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 X IN FOCUS
Against witchcraft and its practisers
She whom the adepts {cikitsú) prepare, all-formed, hand-made, like a bride at a wedding—let her go far off; we push her away.
Having a head, having a nose, having ears, put together, all-formed, by the witchcraft-maker—let her go far off; we push her away.
Çūdra-made, king-made, woman-made, made by Brahmans (brahmán), like a wife expelled (nuttá) by her husband, let her go to her maker, as connection.
With this herb have I spoiled all witchcrafts—what one they have made in the field, what in the kine, or what in thy men.
Read the remaining 28 verses of X.1
Let evil be to the evil-doer, a curse to the curser; backward we send [her] forth back, that she may slay the witchcraft-maker.
Opposed [is] the Ān̄girasa, our appointed (puróhita) overseer; do thou, having turned the witchcrafts in the opposite direction, slay yonder witchcraft-makers.
He who said to thee "go forth," against the current, up-stream, him, O witchcraft, do thou return against; seek not us who are innocent.
He who put together thy joints, as an ṛbhú [those] of a chariot with skill (dhī́), unto him go thou; there is thy going; this person is unknown to thee.
They who, having made, took hold of thee, cunning sorcerers—this is a healthful (çambhú) spoiler of witchcraft, counteracting, reverting; therewith do we bathe thee.
In that we have come upon the ill-portioned one (fem.), bathed forth, whose young (-vatsá) is dead—let all ill (pāpá) go away from me; let property come unto (upa-sthā) me.
In that they have taken (grah) the name of thee giving to the Fathers, or at the sacrifice—let these plants free thee from all ill that is designed (? saṁdeçyà).
From sin against the gods, against the Fathers, from name-taking, that is designed, that is devised against [any one], let the plants free thee by their energy (vīryà), with spell (bráhman), with verses, with milk of the seers.
As the wind sets in motion the dust from the earth and the cloud (abhrá) from the atmosphere, so from me may everything of evil nature go away, pushed by the spell (bráhman).
Step away, making much noise, like an unfastened she-ass; attain thy makers, pushed hence by an energetic spell.
Saying "this is the road, O witchcraft," we conduct thee; thee that wast sent forth against [us] we send forth back again; by that [road] go against [them], breaking, like a draft-cow with a cart, all-formed, wearing a wreath (? kurūṭín).
Offward is light for thee, hitherward is no road for thee; make thy goings elsewhere than [toward] us; go thou by a distant [road] beyond ninety difficult navigable streams; do not wound thyself; go away.
As the wind the trees, do thou crush (mṛ) down, cause to fall; do not leave of them cow, horse, man; turning back, O witchcraft, from here to thy makers, awaken them unto childlessness.
What [witchcraft] they buried for thee in the barhís, what in the cemetery, [what] witchcraft or secret spell (valagá) in the field, or practised against thee in the householders' fire—they, being wiser, [against thee] who art simple, innocent.
We have found out (anu-vid) the hostile sneaking magic (? kártra) that was applied, perceived (? anu-budh), buried: let that go whence it was brought; there let it roll about like a horse; let it slay the progeny of the witchcraft -maker.
There are knives of good metal in our house; we know thy joints, O witchcraft, how many they are; just stand up; go away from here; unknown one, what seekest thou here?
Thy neck-bones (grīvā́), O witchcraft, and thy (two) feet I will cut up; run thou out; let Indra-and-Agni defend us, they who are of progeny rich in progeny.
King Soma [is] our over-ruler and favorer (mṛḍitṛ́); let the lords of being favor us.
Let Bhava-and-Çarva hurl (as) at the evil-doer, the witchcraft-maker, the ill-doer, the missile of the gods, the lightning.
If thou camest [as] biped, as quadruped, put together by the witchcraft-maker, all-formed, do thou, becoming octoped, go away again from here, O misfortune!
Anointed, smeared, well-adorned, bearing all difficulty, go thou away; recognize (jñā), O witchcraft, thy maker, as a daughter her own father.
Go away, O witchcraft; stand not; lead, as it were, the track of one pierced; it is a deer, thou a deer-hunter; it is unable to put thee down.
Also the after one (ápara) slays with an arrow, fitting it (?), the one shooting (-āsin) in front; also of the front one, smiting down, the after one smites down in return.
