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 I IN FOCUS
To Agni and other gods: for the discovery of sorcerers
This oblation shall bring the sorcerers, as a stream does the foam; whoever, woman [or] man, hath done this, here let that person speak out.
This man hath come, speaking out; this man do ye welcome; O Brihaspati, taking [him] into thy control—O Agni and Soma, do ye (two) pierce [him] through.
Of the sorcerer, O soma-drinker, slay the progeny and conduct [him hither]; of him, speaking out, make fall out (nis-pat) the upper eye and the lower.
Wherever, O Agni, thou knowest the births of them, of the devourers that are in secret, O Jātavedas, them do thou, increasing through worship (bráhman)—slay of them, O Agni, with hundredfold transfixion.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read I.8 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK I ALSO CITED
To Agni: for the discovеrу of sorcerers
Read comparison hymn I.7 (7 verses)
Bring hither, O Agni, the sorcerer (yātudhā́па), the kimīdín, speaking out (stu); for thou, O god, being revered, hast become slayer of the barbarian (dásyu).
O most exalted one (parameṣṭhín), Jātavedas, self-controller, Agni, partake of (prа-аç) the sacrificial butter, of the sesame oil (?); make the sorcerers cry out.
Let the sorcerers cry out (ví-lap), let the devouring kimīdíns; then do you, O Agni together with Indra, welcome this our oblation.
Let Agni first take hold; let Indra, having arms, push forth; let everyone that has a demon, coming, say "here am I."
We would fain see thy heroism (vīryà), O Jātavedas; proclaim to us the sorcerers, O men-watcher; let them all, burnt about by thee in front, come to this place, proclaiming themselves.
Take hold, O Jātavedas; thou wast born for our purpose; becoming our messenger, O Agni, make the sorcerers cry out.
Do thou, O Agni, bring hither the sorcerers bound; then let Indra with his thunderbolt crush in (api-vraçc) their heads.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read I.7 at Wikisource ↗
Foam as the sign of something below
In verse 1 the speaker does not claim to know the culprit’s name. The comparison to foam says that the surface can disclose what has been moving beneath it. The offering is addressed as an instrument of disclosure, while the phrase “woman or man” opens the category of possible makers broadly. This is the hymn’s immediate problem: a community believes harmful action has occurred but cannot see its author. The desired answer is a spoken admission in the present gathering. The verse therefore turns visibility into audible self-identification. It does not describe evidence gathered by witnesses or a method of deciding whether the accusation is true.
From confession to divine force
Verse 2 treats the imagined speaker as already arrived. Bṛhaspati is asked to take control, and Agni and Soma are asked to pierce the person. Verse 3 invokes a Soma-drinker and adds a grotesque wish concerning the culprit’s eyes. The movement is abrupt: the text first calls for speech, then speaks as though admission has settled guilt and punishment may begin. The eyes matter because the first verse was about exposure; the poem answers concealment with injury to organs of sight. That rhetorical symmetry does not make the demand judicially reliable. It shows how accusation and divine sanction are made to reinforce one another in the hymn’s voice.
Agni knows what people cannot
The final verse addresses Agni as Jātavedas, the one who knows the births or origins of beings concealed from ordinary sight. Here the suspect is no longer merely the person who confesses in front of the assembly; the category widens to secret devourers known to fire. The language is difficult, and Whitney notes both irregular meter and a possibly damaged second half. That difficulty matters because the closing image is often paraphrased as though every detail were clear. What is secure is the direction of the appeal: when human perception fails, the speaker recruits Agni’s knowledge and asks for force multiplied far beyond ordinary discovery.
The neighboring hymn sharpens the contrast
I.7, immediately before this hymn in the Śaunaka collection, repeatedly asks Agni to bring sorcerers into the open and make them cry out. I.8 condenses that longer drama into four verses, beginning with the stream image and moving faster from declaration to attack. Whitney reports that the Pāippalāda witness has only the first three verses of I.8 and rearranges them as 1, 3, 2; its ending therefore cannot be treated as identical to the familiar Śaunaka close. These differences show a transmitted family of expelling and revealing texts, not one fixed procedure. The historical poem records a feared threat and a desired reversal, not proof that anyone so accused was guilty.
WORKED READING
A worked reading of the opening turn
Read verse 1 beside verse 2. The first asks that the unknown maker speak out as foam appears on a stream; the second says “this man” has arrived and immediately hands him to Bṛhaspati, Agni, and Soma. The demonstrative leap from an unnamed woman or man to a present man is the dramatic hinge. It converts uncertainty into a scene of capture. Read alongside I.7’s more repeated pleas for exposure, I.8 feels compressed and urgent. The language reveals what the speaker wants to happen, while leaving the suspect’s actual identity unresolved.