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 VI IN FOCUS
To win a man's love
Of the Apsarases, chariot-conquering, belonging to the chariot-conquering, [is] this the love (smará): ye gods, send forth love; let yon [man] burn for (anu-çuc) me.
Let yon [man] love (smṛ) me; being dear, let him love me: ye gods, send etc. etc.
That yon [man] may love me, not I him at any time, ye gods, send etc. etc.
Craze (un-māday-) [him], O Maruts; O atmosphere, craze [him]; O Agni, do thou craze [him]; let yon [man] burn for me.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.130 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VI ALSO CITED
To compel a woman's love
Read comparison hymn VI.139 (5 verses)
Nyastikā́ hast thou grown up, my good-fortune maker; a hundred [are] thy forth-stretchers, three and thirty thy down-stretchers. With this thousand-leafed [herb] I make dry thy heart.
Let thy heart dry up on me, then let [thy] mouth dry up; then dry thou up by loving me; then go thou about dry-mouthed.
A conciliator, a love-awakener (?), do thou, O brown, beauteous one, push together; push together both yon woman and me; make [our] heart the same.
As the mouth of one who has not drunk water dries away, so dry thou up by loving me, then go thou about dry-mouthed.
As a mongoos, having cut apart, puts together again a snake, so, O powerful [herb], put together the divided of love.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.139 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VI ALSO CITED
To remove wrath
Read comparison hymn VI.42 (3 verses)
As the string from the bow, do I relax (ava-tan) fury from thy heart, that, becoming like-minded, we (two) may hold together (sac) like friends.
We (two) will hold together like friends; I relax thy fury; we cast in thy fury under a stone that is heavy.
I trample upon (abhi-sthā) thy fury, with heel and with front foot, that thou mayest speak not uncontrolled, mayest come unto my intent.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.42 at Wikisource ↗
VI.130 intensifies feeling
The four verses of VI.130 repeat a woman's plea for a man to burn with love. Verse 3 expressly wishes his love to be stronger than hers, and verse 4 calls on divine powers to craze him. The poem gives no prior relationship, breach, injury, or spoken request to try again. It seeks a changed emotional state, not a revised agreement between people. Reading it as a second-chance charm would add a backstory and turn the man's heat into evidence of remorse. Those are substantial inventions. The asymmetry also makes the hymn a poor historical model for reciprocal reconciliation, even though its language of renewed desire may appeal to someone hoping for contact.
VI.139 imagines rejoining after distress
VI.139 ends with the striking comparison of a mongoose putting a divided snake together. The image can evoke repair, and it is more explicit about reunion than VI.130. But the earlier verses ask a plant to dry a woman's heart and mouth so that she suffers longing and wanders after the petitioner. Its union is reached through the discomfort the charm tries to cause, not through a confession of fault or a free choice to rebuild trust. Verse 3 asks that two hearts be pressed together, again emphasizing a desired outcome over a conversation. The final simile cannot be isolated from the coercive route by which the poem seeks to arrive there.
VI.42 cools anger with an unresolved edge
VI.42 uses the image of loosening a bowstring to ease anger, and another verse speaks of placing or subduing wrath like a stone. Such language is closer to the emotional obstacle a second chance might face. Yet its third verse also wants the other person brought under the speaker's intent. The text therefore mixes de-escalation with control; it is not a handbook for apology or consent. Comparing it with VI.130 and VI.139 reveals three different operations: inflaming desire, joining after inflicted longing, and pacifying anger. None tells the reader what a partner did, whether it was repaired, or whether both people want the relationship to resume.
The Second Chance is an original scenario
“Make a target person ask for another chance with me” and The Second Chance are modern benefit and working. No cited hymn promises that a former partner will make that request. A second chance in contemporary life can involve listening, changed behavior, and an explicit decision by both people; those elements are outside these short petitions. The ancient comparisons help identify why a burst of desire or a cooling of anger is insufficient evidence of repair. The modern story can borrow the image of rejoining, but must remain honest that VI.130's heat and VI.139's distress are not historical instructions for a mutual reconciliation.
WORKED READING
Three verbs, no apology
Read VI.130.4 for the request that divine forces burn the man with love. Compare VI.139.5's image of rejoining what was divided, then VI.42.1's loosening of anger like a bowstring. Each verse can be made to sound like an emotional restart if summarized too quickly. In context, however, one heats, one follows a dry-mouth charm, and one eases anger while the hymn still wants influence over the other person. None contains a partner saying what happened or asking to return. That absence marks where the modern second-chance narrative begins.