THE TEXT · ATHARVAVEDA
Hymns discussed in this article
These verses give the wording and sequence examined in the article below.
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VI IN FOCUS
To win a woman's love
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 ↗
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 IN FOCUS
For concord
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).
Read the remaining 3 verses of III.30
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 ↗
A vine encloses a tree in VI.8
The first verse of VI.8 compares a creeper's embrace of a tree with the desired woman's embrace of the speaker. The recurring close wishes that she love and not go away. Verse 2 turns to an eagle beating its wings down on the earth and to beating down her mind; verse 3 expands to the sun going around heaven and earth. The sequence makes the wish for nearness increasingly forceful and wide-ranging. The opening plant image can look tender by itself, but the repeated demand for nondeparture and the mind-directed second verse prevent it from standing alone as a picture of mutual comfort. Whitney notes that the hymn is absent from Paippalāda.
II.30 joins people while moving a mind
II.30.2 has the Aśvins bring a woman together with her lover and speaks of joined fortunes, intentions, and courses. In isolation, the verse is a powerful image of alignment. Yet verse 1 compares altering her mind to wind shaking grass, and verse 4 asks an herb to seize her mind. The speaker's imagined union therefore depends on pressure as well as pair-making. The final verse's man and woman seeking spouses adds another register, but it does not cancel the earlier commands. Whitney reports that Paippalāda orders these five verses differently, placing the spouse-seeking line immediately after the opening. That variant changes emphasis without removing the central tension.
Concord is wider than a couple
III.30 asks for like-mindedness among a household and moves through parents, spouses, siblings, common work, and shared food. It is not a romantic closeness charm, though it offers an important comparison. The poem's durable togetherness requires speech and daily coordination, not simply the physical proximity requested in VI.8 or the pair-making plea of II.30. Its hierarchical household setting should remain visible. Taken together, the three hymns show closeness at distinct scales: an embrace that refuses departure, a desired pair whose minds are to be aligned, and an entire household whose members are to live in concord. No one image can replace the others.
The modern nearer chair
“Make a target person want to be close to me” and The Nearer Chair are modern imaginative creations. The old hymns do not predict an individual's present feelings or promise that they will move closer in a room. The contemporary phrase can be read as a wish for welcomed nearness, but the historical sources often express that wish through commands over another mind. Naming that difference is especially necessary for II.30 and VI.8. An actual relationship can include space as well as closeness; choosing a seat nearby has meaning only when the other person can also choose otherwise. That practical observation is today's extension, not an ancient ritual claim.
WORKED READING
Compare three kinds of togetherness
Read VI.8.1's creeper around a tree, II.30.2's joined fortunes, and III.30.6's shared food and drink. The first image is bodily enclosure, the second a wished-for pairing, and the third a continuing household practice. Now return to VI.8.2 and II.30.4, where the woman's mind is beaten down or seized. Those verses change how the apparently warm first images must be read. The modern idea of two people comfortably sitting closer together is not attested by any of these passages. Their comparison instead makes visible the ancient poems' mixture of proximity, social order, and force.