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
To the war-drum
Division of hearts, division of minds speak thou among our enemies, O drum; mutual hate, confusion, fear, we put into our enemies: smite them down, O drum.
Quaking with mind, with sight, and with heart, let our enemies run fearing with alarm (pratrāsá) when the sacrificial butter is offered.
Made of forest-tree, brought together with the ruddy [kine], belonging to all the families (-gotrá-), speak thou alarm for our enemies, being smeared with sacrificial butter.
As the wild beasts of the forest are all in a tremble at man, so do thou, O drum, roar at [and] alarm our enemies, then confound their intents.
Read the remaining 8 verses of V.21
As the goats-and-sheep run greatly fearing the wolf, so do thou, O drum etc. etc.
As the birds (patatrín) are all in a tremble at the falcon, day by day; as at the thundering of the lion, so do thou, O drum etc. etc.
Away have all the gods alarmed our enemies by the drum and the skin of the gazelle—[the gods] who are masters of the host.
With what foot-noises Indra plays together with shadow, by those let our enemies be alarmed who go yonder in troops (anīkaçás).
Let the drums, with bow-string noises, yell toward all (yā́s) the quarters—the armies of our enemies going conquered in troops.
O Āditya, take [away their] sight; ye beams, run after; let them that have foot-fastenings fasten on, the arm-power (-vīryà) being gone away.
Do ye [who are] formidable, O Maruts, sons of the spotted mother, with Indra as ally, slaughter our foes.
Let these armies of the gods, sun-bannered, accordant, conquer our enemies: hail!
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read V.21 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK V ALSO CITED
To the war-drum
Read comparison hymn V.20 (12 verses)
The loud-noised drum, warrior-like, of forest-tree, brought together (sámbhṛta) with the ruddy [kine], whetting the voice, dominating our rivals; thunder thou loudly against [them] like a lion, about to conquer.
Like a lion hath thundered the wooden one, stretched (vi-bandh), like a bull roaring at a longing cow; virile (vṛ́ṣan) [art] thou, impotent thy rivals; Indra-like [is] thy vehemence (çúṣma), overpowering hostile plotters.
Found (vidāná) suddenly (sáhasā) like a bull in a herd, do thou, seeking kine, bellow (ru) at [them], winning booty; pierce thou with pain the heart of our adversaries; let our foes, leaving their villages, go urged forth (pra-cyu).
Wholly conquering the fighters, shrill-crying, do thou, seizing those that are to be seized, look abroad on many sides; respond (? ā-gur), O drum, devout, to the voice of the gods; bring the possession of our foes.
Hearing the uttered (pra-yam) voice of the drum speaking, let the woman, suppliant, noise-wakened, run to her son, seizing his hand—our enemy, frightened in the conflict of deadly weapons.
Mayest thou first (pū́rva), O drum, speak forth thy voice; on the back of earth speak thou, shining (ruc); opening wide the jaws (jabh) on the army of our enemies, speak thou clearly, O drum, pleasantly (sūnṛ́tāvat).
Let there be noise between these two firmaments (nábhas); severally let thy sounds (dhvaní) go swiftly; roar at [them], thunder, truculent (?), resounding (çlokakṛ́t) unto the victory of our friends, a good partizan.
Made by devices (dhī́), may it speak forth its voice; excite thou the weapons of the warriors; allied with Indra, call in the warriors; by friends smite mightily down the enemies.
A vociferating herald (? pravadá), with bold army, making proclaim in many places, sounding through the villages, winning advantage, knowing the ways, do thou distribute (vi-hṛ) fame to many in the [battle] of two kings.
Aiming at advantage, conquering good things, very powerful, conquering a host, thou art sharpened by bráhman; as the pressing-stone on the [soma-] stalks in the press, do thou, O drum, dance on [their] possession, seeking booty (gavyán).
Overpowering foes, overpowering and putting down, overpowering hostile plotters, seeking kine, overpowering, up-shooting, bring forth thy voice as a speaker (vāgvín) his discourse (mántra); speak up force (? íṣ) here in order to the conquering of the host.
Stirring (cyu) the unstirred, going oftenest into contests, conquering scorners, going in front, unsubduable, made safe by Indra, noting counsels (? vidátha), burning the hearts of our adversaries, go thou quickly.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read V.20 at Wikisource ↗
The first verse attacks coordination
The opening asks the drum to produce division of hearts and minds, mutual hatred, confusion, and fear among the enemy. Those terms form a sequence of social damage. A frightened individual might still fight beside companions; an army whose members mistrust one another has trouble acting as a unit. Verse 2 expands the imagined effect into trembling of mind, sight, and heart. The request is made at an offering of sacrificial butter, placing the psychological wish within a ritual scene. Whitney cautions that one word translated as confusion occurs only here and may be a misreading of another form. The broad meaning is clear, but a precise technical psychology would be unwarranted.
Predator scenes make flight imaginable
Verses 4 through 6 compare the desired enemy fear to wild beasts trembling before a human, sheep and goats before a wolf, and birds before a falcon. These analogies create an escalating gallery of vulnerability. The poem does not say that enemies are literally animals; it borrows familiar flight responses to make the drum’s sound feel irresistible. Verse 4 explicitly asks that the enemy’s plans be confounded after the roar. This joins animal panic to the earlier attack on the mind. Whitney suspects part of verse 6 has slipped from a neighboring verse, so the precise sequence of comparisons may be textually unstable. Their shared purpose, however, is unmistakable.
Sound spreads through a whole field
Verse 9 asks drums and bowstrings to cry toward all quarters as enemy troops go away defeated. This soundscape extends beyond one instrument. In verse 10 Āditya is asked to take away the opponents’ sight, and the following lines call on the Maruts, Indra, Soma, Varuṇa, Death, and divine armies. By the close, human percussion is surrounded by a much larger imagined force. The hymn has moved from enemy minds to animal fear, then to a coordinated divine assault. Its last lines are partly prose-like in Whitney’s description, giving the conclusion a different verbal texture from the opening invocations.
Why the neighboring drum poem feels different
V.20 names the drum’s wood and cowhide, lets it speak over the earth, and imagines it sounding through villages like a herald. V.21 repeats the materials in verse 3 but concentrates on what happens inside the opposing ranks. The instrument’s construction is no longer the main story; disorientation is. Whitney notes that V.21 has no Pāippalāda parallel known to him, whereas V.20 does. That restricts direct comparison of V.21’s verse order across the two major Atharvavedic recensions. The received poem can still be read closely. Its distinct argument is that a loud public noise may be imagined as destroying an enemy’s ability to think and move together.
WORKED READING
From divided minds to noisy quarters
Compare V.21.1 with V.21.9. The first verse requests division inside the enemy’s hearts and minds; the ninth sends drum and bowstring sounds across the quarters while enemy formations retreat. One line names the inner result and the other imagines its outward battlefield shape. V.20.9 also has sound moving through villages, but there it advertises fame among kings. The same audible reach can serve publicity in one hymn and psychological disruption in the next. The ninth verse translates the first verse's invisible mental division into visible retreat, showing the poem's movement from cause to outcome.