VI, 29. Charm against ominous pigeons and owls.
1. Upon those persons yonder the winged missile
shall fall ! If the owl shrieks, futile shall this be, or
if the pigeon takes his steps upon the fire !
Viii. Charms in Expiation of Sin Etc. 1 67
2. To thy two messengers, O Nirrzti, who come
here, despatched or not despatched, to our house, to
the pigeon and to the owl, this shall be no place to
step upon!
3. He shall not fly hither to slaughter (our) men ;
to keep (our) men sound he shall settle here ! Charm
him very far away unto a distant region, that (people)
shall behold you (i. e. him) in Yama's house devoid of
strength, that they shall behold you bereft of power !
VII, 64. Expiation when one is defiled by a black bird of omen.
1. What this black bird flying forth towards (me)
has dropped here — may the waters protect me from
all that misfortune and evil !
2. What this black bird has brushed here with thy
mouth, O Nirrzti (goddess of misfortune) — may Agni
Garhapatya (the god of the household fire) free me
from this sin !
VI, 46. Exorcism of evil dreams.
1. Thou who art neither alive nor dead, the
immortal child of the gods art thou, O Sleep !
Varu^anl is thy mother, Yama (death) thy father,
Araru is thy name.
2. We know, O Sleep, thy birth, thou art the son
of the divine women-folk, the instrument of Yama
(death) ! Thou art the ender, thou art death ! Thus
do we know thee, O Sleep : do thou, O Sleep, protect
us from evil dreams !
3. As one pays off a sixteenth, an eighth, or an
(entire) debt, thus do we transfer every evil dream
upon our enemy.
1 68 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
VII, 115. Charm for the removal of evil character- istics, and the acquisition of auspicious ones.
1. Fly forth from here, O evil mark, vanish from
here, fly forth to yonder place ! Upon him that
hates us do we fasten thee with a brazen hook.
2. The unsavoury mark which flying has alighted
upon me, as a creeper upon a tree, that mayest thou
put away from us, away from here, O golden-handed
(golden-rayed) Savitar (the sun), bestowing goods
upon us !
3. Together with the body of the mortal, from
his birth, one and a hundred marks are born.
Those that are most foul do we drive away from
here ; the auspicious ones, O £atavedas (Agni), do
thou hold fast for us !
4. These (marks) here I have separated, as cows
scattered upon the heather. The pure marks shall
remain, the foul ones I have made to disappear !
IX.
PRAYERS AND IMPRECATIONS IN THE INTEREST OF THE BRAHMANS.
V, 1 8. Imprecation against the oppressors of Brahmans.
i. The gods, O king, did not give to thee this
(cow) to eat. Do not, O prince, seek to devour the
cow of the Brahma^a, which is unfit to be eaten !
2. The prince, beguiled by dice, the wretched
one who has lost as a stake his own person, he may,
perchance, eat the cow of the Brahma^a, (thinking),
' let me live to-day (if) not to-morrow ' !
3. Enveloped (is she) in her skin, as an adder
with evil poison ; do not, O prince, (eat the cow)
of the Brahma^a : sapless, unfit to be eaten, is
that cow !
4. Away does (the Brahma^a) take regal power,
destroys vigour ; like fire which has caught does
he burn away everything. He that regards the
Brahma^a as fit food drinks of the poison of the
taimata-serpent.
5. He who thinks him (the Brahman) mild, and
slays him, he who reviles the gods, lusts after
wealth, without thought, in his heart Indra kindles
a fire ; him both heaven and earth hate while he
lives.
6. The Brahma^a must not be encroached upon,
17O HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
any more than fire, by him that regards his own body!
For Soma is his (the Br&hma^as) heir, Indra protects
him from hostile plots.
7. He swallows her (the cow), bristling with a
hundred hooks, (but) is unable to digest her, he,
the fool who, devouring the food of the Brahmans,
thinks, * I am eating a luscious (morsel)/
8. (The Brahmans) tongue turns into a bow-
string, his voice into the neck of an arrow; his
windpipe, his teeth are bedaubed with holy fire :
with these the Brahman strikes those who revile
the gods, by means of bows that have the strength
to reach the heart, discharged by the gods.
