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 VIII IN FOCUS
To conquer enemies
Let Indra the shaker shake (math) [them], he the mighty hero, stronghold-splitter, in order that we may slay by thousands the armies of our enemies.
Let the putrid rope, breathing on [it], make yonder army putrid; seeing afar smoke, fire, let our enemies set fear in their hearts.
Crush yonder men out, O açvattá; devour (khād) them speedily, O khadirá; let them be suddenly ⌊tājád⌋ broken ⌊bhāñj⌋ like hemp bhán̄ga⌋; let the slayer (vádhaka) slay (han) them with deadly weapons (vadhá).
Let the rough-called one make yonder men rough (paruṣá); let the slayer slay them with deadly weapons; let them be broken quickly like a reed (çará), tied together with a great net.
Read the remaining 20 verses of VIII.8
The atmosphere was the net; the great quarters [were] the net-stakes; therewith encircling [them], the mighty one (çakrá) scattered away the army of the barbarians (dásyu).
Since great [is] the net of the great mighty one, the vigorous (vājínīvant)—therewith do thou crowd (ubj) down upon all [our] foes, that no one soever of them may be released.
Great, O Indra, hero (çū́ra), is the net of thee that art great, that art worth a thousand, that hast hundred-fold heroism; therewith encircling the army of the barbarians, the mighty one slew a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred million.
This great world was the net of the great mighty one; by that net of Indra do I encircle all yon men with darkness.
Debility, formidable ill-success, and mishap that is not to be exorcised away (an-apavācaná), toil, and weariness, and confusion—with these do I encircle all yon men.
To death do I deliver those yonder; with fetters of death [are] they bound (sā); the sad messengers that are death's—them I lead them to meet, having bound (bandh) [them].
Lead ye them, O messengers of death; O messengers of Yama, restrain (apa-umbh) [them]; be they slain to more than thousands; let Bhava's club (? matyà) shatter them.
The Perfectibles (sādhyá) go lifting with force one net-stake, the Rudras one, the Vasus one; by the Ādityas one is lifted.
Let all the gods from above go crowding with force; let the An̄girases go slaying midway the great army.
The forest trees, them of the forest trees, the herbs and the plants, what is biped, what is quadruped I despatch (iṣ), that they may slay yonder army.
The Gandharvas and Apsarases, the serpents, the gods, the pure-folks, the Fathers, those seen, those unseen I despatch, that they may slay yonder army.
Here are spread the fetters of death, which stepping into thou art not released; let this horn (kū́ṭa) slay of yonder army by thousands.
The hot drink (gharmá) [is] kindled with fire, this thousand-slaying oblation (hóma); both Bhava and the spotted-armed one—O Çarva, slay ye (two) yonder army.
Let them go unto death's burning (?), unto hunger, debility, the deadly weapon, fear; by snare (ákṣu) and net, O Çarva, [do thou] and Indra slay yonder army.
Flee (tras) forth, O enemies, being conquered; run, ⌊being⌋ thrust by the charm (bráhman); of them yonder, thrust forth by Brihaspati, let none soever be freed.
Let their weapons (ā́yudha) fall down; let them not be able to fit the arrow; then, of them fearing much let arrows strike in the vitals.
Together let heaven-and-earth yell at them; together let the atmosphere, along with the deities; let them not find a knower, nor a foundation; mutually destroying one another let them go unto death.
The four quarters [are] the she-mules of the god-chariot; the sacrificial cakes [are] the hoofs, the atmosphere the seat (? uddhí), heaven-and-earth the two sides, the seasons the reins, the intermediate directions the attendants, speech the rim (? párirathya).
The year (saṁvatsará) is the chariot, the complete year (parivatsará) the chariot-lap, virā́j the pole (īṣá), Agni the chariot-mouth, Indra the left-stander, the moon the charioteer.
