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 XIII IN FOCUS
To Rohita (the sun, as ruddy one)
Rise up, O powerful one (? vājín) that [art] within the waters, enter into this kingdom [that is] full of pleasantness; the ruddy one (róhita) that generated this all—let him bear thee, well-borne, unto kingdom.
Up hath arisen the power (? vā́ja) that is within the waters; mount (ā-ruh) thou the clans (víç) that are sprung from thee (tvádyoni); assuming (dhā) the soma, the waters, the herbs, the kine, make thou the four-footed, the two-footed ones to enter here.
Do ye [who are] formidable, O Maruts, sons of the spotted mother, with Indra as ally, slaughter our foes; the ruddy one shall listen to you, ye liberal ones (sudā́nu), ye thrice seven Maruts that enjoy sweets together.
The ruddy one ascended (ruh), mounted the ascents (rúh); [he,] the embryo of the wives, [mounted] the lap of births; him, taken hold of by them (f.), the six wide [spaces] discovered; seeing in advance the track, he hath brought (ā-hṛ) hither the kingdom.
Read the remaining 56 verses of XIII.1
The ruddy one hath brought hither thy kingdom; the scorners have scattered; fearlessness hath become thine; unto thee, being such, let heaven-and-earth, by the revátīs, yield (duh) here thy desire by the çákvarīs.
The ruddy one generated heaven-and-earth; there the most exalted one stretched the line (tántu); there was supported (çri) the one-footed goat (? ajá); by strength he made firm (dṛh) heaven-and-earth.
The ruddy one made firm heaven-and-earth; by him was established the sky (svàr), by him the firmament (nā́ka); by him the atmosphere, the spaces (rájas) were measured out; by him the gods discovered immortality (amṛ́ta).
The ruddy one examined (vi-mṛç) the all-formed, collecting to himself the fore-ascents and the ascents; having ascended the sky with great greatness, let him anoint (sam-añj) thy kingdom with milk, with ghee.
What ascents, fore-ascents thou hast, what on-ascents (ārúh) thou hast, with which thou fillest the sky, the atmosphere, with the bráhman, with the milk of them increasing, do thou watch over the people (víç) in the kingdom of the ruddy one.
What clans (víç) of thine came into being out of ardor (tápas), those have come hither after the young (vatsá), the gāyatrī́; let them enter (ā-viç) into thee with propitious mind; let the ruddy young with its mother go against [them].
The ruddy one hath stood aloft upon the firmament (nā́kā), generating all forms, [he,] young, poet; Agni shineth forth with keen light; in the third space (rájas) he hath done dear things.
The thousand-horned bull Jātavedas, offered to with ghee, soma-backed, having good heroes—let him not abandon me; let me not, a suppliant, abandon thee*; assign thou to me both prosperity in kine and prosperity in heroes.
The ruddy one is generator and mouth of the sacrifice; to the ruddy one I make oblation with speech, with hearing, with mind; to the ruddy one go the gods with favoring mind; let him cause me to ascend with ascensions (róha) of meeting (sāmityá).
The ruddy one disposed the sacrifice for Viçvakarman; therefrom have these brilliancies come unto me; may I speak thy navel (nā́bhi) upon the range (majmán) of existence.
Unto thee ascended bṛhatī́ and pan̄ktí, unto [thee], O Jātavedas, kakúbh with honor; unto thee ascended the uṣṇíhā syllable, the váṣaṭ-utterance; unto thee ascended the ruddy one along with seed.
This one clothes himself in the embryo (womb?) of the earth; this one clothes himself in the sky, the atmosphere; this one, on the summit of the reddish one, has penetrated the heaven (svàr), the worlds.
O lord of speech, [be] earth pleasant to us; [be] the lair (yóni) pleasant, [be] our couch very propitious; just here be breath in our companionship; thee here, O most exalted one, let Agni surround with life-time, with honor.
O lord of speech, the five seasons that are ours, that came forth into being as Viçvakarman's—just here be breath in our companionship; thee here, O most exalted one, let the ruddy one surround with life-time, with honor.
O lord of speech, [generate] well-willing and mind; generate kine in our stall (goṣṭhá), progeny in our wombs (yóni); just here be breath in our companionship; thee here, O most exalted one, I surround with life-time, with honor.
May Savitar, god Agni, surround thee [with honor]; with honor may Mitra-and-Varuṇa deck (abhi⌊+dhā⌋) thee; striding down all niggards come thou; thou hast made this kingdom full of pleasantness.
Thou whom the spotted one (f.), the side-horse, draws (vah) in the chariot, O ruddy one, thou goest with brightness (çúbh), making flow the waters.
