CHARMS TO CURE DISEASES AND POSSESSION BY DEMONS OF DISEASE (BHAISHAGYANI).
V, 22. Charm against takman (fever) and related diseases.
1. May Agni drive the takman away from here,
may Soma, the press-stone, and Varumza, of tried
skill; may the altar, the straw (upon the altar), and
the brightly-flaming fagots (drive him away)! Away
to naught shall go the hateful powers !
2. Thou that makest all men sallow, inflaming
them like a searing fire, even now, O takman, thou
shalt become void of strength: do thou now go
away down, aye, into the depths!
3. The takman that is spotted, covered with
spots, like reddish sediment, him thou, (O plant) of
unremitting potency, drive away down below!
4. Having made obeisance to the takman, I cast
him down below: let him, the champion of Sakam-
bhara, return again to the Mahavvzshas!
5. His home is with the Magavants, his home
4 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
with the Mahavvéshas. From the moment of thy birth thou art indigenous with the Balhikas.
6. O takman, vydala, vi gada, vyanga, hold off
(thy missile) far! Seek the gadabout slave-girl,
strike her with thy bolt!
7. O takman, go to the Magavants, or to the
Balhikas farther away! Seek the lecherous Sddra-
female: her, O takman, give a good shaking-up !
8. Go away to the Mahavvzshas and the Miga-
vants, thy kinsfolk, and consume them! Those
(regions) do we bespeak for the takman, or these
regions here other (than ours).
9. (If) in other regions thou dost not abide, mayest
thou that art powerful take pity on us! Takman,
no’, has become eager: he will go to the Balhikas.
10. When thou, being cold, and then again de-
liriously hot, accompanied by cough, didst cause the
(sufferer) to shake, then, O takman, thy missiles were
terrible: from these surely exempt us!
11. By no means ally thyself with baldsa, cough
and spasm! From there do thou not return hither
again: that, O takman, do I ask of thee!
12. O takman, along with thy brother baldsa,
along with thy sister cough, along with thy cousin
paman, go to yonder foreign folk!
13. Destroy the takman that returns on (each)
third day, the one that intermits (each) third day,
the one that continues without intermission, and the
autumnal one; destroy the cold takman, the hot,
him that comes in summer, and him that arrives in
the rainy season!
14. To the Gandhiris, the Magavants, the Angas,
and the Magadhas, we deliver over the takman, like
a servant, like a treasure!
I. Charms to Cure Diseases, 3
VI, 20. Charm against takman (fever).
1. As if from this Agni (fire), that burns and
flashes, (the takman) comes. Let him then, too,
as a babbling drunkard, pass away! Let him, the
impious one, search out some other person, not
ourselves! Reverence be to the takman with the
burning weapon!
2. Reverence be to Rudra, reverence to the
takman, reverence to the luminous king Varuza!
Reverence to heaven, reverence to earth, reverence
to the plants! .
3. To thee here, that burnest through, and
. turnest all bodies yellow, to the red, to the brown,
to the takman produced by the forest, do I render
obeisance.
I, 25. Charm against takman (fever).
1. When Agni, having entered the waters, burned,
where the (gods) who uphold the order (of the
universe) rendered homage (to Agni), there, they
say, is thy origin on high: do thou feel for us, and
spare us, O takman!
2. Whether thou art flame, whether thou art
heat, or whether from licking chips (of wood) thou
hast arisen, Hridu by name art thou, O god of
the yellow: do thou feel for us, and spare us,
O takman!
3. Whether thou art burning, whether thou art
scorching, or whether thou art the son of king
Varuza, Hrfidu by name art thou, O god of the
yellow: do thou feel for us, and spare us, O
takman !
4 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
4. To the cold takman, and to the deliriously
hot, the glowing, do I render homage. To him
that returns on the morrow, to him that returns for
two (successive) days, to the takman that returns
on the third day, homage shall be!
VII, 116. Charm against takman (fever).
1. Homage (be) to the deliriously hot, the
shaking, exciting, impetuous (takman)! Homage to
the cold (takman), to him that in the past fulfilied
desires !