On this side conquer thou; on this side conquer away, conquer completely, conquer; hail! let these here conquer, let those yonder be conquered; hail ⌊svā́hā⌋ to these! wail (duráhā) to those! with the blue-red one I stretch down upon them yonder.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VIII.8 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK XI ALSO CITED
To conquer enemies: to Arbudi
Read comparison hymn XI.9 (26 verses)
What arms (bāhú) [there are], what arrows, and the powers (vīryà) of bows, swords (así), axes (paraçú), weapon, and what thought-and-design in the heart—all that, O Arbudi, do thou make our enemies to see; and do thou show forth specters (udārá).
Stand up, equip ye yourselves (sam-nah), O friends, god-folk; beheld, concealed of you be [those] who are our friends, O Arbudi.
Stand ye (two) up, take ye hold; with tying up, with tying together, gird ye the armies of our enemies, O Arbudi.
The God that is Arbudi by name, and the lord (ī́çāna) Nyarbudi, by whom the atmosphere is involved (ā-vṛ), and this great earth—by those (two) who are allied with Indra, I go after what is conquered with an army.
Stand thou up, O god-folk, Arbudi, with the army; breaking (bhañj) the army of our enemies, envelop it with [thy] coils (bhogá).
Presenting to view, O Nyarbudi, the seven kinds of specters, with them all do thou stand up, when the butter is offered, with the army.
Smiting herself, tear-faced, and crop-eared (?), let her yell, with disheveled hair, when the man is slain, bitten (? rad), O Arbudi, of thee.
Drawing in her karū́kara, seeking with her mind her son, husband, brother, also her people (svá)—in case of thy bite, O Arbudi.
Let the buzzards, jāṣkamadás, vultures, falcons, winged ones, let the crows, the birds (çakúni), satisfy themselves—exhibiting among the enemies—in case of thy bite, O Arbudi.
Then let all wild beasts, let the fly, let the worm satisfy itself upon the carrion of men, bitten, O Arbudi, of thee.
Take ye (two) hold, tear out (sam-bṛh) [their] breath-and-expiration, O Nyarbudi; let groaning (? nivāçá) noises assemble—exhibiting among the enemies—in case of thy bite, O Arbudi.
Make thou [them] tremble; let them quake together; unite our enemies with fear; with broad-gripping arm-hooks pierce thou our enemies, O Nyarbudi.
Let their arms be confounded, and what thought-and-design is in their heart; let not anything of them be left—in case of thy bite, O Arbudi.
Smiting themselves let them (f.) run together, smiting on the breast, the thighs (? paṭāurá), not anointing, with disheveled hair, wailing when the man is slain, bitten, O Arbudi, of thee.
Dog-accompanied Apsarases, she-jackals (? rū́pakā) also, O Arbudi, the riçā́, licking much in the inner vessel, seeking what is ill-deposited—all these (f.), O Arbudi, do thou make our enemies to see, and do thou show forth specters;—
Her that strides upon the khaḍū́ra, mutilated, wearing what is mutilated (?); the specters that are concealed, and what Gandharvas-and-Apsarases [there are], serpents, other-folk, demons;—
The four-tusked ones, the black-toothed, the pot-testicled, the blood-faced; they that are self-frighting and frighting.
Do thou, O Arbudi, make to tremble yonder lines (síc) of our enemies; let both the conquering one and the conqueror, allied with Indra, conquer our enemies.
Let our enemy lie squelched, crushed, slain, O Nyarbudi; let tongues of fire, tufts of smoke, go conquering with the army.
Of our enemies, pushed forth by it, O Arbudi, let Indra, lord of might (çácīpáti), slay each best man (vára); let no one soever of them be freed.
Let their hearts burst open (ut-kas), their breath pass up aloft; let dryness of mouth follow after our enemies, ⌊and⌋ not those who are friendly.
