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 VII IN FOCUS
To Indra: for aid
Let Indra be well-saving, well-aiding with aids, very gracious, all-possessing; let him put down (bādh) hatred, let him make for us fearlessness; may we be lords of wealth in heroes.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VII.91 (96) at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VII ALSO CITED
To Indra: for aid
Read comparison hymn VII.92 (97) (1 verse)
Let this Indra, well-saving, well-aiding, keep far away apart from us any hatred; may we be in the favor of him the worshipful, also in his excellent well-willing.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VII.92 (97) at Wikisource ↗
The address prepares the request
The verse first calls Indra well-saving, well-aiding, gracious, and all-possessing. This opening is not a generic list of divine qualities. Each epithet prepares the later petitions: a savior can make danger recede, one with aid can answer a group, and a possessor of resources can support the closing wish for wealth in heroes. The speaker uses a third-person blessing, asking that Indra 'be' such a protector. That form differs from a direct accusation against a named enemy. Hatred enters after the god's capacity has been established. The poem's logic runs from who Indra is imagined to be toward what his protection should accomplish for the group.
Hatred and fearlessness are paired
The central clauses ask Indra to put down hatred and to make fearlessness 'for us.' The pairing is meaningful. The first imagines hostile feeling outside the speaker's group being checked; the second names an inward change in the group's condition. One cannot infer from the verse whether the hatred belongs to a single person, several rivals, or a general surrounding threat. The text does not record anyone's emotion as a fact. Its language is a wish spoken from anxiety, with a deliberately broad object. Reading the clauses together prevents 'subduing another person's hatred' from becoming a claim of mind control. The hymn's own verbal emphasis is on relief and collective security.
The final wish changes the scale
The closing asks that the speakers be lords of wealth in heroes. 'Heroes' here can point toward strong supporters and a thriving group, not just an individual's fearless mood. Thus the verse moves from Indra's protective character to checked hostility, then to durable social strength. The shift matters for the member pairing: the ancient source's benefit is broader than one private interpersonal quarrel. Its imagined answer to hatred includes standing among capable allies. No modern outcome follows from that observation; it simply keeps the verse's social scale intact. The group's repeated 'us' is as important as the unnamed hostile feeling being subdued.
A separated verse with a companion
Whitney notes that VII.91 and VII.92 are successive verses in Rigvedic and several other Vedic collections but separate one-verse hymns here. VII.92 repeats Indra's helpfulness, then sends hatred far away and asks to remain in his favor. Other witnesses reverse its two halves. These differences show that a reader should attend to both the received division and the motion within each verse. Whitney also says VII.91 and the two following hymns are absent from Pāippalāda. We therefore cannot describe this three-hymn run as a uniform feature of every Atharvaveda witness. The shared tradition helps comparison; the Śaunaka division gives VII.91 its compact internal arc.
WORKED READING
A worked comparison
Begin with VII.91's four moves: Indra is well-aiding, hatred is put down, fearlessness is made for the speakers, and wealth in heroes is requested. Then read VII.92, where hatred is pushed far away while the speakers seek a place in Indra's favor. The neighboring verse emphasizes distance; VII.91 joins the removal of hostility to an inward condition and social resources. In other Vedic texts these are successive verses, while the Śaunaka text makes them separate hymns; VII.92's halves are also reversed in some parallels. That witness difference changes emphasis without turning either verse into a modern technique for altering another person's mind.