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 II IN FOCUS
To secure a woman's love
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.
Read the remaining 1 verse of II.30
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 ↗
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 VI ALSO CITED
To win a woman's love
Read comparison hymn VI.8 (3 verses)
As the creeper (líbujā) has completely embraced the tree, so do thou embrace me—that thou mayest be one loving me, that thou mayest be one not going away from me.
As the eagle, flying forth, beats down his wings upon the earth, so do I beat down thy mind—that thou etc. etc.
As the sun goeth at once about heaven-and-earth here, so do I go about thy mind—that thou etc. etc.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.8 at Wikisource ↗
The paired language is real
II.30.2 asks the Aśvins to bring the woman together with her lover and speaks of joined fortunes, purposes, and courses. Verse 5 describes a woman wanting a husband and a man wanting a wife. These lines make union more than a merely abstract goal; they give the pair complementary roles. Whitney reports that the Paippalāda recension places verse 5 immediately after verse 1, changing when the explicit pair appears. The variant is a genuine difference in the reader's path through the hymn. But neither verse records the woman's independent answer. A picture of two roles is not itself proof of reciprocal affection in the way a modern couple might define it.
Pressure surrounds the pairing
The hymn's opening verse shakes the woman's mind like wind shaking grass. Verse 3 asks that she come to the speaker's call, although Whitney finds its opening obscure. Verse 4 directs an herb to seize minds. Thus the joined fortunes of verse 2 are surrounded by attempts to cause a particular response. The same closing wish that she love and not leave appears in I.34 and VI.8, but those contexts carry their own persuasive and forceful images. The ancient poem can contain both an image of joining and a method imagined as controlling. A modern search for mutual affection should not erase the latter merely because the former sounds agreeable.
III.30 distributes harmony through a group
III.30 asks for shared mind and freedom from hatred among relatives, then details speech, work, food, and worship. Its mutuality is collective and ongoing: siblings are not to hate each other, and members of a household are to pull together. It also has rank and prescribed roles, so it is not a direct model for contemporary equal partnership. Still, it offers an informative contrast to II.30. One hymn targets an individual and seeks to change her mind for a desired pairing. The other addresses a network and tries to maintain concord among people already linked. The scale of the social unit changes what the shared-minded language means.
The modern Affection Cup
“Make a target person seek my affection” and The Affection Cup are project-created, modern intentions. The exact benefit is not stated by II.30. A contemporary reader may want affection to grow from two people's independent interest; the hymn does not guarantee that condition, and its forceful verses cut against a simple translation into mutuality. It is more accurate to say that the ancient poem dramatizes a wished-for union whose means are ethically and textually mixed. Its comparison with III.30 can sharpen a modern question about reciprocity, but it cannot attest what any present-day target feels or predict that they will come looking for affection.
WORKED READING
Do not stop at II.30.2
Read the Aśvins' joining in verse 2, then step backward to verse 1's wind shaking the woman's mind and forward to verse 4's herb seizing it. Finish with verse 5's woman and man seeking spouses. The middle and end permit a picture of a pair, while the flanking verses insist on manipulation. Compare III.30.1, which asks for like-mindedness across a household rather than one targeted woman's submission. The contrast does not make the concord hymn a modern romance formula; it shows how a change in audience and purpose changes the meaning of shared mind.