9. The Brahma^as have sharp arrows, are armed
with missiles, the arrow which they hurl goes not
in vain ; pursuing him with their holy fire and their
wrath, even from afar, do they pierce him.
10. They who ruled over a thousand, and were
themselves ten hundred, the Vaitahavya, when they
devoured the cow of the Brahma/za, perished.
11. The cow herself, when slaughtered, came
down upon the Vaitahavyas, who had roasted for
themselves the last she-goat of Kesaraprabandha.
12. The one hundred and one persons whom the
earth did cast off, because they had injured the
offspring of a Brahma/za, were ruined irretrievably.
13. As a reviler of the gods does he live among
mortals, having swallowed poison, he becomes more
bone (than flesh). He that injureth a Br£hma/za,
whose kin are the gods, does not reach heaven by
the road of the Fathers.
14. Agni is called our guide, Soma our heir,
Indra slays those who curse (us): that the strong
(sages) know.
Ix. Prayers and Imprecations for Brahmans. 171
15. Like a poisoned arrow, O king, like an
adder, O lord of cattle, is the terrible arrow of the
Brahma/za : with that he smites those who revile
(the gods).
V, 19. Imprecation against the oppressors of Brahmans.
1. Beyond measure they waxed strong, just fell
short of touching the heavens. When they in-
fringed upon Bhrzgu they perished, the SrzVz£*aya
Vaitahavyas.
2. The persons who pierced Brzhatsaman, the
descendant of Angiras, the Brahma/za — a ram with
two rows of teeth, a sheep devoured their offspring.
3. They who spat upon the Brahma/za, who desired
tribute from him, they sit in the middle of a pool of
blood, chewing hair.
4. The cow of the Brahman, when roasted, as far
as she reaches does she destroy the lustre of the
kingdom ; no lusty hero is born (there).
5. A cruel (sacrilegious) deed is her slaughter,
her meat, when eaten, is sapless ; when her milk
is drunk, that surely is accounted a crime against
the Fathers.
6. When the king, weening himself mighty, de-
sires to destroy the Brahma/za, then royal power is
dissipated, where the Brahma/za is oppressed.
7. Becoming eight-footed, four-eyed, four-eared,
four-jawed, two-mouthed, two-tongued, she dispels
the rule of the oppressor of the Brahman.
8. That (kingdom) surely she swamps, as water
a leaking ship ; misfortune strikes that kingdom, in
which they injure a Brahma/za.
9. The trees chase away with the words : ' do not
172 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
come within our shade/ him who covets the wealth that belongs to a Brahma/za, O Narada !
10. King Varu/za pronounced this (to be) poison,
prepared by the gods : no one who has devoured
the cow of a Brahma//a retains the charge of a
kingdom.
1 1 . Those full nine and ninety whom the earth
did cast off, because they had injured the offspring
of a Brahma/za, were ruined irretrievably.
12. The kudi-plant (Christ's thorn) that wipes
away the track (of death), which they fasten to the
dead, that very one, O oppressor of Brahmans, the
gods did declare (to be) thy couch.
13. The tears which have rolled from (the eyes
of) the oppressed (Brahman), as he laments, these
very ones, O oppressor of Brahmans, the gods did
assign to thee as thy share of water.
14. The water with which they bathe the dead,
with which they moisten his beard, that very one,
O oppressor of Brahmans, the gods did assign to
thee as thy share of water.
15. The rain of Mitra and Varu^a does not
moisten the oppressor of Brahmans ; the assembly
is not complacent for him, he does not guide his
friend according to his will.
V, 7. Prayer to appease Arati, the demon of grudge and avarice.
1. Bring (wealth) to us, do not stand in our way,
O Arati ; do not keep from us the sacrificial reward
as it is being taken (to us) ! Adoration be to the
power of grudge, the power of failure, adoration to
Arati !
Ix. Prayers and Imprecations for Brahmans. I 73
2. To thy advising minister, whom thou, Arati,
didst make thy agent, do we make obeisance. Do
not bring failure to my wish !
