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 IV IN FOCUS
Against demons and other enemies
Them let him of real force burn forth—Agni Vāiçvānara, the bull; whoso shall abuse and seek to harm us, likewise whoso shall play the niggard toward us.
Whoso shall seek to harm us not seeking to harm, and whoso seeks to harm us seeking to harm—in the two tusks of Agni Vāiçvānara do I set him.
They who hunt in assent (? āgará), in counter-clamor (? pratikroçá), on new-moon [day], the flesh-eating ones, seeking to harm others—all those I overpower with power.
I overpower the piçācás with power; I take to myself their property; I slay all the abusers; let my design be successful.
Read the remaining 6 verses of IV.36
The gods that hasten (hās) with him—they measure speed with the sun—with those cattle (paçú) that are in the streams, in the mountains, I am in concord.
I am a vexer (tápana) of the piçācás, as a tiger of them that have kine; like dogs on seeing a lion, they do not find a hiding-place (nyáñcana).
I cannot [bear] with piçācás, nor with thieves, nor with savages (? vanargú); the piçācás disappear from that village which I enter.
Whatever village this formidable power of mine enters, from that the piçācás disappear; [there] they devise not evil.
They who anger me, making a noise, as flies an elephant—them I think ill off, like mites (?) on a man (jána).
Let perdition halter him, as a horse with a horse-halter (-abhi-dhā́nī); the fool (malvá) that is angry at me, he is not loosed from the fetter.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read IV.36 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK IV ALSO CITED
Against various superhuman foes: with an herb
Read comparison hymn IV.37 (12 verses)
By thee of old the Atharvans slew the demons, O herb; by thee did Kaçyapa slay; by thee Kaṇva, Agastya.
By thee do we expel (cat) the Apsarases, the Gandharvas; O goat-horned one, drive the demon; make all disappear by [thy] smell.
Let the Apsarases go to the stream, to the loud (?) down-blowing of the waters: Guggulū, Pīlā, Naladī, Āukṣagandhi, Pramandanī: so go away, ye Apsarases; ye have been recognized.
Where [are] the açvatthás, the nyagródhas, great trees, with crests: thither go away, ye Apsarases; ye have been recognized.
Where [are] your swings, green and whitish; where cymbals [and] lutes sound together—thither go away, ye Apsarases; ye have been recognized.
Hither hath come this mighty one (vīryàvant) of the herbs, of the plants; let the goat-horned arāṭakī́, the sharp-horned, push out.
Of the hither-dancing, crested Gandharva, Apsaras-lord, I split the testicles, I bind fast (?) the member.
Terrible are Indra's missiles (hetí), a hundred spears of iron; with them let him push out the oblation-eating, ávakā-eating Gandharvas.
Terrible are Indra's missiles, a hundred spears of gold; with them let him push out the oblation-eating, ávakā-eating Gandharvas.
The ávakā-eating ones, scorching, making light (?) in the waters—all the piçācás, O herb, do thou slaughter and overpower.
One as it were a dog, one as it were an ape, a boy all hairy—having become as it were dear to see, the Gandharva fastens upon (sac) women; him we make disappear from here by [our] mighty (vīryàvant) incantation (bráhman).
Your wives, verily, are the Apsarases; O Gandharvas, ye are [their] husbands; run away, O immortal ones; fasten not on mortals.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read IV.37 at Wikisource ↗
Fire meets abuse and injury
The first verse calls Agni Vaiśvānara a bull of real force and asks him to burn those who abuse or seek to harm the speaker. It also names the niggard, someone refusing what the speaker regards as due. Verse 2 takes a person who seeks harm, whether the speaker’s side is itself trying to harm or not, and places that person in Agni’s two tusks. The animal image makes fire into a devouring defender. The speaker does not offer an impartial history of the conflict; the wording claims a right to enlist Agni against a class of perceived offenders. Those claims should be read as the hymn’s voice, not facts about a particular accused neighbor.
The catalog broadens, then stumbles
Verse 3 brings in flesh-eating beings associated with an obscure scene that Whitney calls unintelligible and probably corrupt. Verse 4 declares mastery over piśācas and abusers and asks that the speaker’s design succeed. Verse 5 is even more difficult; Whitney says it is incapable of yielding secure sense and reports a suggestion that it may be interpolated. Such notes matter because a smooth paraphrase of all ten verses would pretend to certainty the edition does not have. The broad movement remains visible across the clearer lines: fire confronts hostile humans, the speaker takes on demonic figures, and the poem builds a voice of greater and greater dominance.
Animal comparisons make fear reciprocal
Verse 6 pictures piśācas fleeing like dogs that see a lion, while the speaker is as dangerous to them as a tiger near cattle. The creatures that inspire fear are themselves made afraid. Verse 7 then names thieves alongside piśācas and another uncertain human category. It says the spirits vanish from the village the speaker enters; verse 8 extends that effect to any village the speaker’s power enters. The spatial scale changes from an individual protected body to a settled community. The poem does not describe guarding a door or catching a thief. It imagines the presence of the empowered speaker as enough to transform a place into one hostile beings abandon.
A different expulsion in IV.37
The next hymn, IV.37, addresses an herb and repeatedly orders Apsarases and Gandharvas away to other places: stream, trees, and scenes of music. It gives the feared beings destinations. IV.36 more often makes them vanish from the village before a formidable presence. Its final verse, with perdition haltering an angry fool, returns from community safety to a single hostile human figure. Whitney says IV.36 has no Pāippalāda parallel and was included among later expelling hymns. That limits witness comparison for its individual wording. The contrast with IV.37 is still useful: one poem asserts dominating presence, while the next elaborates a route of removal.
WORKED READING
Following the village threshold
Compare IV.36.2 and IV.36.7. In the second verse a would-be harmer is placed in Agni’s tusks; in the seventh, piśācas disappear from the village when the speaker enters. The threat has shifted from one opponent to a whole community’s imagined surroundings. IV.37.3 sends Apsarases toward the stream, giving expulsion a destination. IV.36 instead centers the speaker’s arrival as the decisive event. Reading these lines together shows how the poem expands a protective claim into a claim of local authority. The village entry in verse seven changes the speaker from potential victim into a presence whose arrival is itself imagined as protective.