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 V ALSO CITED
Against witchcraft: with a plant
Read comparison hymn V.14 (13 verses)
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.
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 ↗
A made figure has a maker to seek
Verse 1 likens the witchcraft to an all-formed handmade figure; verse 2 even gives it head, nose, and ears. If it was assembled, the poem reasons, it can be addressed as something with an origin. Verse 3 lists possible social categories of makers and tells the figure to go to its maker as a relation. The list is wide enough to avoid identifying one culprit. Yet the command creates a route back from the threatened household to an alleged source. The poem thus turns fear of an intrusion into a story of manufacture, kinship, and return. That story is a claim within the verse, not forensic evidence of a known creator.
Reversal repeats with rising force
Verse 5 wishes a curse upon the curser and sends the figure back; verse 7 turns it against whoever told it to go forth, while claiming innocence for the speakers. Verse 8 asks it to return to the one who fitted its joints like a skilled craftsperson assembling a chariot. This last simile connects the return to the opening image of a constructed body. The force of the repetition lies in assigning responsibility: the object should not stay with its alleged victim, because it supposedly belongs to the maker. Pāippalāda has different lines in some of these passages, so the exact verbal route is not perfectly uniform across witnesses.
The road imagery keeps the figure moving
Verses 15 and 16 point it down a path away from the speakers, across many difficult streams. Verse 25 tells it to recognize the maker as a daughter recognizes her father, and verse 28 again commands it to go where it came from. These are not instructions for tracking a person through a landscape. They are changing metaphors for the same desired direction. Travel, kinship, and recognition all make return feel inevitable. The poem's ambition is not merely to neutralize an object but to make it carry danger back. Later verses threaten the maker's descendants; that severity must remain visible when the motif is discussed.
Another return hymn makes the same accusation differently
V.14 also sends a hostile working back, but it distinguishes an alleged maker from one who did not make it. X.1 instead spends many verses constructing the object's identity and path. Verse 29 recognizes the fearfulness of killing an innocent, which complicates the broad accusation implied by verse 3's social list. A modern 'return to sender' working modeled on either hymn is a new invention; neither text verifies that a sender existed or that any person was harmed. The historically important question is how a threatened community allocates blame through a personified thing, not whether the returning route can be enacted today.
WORKED READING
A worked comparison
Compare X.1.1, X.1.8, and X.1.25. The first presents a handmade all-formed witchcraft; the eighth names the one who fitted its joints; the twenty-fifth asks it to recognize that maker like a daughter recognizing a father. Manufacture becomes an argument for kinship and return. Set V.14 beside the sequence: its distinction between a maker and a nonmaker makes attribution itself a concern. In both hymns, return depends on the speaker's claim about origin, and the claim remains unverified by the poem. The daughter-and-father image gives a made thing imagined knowledge of its maker, solving a problem the human speaker cannot verify.