Anuvaka 3
Suktas in Anuvaka 3
Sukta 21
AVŚ 2.21 is a compact counter-hostility hymn that weaponizes Sūrya’s radiance—haras (burning force), arciṣ (ray), and śóciḥ (flame)—to turn hatred back upon its source. Repeating the refrain “who hates us, whom we hate,” it frames solar heat as a moral-ritual agent of retribution, scorching and repelling the aggressor while protecting the reciter’s side.
Sukta 22
This six-verse Atharvavedic charm invokes Candra (the Moon) as a carrier of haras and tejas—burning, luminous potency—to reverse hostility and return it upon the aggressor. The hymn repeatedly frames the act as justified requital against “the one who hates us,” seeking to strip the enemy of radiance, strength, and effective agency. Its power is conceived as a lunar, transferable force that can be aimed back (prati-hara) to neutralize and punish hostile intent or sorcery.
Sukta 23
AVŚ 2.23 is a compact counter-sorcery hymn that enlists the Waters (Āpaḥ) as a luminous, fiery power capable of reversing hostility. By invoking the waters’ arciṣ (radiance), haraḥ (carrying-off force), and tejas (efficacy), the charm “turns back” harm and strips the aggressor of potency, while implicitly protecting the reciter’s sphere.
Sukta 24
This Atharvavedic counter-sorcery hymn turns a hostile working back upon its author by commanding the yātus (sorcerous agents), the launched “missile” (hetí), and the devouring kīmīdinīs to return to their owner. Its power lies in coercive brahman—effective speech that names, binds, and re-directs the harm so that it consumes the sender rather than the intended victim. The refrain-like imperatives (“punaḥ…yantu…”, “tam atta…”) create a juridical, almost contractual reversal: the agents must devour the one who commissioned them.
Sukta 25
AV 2.25 is a compact bhaiṣajya-apotropaic hymn that enthrones Pṛśniparṇī as a conquering herb-deity whose power can disable hostile persons, sorcery, and miscarriage-causing forces. By verbal “cutting off the head” of the ill-named and by imagining the herb as Agni-like in pursuit, the hymn turns a medicinal plant into a weapon of total neutralization and communal protection.
Sukta 26
AV 2.26 is a paustika-rakṣā hymn for paśu-saṃgraha: it calls cattle to “stream” into the goṣṭha, be rightly led home, and then be firmly held so they do not stray or get lost. By invoking Bṛhaspati as the knowing guide, Sinīvālī as the auspicious leader at the front, and Anumati as the power that grants and secures, the sukta turns the cattle-pen into a ritually sealed center of prosperity and protection.
Sukta 27
AVŚ 2.27 is a protective healing charm centered on a personified Herb (Oṣadhi) administered at the critical moment of eating, so that hostile forces cannot “win the morsel.” Repeating the formula of “morsel and counter‑morsel,” the hymn turns ingestion into a counter-sorcery act, rendering injurers and essence-drainers (arāsaḥ) powerless and securing victory over enemies in an Indra-like mode.
Sukta 28
AV 2.28 is an āyuṣya-bhaiṣajya hymn that turns the worshipper away from jarā-mṛtyu (senescence-and-death) by placing the patient under the joint, orderly protection of Mitra–Varuṇa, with Agni as the knowing ritual mediator. It safeguards prāṇa and apāna, wards off harm from both friends and enemies, and culminates in a blessing for long life, bodily lustre, and the attainment of old age under Aditi and the All-Gods.
Sukta 29
AV 2.29 is a benedictive longevity-and-prosperity charm that “plants” long life in the beneficiary and stabilizes it through divine agencies of heat (Agni), formation (Tvaṣṭṛ), and auspicious impulsion (Savitar). It couples āyuṣya (life-span) with prajā (secure progeny) and rāyas-poṣa (thriving increase of wealth), sealing the blessing with a claim of restored, undecaying vital strength (ūrjā) and radiant well-being (varcas).
Sukta 30
This five-verse Atharvanic charm works by analogical coercion: as Wind churns grass upon the earth, so the operator ‘churns’ and turns the target’s manas toward himself, producing longing and preventing departure. Alongside attraction (strīkarman/paustika-abhicārika), the hymn also deploys an expulsion motif—sending away an intrusive harm as if extracting a thorn from its sheath—showing the Atharvanic habit of pairing “draw-in” and “drive-out” technologies of mind and body.
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