Anuvaka 3
Suktas in Anuvaka 3
Sukta 21
This short anuṣṭubh hymn is an Indra-stuti used as an apotropaic charm: it places Indra “in front” of the community as the giver of welfare and fearlessness. Through imperative speech it disperses rakṣas-like harm, hostile assaults, and the enemy’s wrath, and it asks for a wide, superior shelter (mahat śarma) that turns back lethal blows.
Sukta 22
Atharvaveda 1.22 is a short healing charm that drives out harimā́ (the sickly “yellowness” of jaundice/weakness) and restores āyus (long life) and a sound, ruddy varṇa (healthy complexion). It works through transference-magic—shifting the disease-color into plant receptacles and yellow media—while counter-establishing the auspicious red hue around the patient as a protective envelope.
Sukta 23
AVŚ 1.23 is a compact Atharvanic healing charm that “re-darkens” what has turned ominously white—especially kílāsa (white skin patches) and palitá (premature grayness). It invokes a night-born, black-hued herb together with Rājanī (Night) to reverse discoloration, expel Nirṛti-like misfortune, and make the white mark vanish through mantra-force (brahman).
Sukta 24
AVŚ 1.24 is a compact bhaiṣajya hymn that mobilizes a specific Earth-born herb-power—Śyāmā/Āsurī—as a restorative medicine against kilāsa (a depigmenting/skin-disfiguring affliction). The mantras frame the remedy as both a physical pharmakon and a personified δύναμις that “refashions form” (rūpa), returning the skin and body to wholeness and uniform appearance. Mythic victory and vegetal potency underpin the charm, turning disorder (disease/hostility) into ordered, controllable healing power.
Sukta 25
AV 1.25 is a concise Atharvanic healing charm that confronts Takman (fever) as a sentient, name-bound affliction and commands it to “strip away” from the patient on every side. The hymn identifies fever’s hidden origins and forms—burning heat, intermittent fits, grief-like wasting, even a punitive linkage to Varuṇa—then neutralizes it through coercive knowledge (secret name, birthplace) and repeated expulsion formulae.
Sukta 26
AV 1.26 is a compact Atharvanic protection-and-healing charm that first pushes away lethal and hostile forces (the “missile” and the death-principle associated with Yama) and then pivots to securing welfare for body and lineage. Its power lies in imperative expulsion (apotropaic speech) joined to propitiatory softness—asking the invoked power(s) to become “gracious” and to establish well-being and prosperity in the household.
Sukta 27
AV 1.27 is a compact rakṣoghna hymn that turns the mantra itself into a weapon: it scatters, cuts, and drives out hostile intent, preta-linked inauspiciousness, and counter-sorcery directed at a household. Rudra’s Pināka imagery supplies the “cutting/dispersing” force, while Indrāṇī is installed as a victorious presence at the front/threshold so the home is refilled with welfare and the evil-wishers fail.
Sukta 28
AV 1.28 is a compact rakṣoghna (demon- and witch-expelling) hymn that turns back a yātudhānī’s curse, stupor-spell, and life-draining assault on a newborn. It invokes burning, reversal (prati-), and punitive “self-consuming” imagery so the malefic force collapses upon its own source, restoring safety to the child and household.
Sukta 29
Atharvaveda 1.29 is a compact counter-sorcery and rival-subduing hymn that “encloses” hostile forces and compels a protecting power to stand over the community like a guard. It culminates in the binding of a saptnakṣayaṇa maṇi (rival-wasting amulet) to secure victory, political stability (rāṣṭra), and recognized pre-eminence over adversaries and maligners.
Sukta 30
AVŚ 1.30 is a compact longevity-and-protection charm that places the beneficiary under the vigilant guard of the collective gods—Viśve Devāḥ, Vasus, and Ādityas—so that human-caused death does not reach him. It expands protection from personal safety to ritual-space security by “establishing” the properly portioned deities across the five regions (directions), sealing the person within an auspicious, well-guarded sphere.
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