THE TEXT · ATHARVAVEDA
Hymns discussed in this article
These verses give the wording and sequence examined in the article below.
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK I IN FOCUS
For the retention of sacred learning
The thrice seven that go about, bearing all forms—let the lord of speech assign to me today their powers, [their] selves (tanū́).
Come again, lord of speech, together with divine mind; lord of good, make [it] stay (ni-ram); in me, in myself be what is heard.
Just here stretch thou on, as it were the two tips of the bow with the bow-string; let the lord of speech make fast (ni-yam); in me, in myself, be what is heard.
Called on is the lord of speech; on us let the lord of speech call; may we be united with (sam-gam) what is heard; let me not be parted with what is heard.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read I.1 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK I IN FOCUS
Against fever (takmán)
As Agni, entering, burned the waters, where the maintainers of duty (dhárma-) paid acts of homage, there they declare to be thy highest birth-place; then do thou, O fever (takmán), complaisant, avoid us.
If thou art flame (arcís) or if heat (çocís), or if thy birth-place seeks the shavings (?), hrū́ḍu by name art thou, O god of the yellow one; then do thou, O fever, complaisant, avoid us.
If heating (çoká) or if scorching (abhiçoká), or if thou art son of king Varuṇa, hrúḍu by name etc. etc.
Homage to the cold fever, homage I pay to the fierce (rūrá) heat (çocís); to the one that befalls on every other day, on both days, to the third-day fever be homage.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read I.25 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK X IN FOCUS
Mystic: on the skambhá or frame of creation
In what member of him is penance situated? in what member of him is right (ṛtá) deposited? where is situated [his] vow (vratá), where his faith? in what member of him is truth established?
From what member of him flames Agni? from what member blows (pū) Mātariçvan? from what member doth the moon measure out, measuring the member of great Skambha?
In what member of him is situated the earth? in what member is situated the atmosphere? in what member is the sky set? in what member is situated what is beyond the sky?
Whither desiring to attain does Agni flame aloft? whither desiring to attain blows Mātariçvan? whither desiring to attain, the turns (āvṛ́t) go, that Skambha tell [me]: which forsooth is he?
Read the remaining 40 verses of X.7
Whither go the half-months, whither the months, in concord with the year? whither the seasons go, whither they of the seasons, that Skambha tell [me]: which forsooth is he?
Whither desiring to attain run in concord the two maidens (yuvatí) of diverse form, day-and-night? whither desiring to attain, the waters go, that Skambha tell [me]: which forsooth is he?
In what, having established [them], Prajāpati maintained all the worlds, that Skambha tell [me]: which forsooth is he?
What that was highest, lowest, and what that was midmost Prajāpati created, of all forms—by how much did Skambha enter there? what did not enter, how much was that?
By how much did Skambha enter the existent? how much of him lies along that which will exist? what one member he made thousand-fold, by how much did Skambha enter there?
Where men know both worlds and receptacles (kóça), waters, bráhman, within which [are] both the non-existent and the existent—that Skambha tell [me]: which forsooth is he?
Where penance, striding forth, maintains the higher vow (vratá), where both right and faith, waters, bráhman, are set together, that Skambha etc. etc.
In whom earth, atmosphere, in whom sky is set, where fire, moon, sun, wind stand fixed (ā́rpita), that Skambha etc. etc.
In whose member all the thirty-three gods are set together, that Skambha etc. etc.
Where the first-born seers, the verses, the chant, the sacrificial formula, the great one (mahī́); in whom the sole seer is fixed—that Skambha etc. etc.
Where both immortality (amṛ́ta) and death are set together in man (púruṣa), of whom the ocean, the veins (nāḍī́) are set together in man, that Skambha etc. etc.
Of whom the four directions are (sthā) the teeming (? prapyasá) veins, where the sacrifice hath strode forth, that Skambha etc. etc.
Whoever know the bráhman in man, they know the most exalted one; whoever knows the most exalted one, and whoever knows Prajāpati, whoever know the chief bráhmaṇa, they know also accordingly (anu-sam-vid) the Skambha.