She that is ruddy (róhiṇī) is submissive to the ruddy one, being liberal (sūrí), of beautiful color, vast (bṛhatī́), very splendid; by her may we conquer booty (? vā́jān) of all forms; by her may we overcome all fighters.
Here the seat (sádas), she that is ruddy, of the ruddy one; yonder the road by which the spotted one (f.) goes; her the Gandharvas, the Kaçyapas, lead up; her the poets defend unremittingly.
The sun's yellow (hári) bright (ketumánt) horses, immortal, constantly draw the easy-running chariot; the ghee-drinking ruddy one, shining (bhrāj), the god, entered the spotted sky.
The ruddy one, the sharp-horned bull, who encompassed Agni, the sun, who props asunder (vi-stabh) the earth and the heaven—out of him do the gods create creations.
The ruddy one mounted the sky, out of the great sea (arṇavá); the ruddy one ascended all ascents.
Measure thou out (vi-mā) the milk-giving, ghee-dripping (ghṛtā́ñc) [cow]; this is the unresisting milch-cow of the gods. Let Indra drink the soma; let there be comfort (kṣéma); let Agni commence praising; do thou thrust away the scorners.
Agni, kindled, being kindled, increased with ghee, offered to with ghee—let the overpowering, all-overpowering Agni slay them who are my rivals.
Let him slay them, burn [them] away,—the enemy (ári) who fights us; by the flesh-eating fire do we burn away our rivals.
Do thou, O Indra, having arms, smite them down downward with the thunderbolt; then my rivals have I taken to myself with Agni's brightnesses (téjas).
O Agni, make our rivals fall below us; stagger the truculent (utpípāna) fellow, O Brihaspati; O Indra-and-Agni, O Mitra-and-Varuṇa, let them fall below [us], impotent in their fury.
Do thou, O heavenly sun, arising, smite down my rivals; smite them down with the stone; let them go to lowest darkness.
The young (vatsá) of the virā́j, the bull of prayers (matí), mounted, bright-backed, the atmosphere; with ghee they sing (arc) the song (arká) unto the young; him, being bráhman, they increase with bráhman.
Both ascend thou to heaven and ascend to earth; both ascend to kingdom and ascend to property; both ascend to progeny and ascend to immortality; make thyself contiguous with the ruddy one.
The kingdom-bearing gods who go to surround (abhítas) the sun—in concord with them let the ruddy one, with favoring mind, assign kingdom to thee.
Sacrifices purified by bráhman carry thee up; yellow (hári) roadsters draw (vah) thee; thou shinest over (ati-ruc) across the ocean, the sea.
On the ruddy one are set (çritá) heaven-and-earth, on the goods-conquering, kine-conquering, booty-conquering one, of whom the births are a thousand and seven; may I speak thy navel on the range of existence.
Glorious thou goest to the directions and quarters, glorious of cattle and of people (carṣaṇí); glorious in the lap of earth, of Aditi, may I become pleasant (cā́ru) like Savitar.
Being yonder, thou knowest here; being on this side, thou seest those things; from this side they see the shining space (rócana), the inspired sun in the sky.
Thou, a god, molestest (mṛc) the gods; thou goest about within the sea (arṇavá); they kindle the same fire; it the high (pára) poets know.
Below the distant, thus beyond the lower, bearing her calf with her foot, the cow hath stood up; whitherwards, to what quarter, hath she forsooth gone away? where giveth she birth? for [it is] not in this herd.
One-footed, two-footed [is] she, four-footed; having become eight-footed, nine-footed, thousand-syllabled, a series of existence; out from her flow apart the oceans.
Mounting the sky, immortal, do thou favor my words; sacrifices purified by bráhman carry thee up; yellow roadsters draw thee.
I know that of thine, O immortal one, namely (yát) thy climb (ākrámaṇa) in the sky, thy station (sadhástha) in the highest firmament.
The sun overlooks (ati-paç) the sky, the sun the earth, the sun the waters; the sun, the one eye of what exists, hath mounted the great sky.
The wide ones (urvī́) were the enclosures; the earth took shape as sacrificial hearth; there the ruddy one set (ā-dhā) these two fires, cold and heat.
Having set cold and heat, having made the mountains sacrificial posts (yū́pa), having rain as sacrificial butter, the two fires of the sky-finding ruddy one performed sacrifice (yaj).
The fire of the sky-finding ruddy one is kindled with bráhman; therefrom heat, therefrom cold, therefrom the sacrifice was born.
The two fires [are] increasing by bráhman, increased with bráhman, offered to with bráhman: kindled with bráhman, the two fires of the sky-finding ruddy one performed sacrifice.
