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 XIX IN FOCUS
With a çatávāra-amulet: for protection etc
The çatávāra hath by its keenness (téjas) made to vanish the yákṣmas, the demons, mounting together with splendor, an amulet that expels the ill-named.
With its two horns it thrusts away the demon, with its root the sorceresses; with its middle it drives off (bādh) the yákṣma; no evil overpasses it.
The yákṣmas that are petty, and they that are great, noisy—all of them the çatávāra amulet, slayer of the ill-named, hath made vanish.
A hundred heroes it generated; a hundred yákṣmas it scattered away; having slain all the ill-named ones, it shakes down the demons.
Read the remaining 2 verses of XIX.36
A golden-horned bull [is] this amulet of çatávāra; having shattered (tṛh) all the ill-named ones, it hath trodden down the demons.
With the çatávāra I ward off (vāraya-) a hundred of the ill-named ones (f.), a hundred of the Gandharvas-and-Apsarases, and a hundred of the doglike ones (f.).
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read XIX.36 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK XIX ALSO CITED
With a jan̄giḍá-amulet: for protection etc
Read comparison hymn XIX.34 (10 verses)
Jan̄giḍá art though, jan̄giḍá; defender art thou, jan̄giḍá; what of ours is two-footed, four-footed—let jan̄giḍá defend it all.
The witchcrafts that are thrice fifty, and the witchcraft-makers that are a hundred—may the jan̄giḍá make them all of vanished brilliancy (-téjas) [and] sapless.
Sapless the artificial noise, sapless the seven that fall apart; away from here, O jan̄giḍá, make fall (çat) misery, as an archer (ástṛ) an arrow.
A spoiler of witchcraft verily is this, likewise a spoiler of niggardry; likewise may the powerful jan̄giḍá lengthen out our life-times.
Let that greatness of the jan̄giḍá protect us all about, wherewith [it] overpowered the víṣkandha with force, [being] a counteracting force (?).
Thrice the gods generated thee that art settled (ni-sthā) upon the earth; and Brahmans of old know thee thus as An̄giras by name.
Not the former herbs surpass thee, not thee the recent; a formidable dispeller [is] the jan̄giḍá, a protector round about, of good omen.
So then when thou didst come into being, O jan̄giḍá, ⌊O thou⌋ of unmeasured heroism, Indra of old, O formidable one, ⌊in the beginning (agratás)⌋, gave unto thee heroism.
To thee, O forest tree, the formidable Indra imparted (ā-dhā) formidableness; expelling all diseases (ámīvā), do thou smite the demons, O herb.
The crusher, the burster, the balā́sa, the side-ache, the takmán of every autumn, may the jan̄giḍá make sapless.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read XIX.34 at Wikisource ↗
A name that promises many defenses
The hymn opens by asking śatāvāra to drive out yakṣma and ill-named beings. Whitney treats the name's derivation with caution, but later language makes a connection with warding hard to miss. A 'hundred' need not be a literal inventory of distinct powers; in this kind of praise it increases the perceived range of defense. The opening establishes a problem of plurality: many possible afflictions might arrive, so the amulet is pictured as answering many at once. Such breadth is one reason the poem should not be translated into a single modern medical claim. Its categories mix bodily trouble with personified threat from the start. The poem's expansive number works on the imagination before any specific adversary appears.
Plant body as an imagined weapon
Verse 2 gives the object two horns, a root, and a middle. Each part is assigned a different opponent: the horns repel a demon, the root acts on sorceresses, and the middle addresses yakṣma. The verse turns botanical form into a map of defense. Yet one verb in Whitney's text is emended, and the exact plant identification is not beyond doubt. That makes the visual logic more secure than any detailed reconstruction of a physical procedure. The value of the stanza lies in how it distributes threats across an imagined plant body, letting one amulet seem equipped for attack from several directions. It remains metaphorical ritual speech rather than a botanical claim proven by observation.
From sizes of illness to a golden bull
A later stanza tells small, large, and noisy forms of yakṣma to disappear, varying size and sound so no manifestation seems overlooked. Another plays on the number of the plant's 'heroes' or powers against ailments, though readings vary. Verse 5 changes image to a golden-horned bull. The jump does not mean a literal bull was used; it escalates the amulet's projected strength by giving it a striking animal likeness. Whitney notes that part of corresponding Pāippalāda material is absent, another reason to keep claims about the hymn's original shape modest. The poem's recurrent solution is imaginative enlargement: one plant becomes many defenses and then a forceful animal. That sequence has its own coherence.
The ending lists unruly beings
The final stanza returns to the name's warding sound while naming ill-named beings, Gandharvas, Apsarases, and doglike female figures. Exact word forms and referents are uncertain, but the rhetorical direction is clear: the amulet is asked to exclude a heterogeneous population of troubling presences. Read beside the neighboring jaṅgiḍa hymn XIX.34, this is a distinctive choice. Jaṅgiḍa focuses in part on hostile witchcraft making and its makers; śatāvāra keeps converting its own form and name into an expansive barrier. Both are protective claims from the ancient text. They do not establish that an illness was caused by a supernatural actor or supply a usable modern remedy. Uncertain words should remain visibly uncertain.
WORKED READING
A worked comparison
Compare XIX.36.2 with XIX.34.1. Śatāvāra is imagined with two horns, a root, and a middle, each turned toward a different feared danger. Jaṅgiḍa begins by repeating the amulet's name and asking it to safeguard both people and four-footed animals. One stanza divides defensive work among plant parts; the other expands the circle of those protected. By XIX.36.5 the plant can even be pictured as a golden-horned bull, an escalation of the horn image rather than proof of an animal ingredient. Whitney notes uncertain readings and a partial Pāippalāda parallel, so the precise ancient action is less certain than the poem's protective imagination.