Anuvaka 2
Suktas in Anuvaka 2
Sukta 11
AV 5.11 is a paustika “sampat-karman” hymn that seeks successful completion of a rite and the steady arrival of bounty (rādhas) through Varuṇa’s favor. It frames prosperity as the result of right speech (stotra), right gifting (dakṣiṇā, especially the speckled cow Pṛśnī), and Varuṇa’s discerning oversight that makes the ritual “land” correctly in the world.
Sukta 12
This hymn is an RV-style Agni liturgy embedded in the Atharvaveda, designed to kindle Agni as Jātavedas and install him as Hotṛ and divine messenger within the human dwelling. By calling Agni together with the Vasus and aligning the rite with ṛta, it ensures that offerings become effectively “carried” to the gods, the ritual proceeds without obstruction, and prosperity and order accrue to the patron.
Sukta 13
AV 5.13 is a bhaiṣajya anti-venom charm that confronts poison (viṣa) as an intelligent, kin-linked hostile force and compels it to loosen and depart. By naming poison’s forms and agents (e.g., Āligī, Viligī; “black,” “brown,” “waterless,” etc.), the hymn turns knowledge into control, “unbinding” the victim as a bowstring is released from the bow. Varuṇa’s sovereign, untying authority underwrites the expulsion of venom whether it is embedded, unembedded, or clinging.
Sukta 14
AV 5.14 is a kṛtyā-pratiṣedha hymn that treats hostile sorcery (kṛtyā) as a graspable, transferable force and commands it to withdraw from the afflicted person. Its core power is reversal: the spell is seized, redirected, and installed “face to face” upon the original agent (kartṛ), so that the harm rebounds to its sender.
Sukta 15
AV 5.15 is a healing and protective charm that vivifies a medicinal herb (Oṣadhi) as a conscious ally, commissioning it to repel disease, hostile forces, and misfortune. Through refrain-driven numerical magnification (2/20, 4/40, 8/80, etc.) and the repeated request for “madhu” (honeyed sweetness), the hymn aims to restore the patient to a pleasant, life-sustaining state. Ṛta functions as the hymn’s legitimating ground: the herb is declared “born of Ṛta” and therefore reliably efficacious.
Sukta 16
This healing hymn is a graded empowerment of a medicinal agent—spoken to as a “bull” of increasing strength and as sap (rasa) that streams—so it can pacify the affliction called vṛṣa-roga. By identificatory speech (“if thou art…”) the remedy is made potent, culminating in a cooling, cleansing resolution where the agent becomes a “giver of waters” (apodaka), restoring balance and vitality.
Sukta 17
AV 5.17 is an expiatory and realm-stabilizing hymn that sacralizes restitution: the wrongful taking of a Brahmin’s wife is undone by returning her, thereby making the guilt “sink away” under divine oversight. By narrating exemplary divine and royal agents (Soma, Mitra–Varuṇa, Agni, the kings holding to satya) and culminating in worship of Urugāya (Viṣṇu), the sukta converts a social-legal repair into a cosmic purification that restores ‘ūrj’—Earth’s sustaining vitality—to the community.
Sukta 18
AV 5.18 is an Atharvanic admonitory hymn that safeguards brahmanical property—especially the Brahmin’s cow—by declaring it ritually inedible and perilous to seize. Addressing the king/rajanya directly, it frames transgression as a breach of Brahman (sacral law) witnessed by the gods, and it deterrently “weaponizes” brahma-tejas as poison, hide, and arrow against the offender.
Sukta 19
AV 5.19 is a socially and ritually sanctioning hymn that brands the brahmajya (Brahman-injurer/Brahman-slayer) as polluted and unfit for the community’s prosperity and purification. By appealing to the Waters (Āpas) as the great medium of cleansing and to the Devas as adjudicators, it withholds the offender from the ‘waters’ share’—i.e., from rites, luck, and reintegration. The hymn’s power lies in making sin visible and consequential: a personified, monstrous brahmahatyā is depicted as shaking the realm, compelling exclusion and/or expiation.
Sukta 20
AV 5.20 is a martial charm that sacralizes the war-drum (dundubhi) as a living, wood-born thunder-weapon whose roar breaks enemy morale and disperses hostile ranks. By equating drum-sound with cosmic reverberation and Indra’s battle-force, the hymn aims to make one’s own side fearless, coordinated, and victorious while the foe is shaken, confused, and routed.
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