2. May (the takman) that returns on the morrow,
he that returns on two (successive) days, the impious
one, pass into this frog!
V,4. Prayer to the kush/Za-plant to destroy takman (fever).
1. Thou that art born upon the mountains, as
the most potent of plants, come hither, O kush/Za,
destroyer of the takman, to drive out from here the
takman !
2. To thee (that growest) upon the mountain, the
brooding-place of the eagle, (and) art sprung from
Himavant, they come with treasures, having heard
(thy fame). For they know (thee to be) the de-
stroyer of the takman.
3. The asvattha-tree is the seat of the gods in
the third heaven from here. There the gods pro-
cured the kush¢ha, the visible manifestation of
amyvzta (ambrosia).
4. A golden ship with golden tackle moved upon
the heavens. There the gods procured the kush/fa,
the flower of amzzta (ambrosia).
I. Charms to Cure Diseases, 5
5. The paths were golden, and golden were the
oars; golden were the ships, upon which they car-
ried forth the kush¢fa hither (to the mountain).
6. This person here, O kush¢/a, restore for me,
and cure him! Render him free from sickness
for me!
7. Thou art born of the gods, thou art Soma’s
good friend. Be thou propitious to my in-breathing
and my out-breathing, and to this eye of mine!
. 8. Sprung in the north from the Himavant (moun-
tains), thou art brought to the people in the east.
There the most superior varieties of the kush¢a
were apportioned. _
9. ‘Superior, O kush¢ha, is thy name; ‘superior’ |
is the name of thy father. Do thou drive out all
disease, and render the takman devoid of strength!
10. Pain in the head, affliction in the eye, and
ailment of the body, all that shall the kush¢a
heal—a divinely powerful (remedy), forsooth !
XIX, 39. Prayer to the kush¢#a-plant to destroy takman (fever), and other ailments.
1. May the protecting god kush¢/a come hither
from the Himavant: destroy thou every takman,
and all female spooks!
2. Three names hast thou, O kush¢ha, (namely:
kush¢/a), na-gha-mara (‘forsooth-no-death’), and
na-gha-risha (‘forsooth-no-harm’). Verily no harm
shall suffer (na ghd... rishat) this person here, for
whom I bespeak thee morn and eve, aye the (entire)
day !
3. Thy mother’s name is givala (‘quickening’), thy father’s name is givanta (‘living’). Verily no
6 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
harm shall suffer this person here, for whom I be- speak thee morn and eve, aye the entire day! .
4. Thou art the most superior of the plants, as
a steer among cattle, as the tiger among beasts of
prey. Verily no harm shall suffer this person here,
for whom I bespeak thee morn and eve, aye the
entire day!
5. Thrice begotten by the SAambu Angiras, thrice
by the Adityas, and thrice by all the gods, this
kushz#a, a universal remedy, stands together with
soma. Destroy thou every takman, and all female
spooks !
6. The asvattha-tree is the seat of the gods in
the third heaven from here. There came to sight
the amvzta (ambrosia), there the kush¢a-plant was
born.
7. A golden ship with golden tackle moved upon
the heavens. There came to sight the amvczta, there
the kush¢/a-plant was born.
8. On the spot where the ship glided down, on
the peak of the Himavant, there came to sight the
ambrosia, there the kush¢/a-plant was born. This
kush¢a, a universal remedy, stands together with
soma. Destroy thou every takman, and all female
spooks !
9. (We know) thee whom Ikshvaku knew of yore,
whom the women, fond of kush¢Za, knew, whom
Vayasa and Matsya knew: therefore art thou a
universal remedy.
10, The takman that returns on each third day,
the one that continues without intermission, and
the yearly one, do thou, (O plant) of unremitting
strength, drive away down below!
I. CHARMS TO CURE DISEASES.
“Si
I,12. Prayer to ligktning, conceived as the cause of fever, headache, and cough.
1. The first red bull, born of the (cloud-)womb,
born of wind and clouds, comes on thundering with
rain. May he, that cleaving moves straight on, spare
our bodies; he who, a single force, has passed through
threefold !