3. May our wish, instilled by the gods, be fulfilled
by day and night ! We go in quest of Ar&ti.
Adoration be to Arati !
4. Sarasvati (speech), Anumati (favour), and Bhaga
(fortune) we go to invoke. Pleasant, honied, words
I have spoken on the occasions when the gods were
invoked.
5. Him whom I implore with Va/6 Sarasvati (the
goddess of speech), the yoke-fellow of thought, faith
shall find to-day, bestowed by the brown soma !
6. Neither our wish nor our speech do thou frus-
trate ! May Indra and Agni both bring us wealth !
Do ye all who to-day desire to make gifts to us
gain favour with Arati !
7. Go far away, failure ! Thy missile do we
avert. I know thee (to be) oppressive and piercing,
O Ar&ti !
8. Thou dost even transform thyself into a naked
woman, and attach thyself to people in their sleep,
frustrating, O Ar&ti, the thought and intention of
man.
9. To her who, great, and of great dimension,
did penetrate all the regions, to this golden-locked
Nirr/ti (goddess of misfortune), I have rendered
obeisance.
10. To the gold-complexioned, lovely one, who
rests upon golden cushions, to the great one, to
that Arati who wears golden robes, I have rendered
obeisance.
174 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
XII, 4. The necessity of giving away sterile cows to the Brahmans.
1 . ' I give/ he shall surely say, ' the sterile cow to
the begging Brahmans' — and they have noted her —
that brings progeny and offspring !
2. With his offspring does he trade, of his cattle
is he deprived, that refuses to give the cow of the
gods to the begging descendants of the i?/shis.
3. Through (the gift of) a cow with broken horns
his (cattle) breaks down, through a lame one he
tumbles into a pit, through a mutilated one his
house is burned, through a one-eyed one his property
is given away.
4. Flow of blood attacks the cattle-owner from
the spot where her dung is deposited : this under-
standing there is about the vaici (the sterile cow) ;
for thou (sterile cow) art said to be very difficult to
deceive !
5. From the resting-place of her feet the (disease)
called viklindu overtakes (the owner, or the cattle).
Without sickness breaks down (the cattle) which she
sniffs upon with her nose.
6. He that pierces her ears is estranged from
the gods. He thinks : ' I am making a mark (upon
her)/ (but) he diminishes his own property.
7. If any one for whatsoever purpose cuts her
tail then do his colts die, and the wolf tears his
calves.
8. If a crow has injured her hair, as long as she
is with her owner then do his children die : decline
overtakes them without (noticeable) sickness.
9. If the serving-maid sweeps together her dung,
Ix. Prayers and Imprecations for Brahmans. I 75
that bites as lye, there arises from this sin disfigure- ment that passeth not away.
10. The sterile cow in her very birth is born for
the gods and Brahma/zas. Hence to the Brahmans
she is to be given : that, they say, guarantees the
security of one's own property.
11. For those that come requesting her the cow
has been created by the gods. Oppression of
Brahmans it is called, if he keeps her for himself.
12. He that refuses to give the cow of the gods
to the descendants of the i?zshis who ask for it,
infringes upon the gods, and the wrath of the
Brahma/zas.
13. Though he derives benefit from this sterile
cow, another (cow) then shall he seek ! When kept
she injures (his) folk, if he refuses to give her after
she has been asked for !
14. The sterile cow is as a treasure deposited for
the Brahma/zas : they come here for her, with whom-
soever she is born.
15. The Brahma^as come here for their own,
when they come for the sterile cow. The refusal of
her is, as though he were oppressing them in other
concerns.
16. If she herds up to her third year, and no
disease is discovered in her, and he finds her to be
a sterile cow, O N&rada, then must he look for the
Brahma/zas.
17. If he denies that she is sterile, a treasure de-
posited for the gods, then Bhava and .Sarva, both,
come upon him, and hurl their arrow upon him.
18. Though he does not perceive upon her either
udder, or tits, yet both yield him milk, if he has
prevailed upon himself to give away the sterile cow.