Whose head [was] Vāiçvānara, [whose] eye the An̄girases were, whose members the familiar demons (yatú)—that Skambha tell [me]: which forsooth is he?
Of whom they call bráhman the mouth, the honey-whip the tongue also, of whom they call virā́j the udder—that Skambha etc. etc.
From whom they fashioned off the verses, from whom they scraped off the sacrificial formula, of whom the chants [are] the hairs (lóman), the Atharvans-and-An̄girases the mouth—that Skambha etc. etc.
The branch of the non-existent, standing forth, people know as in a manner the highest thing; also the lower ones who worship (upa-ās) thy branch think [it?] the existent thing.
Where both the Ādityas and the Rudras and the Vasus are set together; where both what is and what is to be, [and] all the worlds are established—that Skambha tell [me]: which forsooth is he?
Of whom the thirty-three gods always defend the treasure (nidhí): that treasure, which, O gods, ye defend, who at present knoweth?
Where the bráhman-knowing gods worship the chief bráhman—whoso verily knoweth them eye to eye (pratyákṣam), he may be a Brahman (brahmán), a knower.
Great (bṛhánt) by name [are] those gods who were born out of the non-existent; that one member of Skambha people call non-existent beyond.
Where the skambhá, generating forth, rolled out the ancient one, that one member of the skambhá they know also accordingly [as] the ancient one.
In whose member the thirty-three gods shared severally the limbs (gā́tra)—those thirty-three gods verily only (éka) the bráhman-knowers know.
People know the golden-embryo [as] highest, not to be overcrowed (anatyudyá); the skambhá in the beginning poured forth that gold within the world.
In the skambhá the worlds, in the skambhá penance, in the skambhá right is set; thee, O skambhá, I know plainly [as] set all together in Indra.
In Indra the worlds, in Indra penance, in Indra right is set; thee, O Indra, I know plainly [as] all established in the skambhá.
Name with name he calls aloud, before the sun, before the dawn; as first the goat (? ajá) came into being, he went unto that autocracy beyond which there is nothing else existent.
Of whom earth is model (pramā́) and atmosphere belly; who made the sky his head—to that chief bráhman be homage.
Of whom the sun is eye, and the moon that grows new again; who made Agni his mouth—to that chief bráhman be homage.
Of whom the wind [was] breath-and-expiration, [of whom] the An̄girases were the eye; who made the quarters fore-knowing (? prajñā́na)—to that chief bráhman be homage.
The skambhá sustains both heaven-and-earth here; the skambhá sustains the wide atmosphere; the skambhá sustains the six wide directions; into the skambhá hath entered this whole existence (bhúvana).
Who, born from toil, from penance, completely attained all worlds; who made soma all his own—to that chief bráhman be homage.
How does the wind not cease (il)? how does the mind not rest (ram)? why (kím) do the waters, seeking to attain truth, at no time soever cease?
A great monster (yakṣá) in the midst of the creation (bhúvana), strode (? krāntá) in penance on the back of the sea—in it are set (çri) whatever gods there are, like the branches of a tree roundabout the trunk.
Unto which with the two hands, with the two feet, with speech, with hearing, with sight; unto which the gods continually render (pra-yam) tribute, unmeasured in the measured out—that skambhá tell [me]: which forsooth is he?
Smitten away is his darkness; he is separated from evil; in him. are all the three lights that are in Prājapati.
He who knows the golden reed (vetasá) standing in the sea—he verily is in secret Prajāpati.
A certain pair of maidens, of diverse form, weave, betaking themselves to it, the six-pegged web; the one draws forth the threads (tántu), the other sets [them]; they wrest not off (apa-vṛj), they go not to an end.
Of them, as of two women dancing about, I do not distinguish (vi-jñā) which is beyond; a man (púmāṅs), weaves it, ties [it] up; a man hath borne it about upon the firmament (nā́ka).
These pegs propped up the sky; the chants they made shuttles for weaving.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read X.7 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VI IN FOCUS
For wisdom
Do thou, O wisdom (medhā́), come first to us, with kine, with horses, thou with the sun's rays; thou art worshipful to us.
