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 VII IN FOCUS
For success in the assembly
Let both assembly (sabhā́) and gathering (sámiti), the two daughters of Prajāpati, accordant, favor me; with whom I shall come together, may he desire to aid (? upa-çikṣ) me; may I speak what is pleasant among those who have come together, O Fathers.
We know thy name, O assembly; verily sport (naríṣṭā) by name art thou; whoever are thine assembly-sitters, let them be of like speech with me.
Of these that sit together I take to myself the splendor, the discernment (vijñā́na); of this whole gathering (saṁsád) make me, O Indra, possessor of the fortune (bhagín).
Your mind that is gone away, that is bound either here or here—that of you we cause to turn hither; in me let your mind rest.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VII.12 (13) at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK III IN FOCUS
For abundance of grain
Rich in milk [are] the herbs, rich in milk my utterance (vácas); accordingly, of them that are rich in milk I bring by thousands.
I know him that is rich in milk; he hath made the grain much; the god that is "collector" by name, him do we call, whichever is in the house of one who sacrifices not.
These five directions that there are, the five races (kṛṣṭí) descended from Manu (mānavī́)—may they bring fatness (sphātí) together here, as streams [bring] drift when it has rained.
As a fountain of a hundred streams, of a thousand streams, unexhausted, so this grain of ours, in a thousand streams, unexhausted.
Read the remaining 3 verses of III.24
O hundred-handed one, bring together; O thousand-handed one, pile together; of what is made and of what is to be made do thou convey together the fatness here.
Three measures of the Gandharvas, four of the house-mistress; of them whichever is richest in fatness, with that one we touch thee.
Bringer (upohá) and gatherer (samūhá) [are] thy (two) distributors, O Prajāpati; let them convey hither fatness, much unexhausted plenty.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read III.24 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK V ALSO CITED
Against niggardliness and its effects
Read comparison hymn V.7 (10 verses)
Bring to us, stand not about, O niggard; do not prevent (? rakṣ) our sacrificial gift as led [away]; homage be to baffling (vīrtsā́), to ill-success; homage be to the niggard.
What wheedling (? parirāpín) man thou puttest forward, O niggard, to him of thine we pay homage: do not thou disturb my winning (vaní).
Let our god-made winning progress (pra-kḷp) by day and by night; we go forth after the niggard; homage be to the niggard.
Sarasvatī, Anumati, Bhaga, we going call on; pleasant (juṣṭá) honeyed speech have I spoken in the god-invocations of the gods.
Whomever I solicit (yāc) with speech, with Sarasvatī, mind-yoked, him may faith find today, given by the brown soma.
Do not thou baffle our winning nor speech. Let Indra and Agni both bring good things to us. De ye all, willing today to give to us, welcome the niggard.
Go thou far away, O ill-success; we conduct away thy missile; I know thee, O niggard, as one putting (? mīv) down, thrusting down.
Likewise, greatly making thyself naked, thou fastenest on (sac) a person in dreams, O niggard, baffling the plan and design of a man (púruṣa).
She that, being great, of great height (-unmāna), permeated all regions—to her, the golden-haired, to perdition have I paid homage.
Gold-colored, fortunate, gold-cushioned, great—to her, the golden-mantled, to the niggard have I paid homage.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read V.7 at Wikisource ↗
III.24 builds abundance from an agricultural base
The grain hymn begins with milk-rich herbs and an utterance imagined as nourishing. Verse 3 calls increase from directions as streams bring material after rain; verse 4 pictures grain as an inexhaustible fountain; verse 5 asks a hundred-handed and thousand-handed figure to collect and pile it. This is a vision of production and storage, not an institution distributing project money. Its sequence is useful for a grant comparison only if the proposed work would produce or sustain something: a funded project, like a field, has inputs and hoped-for yield. Whitney notes a Paippalāda version clarifies the fountain line, so even this vivid image has textual variation rather than one fixed formula.
VII.12 locates a public decision
VII.12 personifies assembly and gathering and asks them to favor the speaker. Its first verse hopes for pleasant words among those present; verse 3 seeks discernment and favorable standing in the group. A modern review committee provides a limited analogy for being heard by multiple decision makers. But the ancient assembly is not a grant office, and a persuasive hearing is not a funding award. Whitney notes that the fourth verse may be disconnected from the rest, which discourages turning the hymn into a seamless decision-control rite. The passage illuminates the social act of evaluation while leaving the committee's rules and judgment in the present.
A source of funds is not the crop itself
V.7 addresses the reluctance of a potential giver and later hopes that a person solicited through speech will respond with confidence. A grant application may similarly request resources, but it is not a sacrificial gift, and an institution may award funds under eligibility rules rather than spontaneous generosity. III.24's grain images can help ask what the funding is for; V.7 can help analyze the vulnerable request; VII.12 can help analyze group review. Keeping these texts distinct prevents the false statement that growing grain is an ancient precedent for a modern grant. A project's promised output and the decision to support it are different events.
The modern award remains uncertain
The attached working seeks a grant that funds the user's project. That exact benefit is contemporary and original. Neither the grain hymn nor the assembly and solicitation hymns predicts approval, validates a proposal, or guarantees any amount. A reader can use the comparison to see the difference between nourishing a future outcome and securing resources to begin. The ancient poems voice hopes for provision and favor in their own settings; they cannot replace a modern funder's criteria. Historical insight comes from the tension between cultivation, request, and judgment, not from a claim that a Vedic rite compels an institution to release money.
WORKED READING
Worked reading: the funded garden proposal
A group proposes a community garden. III.24 can illuminate the hoped-for yield of grain and stored provision, but that poem does not fund the garden. V.7 loosely resembles the act of requesting support; VII.12 resembles a committee hearing and weighing the proposal. If the committee praises the plan but declines funding, favorable reception happened without the spell's goal. If it awards a grant, the money supports work that might later produce food, yet the agricultural result remains separate and uncertain. The hymns help keep proposed yield, award decision, and actual harvest in different stages.