Anuvaka 2
Suktas in Anuvaka 2
Sukta 11
This sukta sacralizes a socially liminal but ritually potent observance—the twelve “Vrātya nights”—by locating it within Prajāpati’s creative order and by identifying its discipline as the “bull’s vow” (anaḍuho vratam). It simultaneously links consecration with agrarian strength: the sound, laboring draft-ox, lawful exchange (giver/receiver), and the right knowledge of Brahman together authorize prosperity, fertility, and ritual legitimacy.
Sukta 12
This Atharvavedic healing hymn is a bone-setting and wound-knitting charm that reconstitutes the body “joint with joint,” restoring marrow, flesh, skin, and bone after fracture, dislocation, or cutting injury. It invokes Dhātṛ as the cosmic Ordainer who can reassemble what has been shattered, while simultaneously empowering the oṣadhi (healing plant, often identified with Rohiṇī) to “set together” and regrow damaged tissues.
Sukta 13
AV 4.13 is a compact Atharvanic healing-prayer that asks the Viśve Devāḥ to raise up a person laid low by illness and to restore life even where sickness is bound to fault (āgas) or ritual-moral taint. It builds a protective ring—Gods, Maruts, and “all beings”—around the patient, and culminates in a mantra-guided therapeutic touch where hands empowered by correct speech generate anāmaya (freedom from disease). The hymn’s power lies in coupling expiation with revival: removal of the cause (offense/impurity) and reinstallation of vitality.
Sukta 14
AV 4.14 is a heaven-seeking (svargakāmya) Atharvanic hymn that ritualizes “ascent” through the three cosmic stations—Earth, Midspace, and Heaven—culminating in the light of Svàr. It fuses visionary language of climbing to nāka with precise sacrificial-technical directions (fivefold porridge, directional placement of a goat), constructing a cosmos in miniature so the sacrificer may secure prosperity here and luminous standing beyond.
Sukta 15
This Atharvavedic rain-charm summons Parjanya’s showers by mobilizing clouds, winds, and waters, and by treating frogs’ renewed croaking as the audible omen that the rainy season has truly arrived. The hymn blends cosmic command (clouds from all directions) with village-level ritual realism (pond, frogs, sound), aiming to restore agricultural rhythm, food security, and communal well-being.
Sukta 16
AV 4.16 is a juridical Atharvanic hymn that invokes Varuṇa as the infallible examiner of truth and falsehood, with the Viśve Devāḥ as universal witnesses, to expose theft and force confession. It builds a theology of divine surveillance—earth, heaven, and even a little water conceal Varuṇa—so that concealment becomes impossible. The hymn culminates in punitive binding (Varuṇa-pāśa) of the liar/thief, functioning as a spoken oath-ordeal that protects social order (ṛta) by compelling truthful speech.
Sukta 17
AV 4.17 elevates Apāmārga as the “sovereign of medicines,” grasped for victory over disease, nightmare-illness, and hostile forces. The hymn works both as bhaiṣajya (curative) and rakṣā (protective expulsion), using the plant’s sweeping/wiping symbolism to remove what has “settled” on the patient. Its mantric force frames Apāmārga as an agada (antidote) that actively goes forth to undo affliction and malign speech.
Sukta 18
AV 4.18 is a counter-sorcery hymn that turns hostile kṛtyā (manufactured witchcraft) back upon its sender, protecting an innocent household and its livelihood. Centering the apotropaic force of Apāmārga as an oṣadhi-power, the sukta claims the mantra’s ability to “spoil” sorcery done in fields, cattle, and persons, and to cripple the adversary’s capacity to act while securing blessing for the client.
Sukta 19
This hymn deploys Apāmārga (the ‘sweeper-away’ plant) as a living, cutting, and bond-restoring power: it severs recurring, ‘year-haunting’ affliction and breaks hostile kṛtyā (engineered sorcery) aimed at the household line. Alongside the healing aim, it rebuilds social cohesion—making ‘friend’ and ‘kinsman’—while erecting a quantified protective perimeter (hundredfold/thousandfold) strengthened by Indra’s ojas.
Sukta 20
This hymn is a rakṣoghna-bhaiṣajya charm that empowers a revelatory oṣadhi to expose hidden harmful beings (kīmīdins, piśācas, rakṣas) and thereby make them controllable and expellable. The herb is treated as a seeing-power placed in the practitioner’s right hand, granting discernment across all disguises and movements. By forcing manifestation (āviṣkṛ-) of concealed forms, the sukta converts invisible affliction into a visible, nameable target fit for removal and protection of patient or household.
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