2. Bowing down to thee that fastenest thyself with
heat upon every limb, we would reverence thee with
oblations; we would reverence with oblations the
crooks and hooks of thee that hast, asa seizer, seized
the limbs of this person.
3. Free him from headache and also from cough,
(produced by the lightning) that has entered his
every joint! May the flashing (lightning), that is
born of the cloud, and born of the wind, strike the
trees and the mountains !
4. Comfort be to my upper limb, comfort be to
my nether ; comfort be to my four members, comfort
to my entire body!
J, 22. Charm against jaundice and related diseases.
1. Up to the sun shall go thy heart-ache and thy
jaundice : in the colour of the red bull do we envelop
thee!
2. We envelop thee in red tints, unto long life.
May this person go unscathed, and be free of yellow
colour !
3. [he cows whose divinity is Rohizi, they who,
moreover, are (themselves) red (rdhiziZ)—(in their)
every form and every strength we do envelop thee.
8 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
4. Into the parrots, into the ropazakds (thrush)
do we put thy jaundice, and, furthermore, into the
haridravas (yellow wagtail) do we put thy jaundice.
VI, 14. Charm against the disease balasa.
1. The internal disease that has set in, that
crumbles the bones, and crumbles the joints, every
bald4sa do thou drive out, that which is in the limbs,
and in the joints! .
2. The baldsa of him that is afflicted with baldsa
do I remove, as one gelds a lusty animal. Its con-
nection do I cut off as the root of a pumpkin.
3. Fly forth from here, O balasa, as a swift foal
(after the mare). And even, as the reed in every
year, pass away without slaying men!
VI, 105. Charm against cough.
1. As the soul with the soul’s desires swiftly to a
distance flies, thus do thou, O cough, fly forth along
the soul's course of flight !
2. As a well-sharpened arrow swiftly to a distance
flies, thus do thou, O cough, fly forth along the
expanse of the earth!
3. As the rays of the sun swiftly to a distance Ay,
thus do thou, O cough, fly forth along the flood of
the sea!
I, 2. Charm against excessive discharges from
the body.
1. We know the father of the arrow, Parganya,
who furnishes bountiful fluid, and well do we know
his mother, Przthivi (earth), the multiform !
2. O bowstring, turn aside from us, turn my body
I. Charms to Cure Diseases. 9
into stone! Do thou firmly hold very far away the hostile powers and the haters!
3. When the bowstring, embracing the wood (of
the bow), greets with a whiz the eager arrow, do
thou, O Indra, ward off from us the piercing mis-
sile !
4. As the point (of the arrow) stands in the way
of heaven and earth, thus may the muviga-grass
unfailingly stand in the way of sickness and (exces-
sive) discharge !
II, 3. Charm against excessive discharges from the body, undertaken with spring-water.
1. The spring-water yonder which runs down
upon the mountain, that do I render healing for
thee, in order that thou mayest contain a potent
remedy.
2. Then surely, yea quite surely, of the hundred
remedies contained in thee, thou art the most superior
in checking discharges and removing pain.
3. Deep down do the Asuras bury this great
healer of wounds: that is the cure for discharges,
and that hath removed disease.
4. The ants bring the remedy from the sea: that
is the cure for discharges, and that hath quieted
disease.
5. This great healer of wounds has been gotten
out of the earth: that is the cure for discharges, and
that hath removed disease.
6. May the waters afford us welfare, may the
herbs be propitious to us! Indra’s bolt shall beat off
the Rakshas, far (from us) shall fly the arrows cast
by the Rakshas!
IO HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
VI, 44. Charm against excessive discharges from the body.
1. The heavens have stood still, the earth has
stood still, all creatures have stood still. The trees
that sleep erect have stood still: may this disease
of thine stand still !
2. Of the hundred remedies which thou hast, of
the thousand that have been collected, this is the
most excellent cure for discharges, the best remover
of disease.
3. Thou art the urine of Rudra, the navel of
amvzta (ambrosia). Thy name, forsooth, is visha-
makA, (thou art) arisen from the foundation of the
Fathers, a remover of diseases produced by the
winds (of the body).