The one is all set in truth, the other is kindled in the waters: kindled with etc. etc.
What one the wind adorns about, or what one Indra, Brahmaṇaspati: kindled with etc. etc.
Having shaped (kḷp) the earth as sacrificial hearth, having made the sky sacrificial fee, then having made heat his fire, the ruddy one made all that has soul, with rain as sacrificial butter.
Rain as sacrificial butter, heat as fire, earth as sacrificial hearth took shape; there, with songs (gír), the fire shaped these mountains aloft.
Having shaped [them] aloft by songs, the ruddy one said to the earth: in thee let this all be born, what is (bhūtá) or what is to be.
That first sacrifice was born [as] the one that is, that is to be; from that was born this all, whatsoever shines out (vi-ruc) here, brought (ā-bhṛ) by the ruddy one [as] seer.
Whoever both kicks a cow with the foot and urinates in face of the sun—of such a one I hew off (vraçc) thy root; thou shalt not further cast (kṛ) shadow.
Thou that goest past me shading me, and between me and the fire, I hew off thy root; thou shalt not further cast shadow.
Whoso this day, O heavenly sun, shall go between both thee and me—on him we wipe off evil-dreaming, pollution, and difficulties.
Let us not go forth from the road, nor, O Indra, from the sacrifice with soma; let not the niggards stand between us.
What line, accomplisher of the sacrifice, is stretched clear to the gods, that, sacrificed unto, may we attain.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read XIII.1 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK XIII ALSO CITED
To the sun (with imprecation on the evil-doer)
Read comparison hymn XIII.3 (26 verses)
He who generated these two, heaven-and-earth; who clothes himself in existences, making them a garment (drā́pi); in whom abide the six wide directions, toward which he, the flying one, looks all abroad—against that god, angered, [is] this offense (ā́gas); whoso scathes a Brahman that knows thus, do thou, O ruddy one, make him quake, destroy him; fasten on the fetters of the Brahman-scather.
From whom the winds in their season go purifying (pū), out of whom the oceans flow forth—against that god etc. etc.
Who causes to die [and] causes to breathe; from whom all existences breathe—against that god etc. etc.
Who gratifies heaven-and-earth with breath; who fills the belly of the ocean with respiration—against that god etc. etc.
In whom is set (çritá) Virāj, the most exalted one, Prajāpati, Agni Vāiçvānara with the series (pan̄ktí); who took to himself the breath of the lofty one, the brilliancy of the loftiest one—against that god etc. etc.
Upon whom are set (çritá) the six wide [spaces], the five quarters, the four waters, the three syllables (? akṣára) of the sacrifice; who, angered, looked with his eye between the two firmaments (ródaṣī)—against that god etc. etc.
Who became food-eater, lord of food, and also Brahmaṇaspati (lord of worship); who is and shall be lord of existence—against that god etc. etc.
He who measures out the thirteenth month, fabricated (vi-mā) of days-and-nights, having thirty members—against that god etc. etc.
Black the descent, the yellow eagles, clothing themselves in waters, fly up to the sky; they have come hither from the seat of righteousness—against that god etc. etc.
What of thee, O Kaçyapa, is bright (candrá), full of shining (rocanā́vant), what that is combined (saṁhitá), splendid (puṣkalá), of wondrous light, in which seven suns are set (ā́rpita) together—against that god etc. etc.
The bṛhát dresses itself in him in front; the rathaṁtará accepts [him] behind: [both] clothing themselves always in light unremittingly—against that god etc. etc.
The bṛhát was his wing on the one side, rathaṁtará on the other, [both] of like strength, of like motion (? sadhryàñc), when the gods generated the ruddy one—against that god etc. etc.
This Agni becomes Varuṇa in the evening; in the morning, rising, he becomes Mitra; he, having become Savitar, goes through the atmosphere; he, having become Indra, burns (tap) through the midst of the sky.—Against that god etc. etc.
A thousand days' journey are expanded the wings of him, of the yellow swan flying to heaven; he, putting all the gods in his breast, goes viewing together all existences.—Against that god etc. etc.
This is that god within the waters, the thousand-rooted, many-powered (?) Atri; he who generated all this existence—against that god etc. etc.
Swift-running yellow [horses] draw the bright one (çukrá), the god shining with splendor in the sky, whose lofty bodies heat the sky; hitherward with well-colored gleams (? paṭará) he shines forth.—Against that god etc. etc.
By whom the yellow steeds draw the Ādityas together; by what sacrifice go many foreknowing; which, sole light, shines forth variously—against that god etc. etc.
