Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book I/Hymn 28

28. Against sorcerers and witches.

[Cātana.—svastyayanam . ānuṣṭubham: 3. virāṭpathyābṛhatī; 4. pathyāpan̄kti.]

The hymn is not found in Pāipp. Though not mentioned as one of the cātanāni by the text of Kāuç., it is added to them by the schol. (8. 25, note). It is once used by itself in a witchcraft ceremony (ābhicārika) for the relief of one frightened, accompanying the tying on of an amulet (26. 26).

Translated: Weber, iv. 423; Griffith, i. 33.

1. Hither hath come forth god Agni, demon-slayer, disease-expeller, burning away deceivers, sorcerers, kimīdíns.

In our text, upá is a misprint for úpa (an accent-sign slipped out of place to the left). The comment on Prāt. iv. 3 quotes the first three words as exemplifying the disconnection of prefixes from a verb.

2. Burn against the sorcerers, against the kimīdíns, O god; burn up the sorceresses that meet thee, O black-tracked one.

In c the comm., with two or three of SPP's authorities that follow him, reads kṛṣṇavartmane (treating it as a vocative).

3. She that hath cursed with cursing, that hath taken malignity as her root (? mū́ra), that hath seized on [our] young to take its sap—let her eat [her own] offspring.

The verse is repeated below as iv. 17. 3, and has there a parallel in Ppp. The comm. first takes mū́ram as for mū́lam (as rendered above), but adds an alternative explanation as mūrchākaram, adjective to agham; he has ādade in place of -dhe. Jātám is metrically an intrusion, but completes the sense.

4. Let the sorceress eat [her own] son, sister, and daughter (? naptī́); then let the horrid-haired sorceresses mutually destroy (vi-han) one another; let the hags (arāyī́) be shattered asunder.

The comm, explains naptī as naptrī or pāutrasya (putrasya?) apatyarūpā saṁtati. He reads yātudhānī (for -nīs) in a, and atha in c.

The 7 hymns of this anuvāka ⌊5.⌋ have 28 verses, as determined by the quoted Anukr.: pañcame 'ṣṭāu.