I call first, unto the aid of the gods, wisdom filled with bráhman, quickened by bráhman, praised by seers, drunk of (?) by Vedic students.
The wisdom that the Ribhus know, the wisdom that the Asuras know, the excellent wisdom that the seers know—that do we cause to enter into me.
The wisdom that the being-making seers, possessed of wisdom, know—with that wisdom do thou make me today, O Agni, possessed of wisdom.
Read the remaining 1 verse of VI.108
Wisdom at evening, wisdom in the morning, wisdom about noon, wisdom by the sun's rays, by the spell (vácas), do we make enter into us.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.108 at Wikisource ↗
Memory, fever, and the cosmic support
Book I and the larger Atharvaveda do not keep one subject or one verbal form. The opening concern with learned speech can sit beside illness petitions, while later books give ample room to questions about cosmic order. A learner, a fever, and the support of the cosmos: this anthology changes scale almost before I can catch my breath.
The move from I.1 to I.25 is startlingly abrupt: speech must stay with its learner, then fever must depart from a sufferer. X.7 widens the frame again by asking where the known world rests. Those changes in grammatical demand are the collection’s variety in miniature.
Three jobs for a short hymn
Book I gives a short petition for retaining learned speech, while I.25 addresses fever and X.7 sustains an inquiry around Skambha. These are not merely different topics; they make different demands on the listener. One asks memory to hold, another addresses distress as an opponent, and the third refuses to stop asking what supports the world.
From Book I to Skambha
The comparison begins with the request to keep learning in I.1 with the probing questions of X.7: one secures transmitted knowledge while the other tests its widest horizon. A useful overview must preserve those shifts of scale. A memory petition, a named affliction, and a cosmological question ask different things of a listener even when all are placed within one Veda.
Wisdom has its own internal rhythm
The study benefit belongs most directly to VI.108, a five-verse address to wisdom rather than to every hymn in the collection. Wisdom arrives with rays and cattle in the opening, is called by seers and students in the second verse, and is invited to enter the speaker in the third and fourth. The poem imagines learning as an arrival that must be repeatedly welcomed. Its concern is not a single examination result but the lasting capacity to hold and use knowledge.
The fifth verse names evening, morning, and noon. By distributing wisdom across the day, it turns learning into a repeated condition of life rather than a momentary burst of memory. Whitney notes that Pāippalāda contains only verses 1, 2, and 5, a shorter sequence that omits the middle invitations to let wisdom enter the self. That difference changes the poem's internal emphasis while preserving the daily wish for understanding.
The overview and the paired benefit occupy different scales
I.1, the collection's opening learning hymn, emphasizes retaining what has been heard. VI.108 is more expansive: it calls wisdom among seers, students, and even other knowing beings, then repeats its arrival through the day. The pair makes a useful worked comparison for an overview because both are about knowledge, yet one stresses preservation and the other acquisition or presence. Fever expulsion in I.25 and Skambha's cosmic questioning in X.7 should remain separate genres.
The member benefit is wisdom and successful study, a fair modern condensation of VI.108. It is attached to this guide as a specific doorway into one Atharvavedic concern, not as a claim that every Atharvaveda hymn is an educational spell. The six-phase working is original contemporary symbolic writing. Its distinction from the ancient verse protects the anthology's variety while still giving a reader one concrete line of inquiry.
WORKED READING
Worked reading: keeping words and inviting wisdom
Read I.1 as a request that learned speech remain with the student. Then read VI.108.1–2, where wisdom is called from a larger world of divine aid, seers, and pupils. In VI.108.3–4 the poem asks that wisdom enter a person; in verse 5 it repeats that welcome morning, noon, and evening. Compare the two sequences: I.1 focuses on retention of something already heard, while VI.108 imagines understanding arriving and being renewed. Pāippalāda's three-verse version of VI.108 leaves out the two middle entrance verses, making the difference between witnesses visible in the poem's very structure.