Both they who are wise (dhī́ra) and they who are unwise, those going away and they who are deaf, they of darkness arid they who are hornless (tūpará), likewise those that smell of (?) the goat—all those (m.), O Arbudi, do thou make our enemies to see, and do thou show forth specters.
Let both Arbudi and Trishandhi pierce through our enemies, in order that, O Indra, Vṛitra-slayer, lord of might, we may slay of them, of our enemies, by thousands.
The forest-trees, them of the forest-trees, herbs and plants, Gandharvas-and-Apsarases, serpents, gods, pure-folk (puṇyajaná). Fathers—all those, O Arbudi, do thou make our enemies to see, and do thou show forth specters.
Mastery over you have the Maruts [gained], the heavenly Āditya, Brahmaṇaspati; mastery over you have both Indra and Agni, Dhātar, Mitra, Prajāpati; mastery over you have the seers gained (kṛ)—exhibiting among the enemies—in case of thy bite, O Arbudi.
Masters (ī́çāna) of them all, stand ye up, equip yourselves, ye friends, god-folks; having wholly conquered in this conflict, scatter ye to your several worlds.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read XI.9 at Wikisource ↗
The physical net prepares the mental one
Verses 3 and 4 name trees, reeds, and binding, and verses 5 through 8 expand a net through atmosphere, directions, and world. By the time verse 9 arrives, the listener already knows the shape of enclosure. The surprising move is to fill that shape with states rather than cords: fatigue and confusion can hold a troop as effectively as a visible trap in the speaker's imagination. This is an analogy, not an ancient observation that a real net caused exhaustion. The poem converts a concrete implement into a way of thinking about morale and coordination. Its sequence makes an invisible weakness seem as tangible as stakes in the ground.
The list attacks several kinds of capacity
Debility affects the body; ill success makes action seem futile; toil and weariness drain persistence; confusion breaks shared judgment. The verse does not state that one soldier experiences all these in a medical sense. It names pressures that would make organized resistance difficult. The speaker's grammar asks to bind 'those men' with this bundle of conditions. The list's power lies in accumulation rather than a single precise injury. It targets the collective functioning of an army. The surrounding wish that none escape reveals the verse's coercive aim, even when its chosen instruments are experiences rather than blades.
Death's fetters follow fatigue
Verse 10 immediately binds the enemies with death's fetters and sends them toward death's messengers. That progression makes verse 9 a stage in a larger imagined collapse, not a separate wellness or sleep text. Fatigue and confusion prepare the picture of people unable to avoid a final snare. Verse 16 returns to physical fetters and a disputed trap term, so the hymn alternates between psychological and material enclosure. Whitney's note records uncertainty about the trap's exact sense, reminding us that the material side is not always more transparent than the mental side. The poem's main movement is nonetheless clear: constrain, weaken, and then deliver the army to destruction.
Compare a vision-based attack on morale
XI.9 uses Arbudi and Nyarbudi to make enemy troops tremble and see specters; verse 21 asks that dryness of mouth follow enemies but not friends. VIII.8.9 does not personify a serpent ally or show apparitions. It names exhausted states and ties them directly into a net. Both are hostile speeches about morale, yet their causal images differ. Pāippalāda reverses some early VIII.8 verses, so the exact lead-in to verse 9 changes across witnesses, though the accumulation remains. A new modern ritual framed as 'confusing an enemy' would be an editorial invention. The historical source does not establish that speech made a force lose cohesion.
WORKED READING
A worked comparison
Read VIII.8.8 and 9 consecutively. First the whole world is called Indra's net; then fatigue, ill success, toil, and confusion become the ties of that net. The shift is from spatial enclosure to diminished capacity. Compare XI.9.12, which asks Nyarbudi to unite enemies with fear. XI.9 recruits a named terrifying being; VIII.8 turns ordinary states of strain into binding materials. The contrast gives verse 9 its distinct place within the longer war hymn. Fatigue and confusion in verse nine show the net operating on capacity, not only on where an army may move.