Hear thou, verily, these words of mine; then go whence thou camest, to meet him who made thee.
The slaying of an innocent person is indeed fearful, O witchcraft; slay thou not our cow, horse, man; wheresoever thou art set down, from there we make thee stand up; become thou lighter than a leaf.
If ye are covered (ā-vṛ) with darkness, like those who are girt (abhi-dhā) with a net—having torn up (sam-lup) all witchcrafts from here, we send them forth again to the maker.
The progeny of the witchcraft-maker, of him of secret spells, of him that devises against [others], O witchcraft, do thou kill; do not leave [them alive]; slay yonder witchcraft-makers.
As the sun is freed out of darkness, [and] quits the night and the ensigns of the dawn, so do I quit all evil-natured magic made by the witchcraft-maker, as an elephant the difficult haze (? rájas).
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read X.1 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VII ALSO CITED
Against a rival (woman)
Read comparison hymn VII.35 (36) (3 verses)
Overpower away with power [our] other rivals; thrust back, O Jātavedas, those unborn; fill this royalty unto good fortune; let all the gods revel after him.
These hundred veins that are thine, and the thousand tubes—of them all of thine I have covered the opening with a stone.
The upper part of thy womb I make the lower; let there not be progeny to thee, nor birth; I make thee barren (asū́), without progeny; I make a stone thy cover.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VII.35 (36) at Wikisource ↗
The witchcraft is imagined as someone's child
The opening makes the hostile figure all-formed and handmade; verse 25 later tells it to recognize its maker like a daughter her father. That relationship explains why the poem thinks return should be possible. It also puts family language at the center before the threatened descendants appear. The 'daughter' comparison is metaphorical language for provenance, not a claim about an actual child. Yet the metaphor makes subsequent threats to real offspring more pointed. The poem's verbal reasoning is that a produced thing belongs with its producer. The accusation has no external support within the text, but it permits severe consequences to be imagined for the producer's house.
Verse 17 turns protection into inherited harm
After a long command to travel away, verse 17 asks the witchcraft to return to its makers and awaken them to childlessness. Verse 19 directs it back again and asks that it strike the maker's progeny. These lines go beyond removing a feared object from the speaker's property. They seek a loss extending into future generations. The stakes are social and bodily: a family line, not just an adversary's immediate standing, is targeted. The words should not be blurred into 'breaking a curse.' They state a violent aim whose alleged justification depends entirely on the speaker's belief that another person made and sent hostile magic.
The last severe demand sits near an innocence claim
Verse 29 calls the killing of an innocent fearful and asks that the speaker's cow, horse, and man be spared. Verse 31 then demands that the maker's progeny be killed. The proximity reveals a stark boundary around who counts as protected. The poem is alert to innocence but allocates it to its own side, while a suspected maker's descendants can be included in retaliation. This does not mean every ancient listener accepted the claim. It shows how a partisan speaker uses innocence and blame. Verse 32 closes with the sun leaving darkness and the speaker quitting harmful magic, a release image that does not undo the prior threats.
Another fertility attack has a different target
VII.35.2-3 imagines obstructing a female rival's fertility directly through a stone and inverted womb. X.1 uses a personified hostile construction as the agent that should make makers childless. Both speak coercively about reproduction, but their narrative logic differs. Whitney notes Pāippalāda variants in X.1's return passages, while VII.35 has a pronounced seam between its first and later verses. Such witness and structural issues should not be smoothed into a single 'ancient fertility curse' type. A contemporary spell inspired by either passage would be an invented practice. No poem establishes a real act of witchcraft, guilt, or actual reproductive harm.
WORKED READING
A worked comparison
Read X.1.17 and X.1.31 against X.1.29. The first two direct childlessness or death toward the maker's descendants. Verse 29, between them, warns that killing an innocent is fearful and protects the speakers' own animals and people. The contrast exposes the poem's selective boundary of innocence. Compare VII.35.3, which targets a woman's fertility without the intermediary of a made object. The shared violence is real, but the route of blame in X.1 depends on a disputed assertion about who fashioned the alleged witchcraft. Placing the innocence plea between hostile descendant wishes exposes an ethical asymmetry within the historical speaker's own argument.