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 win a woman's love
Read comparison hymn VI.8 (3 verses)
As the creeper (líbujā) has completely embraced the tree, so do thou embrace me—that thou mayest be one loving me, that thou mayest be one not going away from me.
As the eagle, flying forth, beats down his wings upon the earth, so do I beat down thy mind—that thou etc. etc.
As the sun goeth at once about heaven-and-earth here, so do I go about thy mind—that thou etc. etc.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.8 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VII ALSO CITED
Against bad dreams
Read comparison hymn VII.100 (105) (1 verse)
I turn away from evil-dreaming, from bad dreaming, from ill-success (ábhūti); I make bráhman my inner [defense]; [I put] away the pains having the aspect of dreams.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VII.100 (105) at Wikisource ↗
VI.130 makes heat the desired effect
In VI.130 a female speaker repeatedly asks divine powers to kindle love in a man. Its third verse is unusually frank: she wants him to love her while she does not love him in the same way. The fourth invokes the Maruts, atmosphere, and Agni to craze and burn him. This is a petition about passion imposed on another person, not a narrative of two people resting together. The bodily vocabulary is feverish rather than consoling. A reader who sees only a broad label such as love charm may miss the imbalance stated within the poem. The exact verse sequence limits what can be claimed for a modern embrace: its warmth has a different emotional and ethical shape from the old hymn's burning.
VI.8 supplies a visible embrace
VI.8 opens with a creeper or vine embracing a tree and asks a woman to cling to the speaker in a similar way. It then changes images: an eagle beating downward becomes a comparison for striking at her mind, and the sun circling heaven becomes a model for encompassing that mind. The repeating aim is that she not depart. The plant image may look gentle if quoted alone, but the eagle and sun comparisons expose the controlling logic that carries through the hymn. It is an embrace metaphor in a waking attraction charm, not a sleep episode. Read beside VI.130, it gives a second mechanism for securing attachment, clinging and mental enclosure rather than divine fire.
The dream verse removes a burden
VII.100 (105) is a compact appeal against bad dreams and dream-like pains. It does not invite a beloved into sleep or transform a troubling vision into a romantic one. Bringing it beside VI.8 and VI.130 helps distinguish three textual actions: clinging to someone in a simile, heating someone's desire, and sending distress out of one's own dreams. The actions cannot be fused without adding a plot that none of the hymns gives. Even the notion that a target will remember such a dream on waking lies outside these lines. The comparison is more useful when it shows where ancient evidence ends than when it supplies an imagined technique.
The Close Embrace Dream is newly imagined
“Make a target person dream of holding me close” and The Close Embrace Dream are original modern working and benefit. No cited hymn promises the dream, directs an image into another person's sleep, or treats a sleeping embrace as consent. The old love charms' pressure upon the other person's desire should be acknowledged, particularly VI.130's request for one-sided intensity. A contemporary reading might instead take the embrace as a wish for closeness freely shared, but that is a new interpretation with its own values. The ancient verses remain valuable as contrasting images of desire and attachment, not as a warrant that someone else will hold the petitioner in a dream.
WORKED READING
Compare heat, clinging, and sleep
Read VI.130.3–4 for the female speaker's unequal wish and her appeal for Agni to burn the man with love. Set that against VI.8.1, where a vine's embrace becomes a model for a woman clinging to the speaker, and then include VI.8's later mental enclosure. Finally read VII.100 (105), where dreams appear only as harms to be driven away. The modern title combines an embrace from one waking charm with sleep from a protective verse, although the assigned hymn contributes fire rather than arms. That reading prevents a comforting image from concealing the coercion in its comparators.