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 V IN FOCUS
Against witchcraft: with a plant
An eagle (suparṇá) discovered thee; a hog dug thee with his snout; seek thou to injure, O herb, him that seeks to injure; smite down the witchcraft-maker.
Smite down the sorcerers, smite down the witchcraft-maker; then, whoever seeks to injure us, him do thou smite, O herb.
Having cut around out of [his] skin a strip (pariçāsá), as it were of a stag, fasten, O gods, upon the witchcraft-maker the witchcraft, like a necklace.
Lead thou away the witchcraft back to the witchcraft-maker, grasping its hand; set it straight before (samakṣám) him, that it may smite the witchcraft-maker.
Read the remaining 9 verses of V.14
Be the witchcrafts for the witchcraft-maker, the curse for him that curses; like an easy chariot let the witchcraft roll back to the witchcraft-maker.
If woman, or if man, hath made witchcraft in order to evil, it we conduct unto him, like a horse by a horse-halter.
If either thou art god-made, or if made by man, thee, being such, do we lead back, with Indra as ally.
O Agni, overpowerer of fighters, overpower the fighters; we take the witchcraft back to the witchcraft-maker by a returner.
O practiced piercer (?), pierce him; whoever made [it], him do thou smite; we do not sharpen thee up to slay (vadhá) him who has not made [it].
Go as a son to a father; like a constrictor trampled on, bite; go, O witchcraft, back to the witchcraft-maker, as it were treading down [thy] bond.
Up, like a she-antelope (eṇī́), a she-elephant (? vāraṇī́), with leaping on, like a hind, let the witchcraft go to its maker.
Straighter than an arrow let it fly, O heaven-and-earth, to meet him; let it, the witchcraft, seize again him, the witchcraft-maker, like a deer.
Let it go like fire up-stream, like water down-stream; like an easyc hariot let the witchcraft roll back to the witchcraft-maker.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read V.14 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK II ALSO CITED
To counteract witchcraft: with an amulet
Read comparison hymn II.11 (5 verses)
Spoiler's spoiler (dū́ṣi) art thou; missile's missile (hetí) art thou; weapon's weapon (mení) art thou: attain (āp) the better one, step beyond the equal (samá).
Sraktyà. art thou; re-entrant (pratisará) art thou; counter-conjuring art thou: attain the etc. etc.
Conjure (abhi-car) against him who hates us, whom we hate: attain the etc. etc.
Patron (sūrí) art thou; splendor-bestowing art thou; body-protecting art thou: attain the etc. etc.
Bright (çukrá) art thou; shining (bhrājá) art thou; heaven (svàr) art thou; light art thou: attain the etc. etc.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read II.11 at Wikisource ↗
The herb begins a return journey
The first verse says an eagle found the herb and a hog dug it with its snout. These animal discoveries give the plant a history before the speaker calls on it. It is asked to confront the person who seeks harm and to strike the maker of witchcraft. Verse 2 repeats the hostile target, and verse 4 gives the strongest early route image: the kṛtyā is to be led back by the hand and set before its maker. The poem personifies the feared construction so it can be guided like someone able to walk. That imaginative move turns an invisible anxiety into a traveler whose path can be reversed.
Every comparison supplies motion
Verse 5 compares the return to an easy chariot rolling home. Verse 6 imagines a horse controlled by a halter, while verse 10 compares the kṛtyā’s return to a son approaching a father and to a disturbed constrictor. Verse 11 brings in leaping female animals; verse 12 asks for a straight flight like an arrow. The final verse mixes fire moving upstream, water downstream, and the chariot again. These images are not a single physical procedure. They give many forms to one verbal demand: the alleged harm should leave the speaker and find the source from which it came. The inconsistency of natural directions is part of the poetic accumulation.
The ninth verse restrains the target
Verse 9 asks a piercing power to strike whoever made the kṛtyā, but says the speaker does not sharpen it against the person who did not. This is a moral distinction within an otherwise severe poem. It should not be overstated as a reliable method of identifying the maker: the hymn never supplies independent evidence about who that person is. Still, the line means the speaker does not explicitly seek indiscriminate harm. It is a useful check on any paraphrase that makes the text simply a wish to punish an enemy. The poem’s own imagined justice depends on the maker and nonmaker being different people, even while leaving that distinction practically uncertain.
A much shorter countercharm works differently
II.11 also addresses fear of hostile magic, but it arms a wearer with a repeated claim to surpass an equal and answer a weapon with a counterweapon. V.14 is longer and more narrative: it keeps finding new ways to send a constructed working home. Whitney reports substantial Pāippalāda differences. Several Śaunaka verses are absent there, two occur in another book, and those retained are in a different order. The return motif survives, but a particular thirteen-verse progression should not be called the only ancient form. In both texts, the feared attack and hoped-for reversal are claims made in a ritual voice, not verified incidents.
WORKED READING
Hand, chariot, and limit
Read V.14.4, .5, and .9 together. The fourth verse leads the kṛtyā back by the hand, making it a guided traveler. The fifth lets it roll like an easy chariot, giving the return momentum. The ninth interrupts that rush to specify the maker as target and to exclude the nonmaker. The comparison shows both the poem’s dramatic confidence and its unresolved problem: it can vividly imagine return, but it does not show how a frightened speaker knows who made the feared object. Verse nine's exception for the nonmaker limits the sweep of the returning chariot image, even though the maker's identity remains unproven.