Seven harness a one-wheeled chariot; one horse, having seven names, draws [it]; of three naves [is] the wheel, unwasting, unassailed, whereon stand all these existences.—Against that god etc. etc.
Harnessed eight-fold draws the formidable draft-horse (váhni), father of gods, generator of prayers (mati); measuring with the mind the line of righteousness, Mātariçvan goes cleansing (pū) to all the quarters.—Against that god etc. etc.
A united (saviyáñc) line along all the directions, within the gāyatrī́, the womb (embryo?) of the immortal.—Against that god etc. etc.
Three settings, dawnings also three; three welkins, skies verily three: we know, O Agni, the birth-place of thee threefold; threefold the births of the gods we know.—Against that god etc. etc.
He who in birth (jā́yamāna) opened out the earth, [who] set the ocean in the atmosphere—against that god etc. etc.
Thou, O Agni, impelled by powers (krátu), by lights (ketú), didst shine up, a kindled song (? arká) in the sky; unto what did the Maruts, having the spotted one for mother, sing, when the gods generated the ruddy one?—Against that god etc. etc.
He who is self-giving, strength-giving, of whom all, of whom [even] the gods wait upon the direction, who is master of these bipeds, who of quadrupeds—against that god etc. etc.
The one-footed strode out more than the two-footed; the two-footed falls upon the three-footed from behind; the four-footed acted within the call of the two-footed ones, beholding the series (pan̄tí), drawing near (upa-sthā).—Against that god etc. etc.
The white son of the black [mother], the young of night, was born; he ascends upon the sky; the ruddy one ascended the ascents.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read XIII.3 at Wikisource ↗
Rising into a kingdom
The first verse asks the powerful one within the waters to rise and enter a pleasant kingdom; Rohita, who generated the whole, is to bear the addressed figure toward rule. Verse 2 takes up the wordplay between Rohita and forms of 'rising' or 'ascending.' It asks that soma, waters, herbs, and kine be assumed and that two-footed and four-footed beings enter. This is a remarkably crowded royal scene. The sun's ascent becomes a model for the movement of people, animals, and resources into a domain. Whitney marks the identity of the initial addressee and some wording as uncertain, so the poem should not be flattened into a simple statement that a particular historical ruler received all these things.
Defenders and opponents
Verse 3 calls on the formidable Maruts, with Indra as ally, to strike foes. Verse 5 says scorners have scattered and fearlessness has become the addressee's. Later, verses 28 to 32 return to Agni, Indra, and other gods to put rivals below or away. These martial demands are embedded in the long solar praise rather than standing alone as one battlefield spell. The defenders are divine or divine-backed in the rhetoric; the poem does not specify a roster of human guards. The language can be severe, especially in its wishes against rivals. We can name that violence as part of the ancient political imagination without offering it as a contemporary model of community protection.
Herds are more than an ornament
Verse 12 explicitly asks for prosperity in kine and heroes, placing animal increase and human strength together. Verse 27 names a milk-giving, ghee-dripping cow before asking comfort and the removal of scorners. These are not random pastoral decorations. Cattle supply food, wealth, ritual material, and a measure of a community's endurance in the poem's world. The combination of herds and defenders therefore expresses more than possession: it imagines a viable realm whose animals, households, and strong supporters can persist. Yet the text itself is not an agricultural manual. Its petitions and metaphors tell us what was valued, not how to produce healthier livestock by a ritual procedure.
A long, mobile solar composition
The hymn contains sixty verses in Whitney's numbering and ranges through cosmic creation, kingdom, animal prosperity, ritual speech, and conflict. Its changes of scale are part of its form. Pāippalāda Book XVIII preserves much of it but shifts verse 30 after 31 and lacks several late verses; one verse turns up elsewhere in that witness. Whitney also records a Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa parallel for verse 12 with differing wording in the plea for kine and heroes. These witness details matter because the benefit is not lodged in a single immutable line. The request circulates in several textual settings, and the surrounding sequence alters how a reader hears its social ambition.
WORKED READING
A worked comparison
Read XIII.1.2, .3, and .12 in sequence. Verse 2 gathers waters, herbs, cattle, and two-footed and four-footed beings into Rohita's rising kingdom. Verse 3 calls the Maruts with Indra to confront foes. Verse 12 asks for prosperity in kine and heroes. The member pairing condenses those strands as thriving herds and strong defenders, but the hymn itself presents them within a larger royal and solar vision. Compare XIII.3, another Rohita hymn whose punitive refrain against a Brahman-scather makes a very different social use of cosmic solar reach. Shared deity and scale do not erase the different human claims.