the woman burning and approaching; the fifth and sixth demand that she be moved away from family and emptied of her own intention. The poem certainly concerns hidden interior states, but its solution is to alter them, not to learn whether an existing crush is present. Even the request that she become pleasant-spoken does not ask for a truthful account of what she previously felt. Calling the hymn a revelation charm would therefore mistake manufactured submission for disclosure. Its ancient speaker is not waiting for evidence; he is demanding a result.
III.30 is about spoken agreement
III.30 asks family members to share intentions, avoid hatred, and speak auspiciously. It moves through relationships already established: child and parent, spouses, siblings, and household workers. Speech there makes concord audible, but the text does not ask anyone to confess a private romantic secret. It is also more complicated than a simple celebration of openness because it operates in a ranked household. Still, the repeated words for shared mind and agreeable speech offer a real contrast to III.25's removal of another person's intent. One hymn pictures social coordination; the other pictures the subordination of a target's mind.
II.30 can make mutual language look too easy
In II.30.2 the Aśvins are asked to bring a woman together with her lover, and the verse speaks of fortunes, intentions, and courses coming together. Its closing verse puts both a woman desiring a husband and a man desiring a wife in view. Those details may sound mutual when detached from the rest of the hymn. Yet verse 1 shakes the woman's mind like grass in wind, verse 3 demands that she come to the speaker's call, and verse 4 directs an herb to seize minds. A shared phrase in one verse cannot erase the controlling force of another. The text is not a device for identifying an already consenting admirer.
The modern confession belongs to today
The benefit “Make a target person confess a hidden crush on me” and The Hidden Crush are original contemporary inventions. The ancient sources do not verify a concealed crush, require its revelation, or guarantee that a private feeling will be voiced. The most useful modern question is why someone might choose to say or not say what they feel. A silence may signal uncertainty, privacy, or no attraction at all. The historical comparison does not solve that uncertainty, but it does expose the difference between welcoming an honest disclosure and compelling words that match a desired answer. That difference is the article's practical interpretive boundary.
WORKED READING
Read II.30 without stopping at its middle
Take II.30.2's joined fortunes and intentions, then read verses 1 and 4 on either side. The earlier verse shakes the woman's mind as wind shakes grass; the later one tells an herb to seize minds. Finally read verse 5, where two people are described as desiring spouses. The order moves among pressure, conjunction, seizure, and a scene of matching roles. None of those moments asks, “What did you already feel?” III.25's arrow is more openly forceful still. A modern confession would be informative only if it were freely given; the old poems are not evidence that such a confession is forthcoming.