Anuvaka 14
Suktas in Anuvaka 14
Sukta 131
This brief Atharvavedic charm works as a vaśīkaraṇa (coercive attraction) rite: Smara/Kāma is ‘driven’ into the target’s head and mind so that the person burns with longing for the performer. The gods are treated as enforcers who propel desire, while Anumati (consent/assent) and Ākūti (intention) are invoked to authorize and energize the act; the final verse adds a “return” motif, pressing an absent man to come back and resume household/paternal duty.
Sukta 132
This short Atharvanic charm works by “installing” Smara (Kāma) into the waters and then redirecting his inner burning (tapas) toward a chosen target. Its coercive force is legitimized by Varuṇa’s dharma—his binding ordinance—so desire is framed as an enforceable cosmic constraint rather than mere emotion. Repeated formulae name different divine “installers” (Gods, Indrāṇī, Mitra-Varuṇa), emphasizing that passion can be infused, carried, and activated through water as a medium.
Sukta 133
This short Atharvavedic hymn sacralizes the mekhalā (vow-girdle) as a binding that protects, disciplines, and empowers the wearer—especially in the context of brahmacarya and consecratory restraint. By attributing the act of binding to a divine “binder” and to primordial ṛṣi precedent, it turns the girdle into an apotropaic encirclement that wards off death’s pull toward Yama and secures safe completion of the vow and auspicious release.
Sukta 134
AV 6.134 is a compact rāṣṭrabhṛt-abhicārika charm that weaponizes Indra’s vajra—treated as a living, punitive force—to protect the realm by breaking and burying hostile aggressors. It couples political boundary-protection with lethal suppression: the enemy’s life is struck away, his movement is forced downward into the earth, and the vajra is commanded to pursue him even to the sīmanta (border). The hymn’s distinctive claim is that metrical recitation itself (explicitly Uṣṇih) functions as an operative “tool” that sharpens the vajra’s efficacy, recalling Indra’s paradigmatic slaying of Vṛtra.
Sukta 135
This short Atharvanic hymn is a force-charm that sacralizes eating, drinking, and swallowing as acts of bala (strength) acquisition modeled on Indra’s vajra-power. By identifying the performer’s ingestion with cosmic absorption (the ocean) and Indra’s Vṛtra-slaying, it aims to draw vitality into oneself while draining an opponent’s prāṇa. The result is paustika reinforcement with an explicit abhicārika edge: strengthening the self by subduing the other.
Sukta 136
AV 6.136 is a brief healing charm that sacralizes an unnamed herb as “born upon the Goddess Earth,” then applies it to secure, thicken, and regenerate hair. The hymn moves from reverent extraction of the plant to a direct command for firmness and new growth, concluding with a sprinkling/unction of an “all-healing” vegetal remedy against hair-fall and breakage.
Sukta 137
This brief Bhaiṣajya hymn empowers a specific hair-growing herb (Keśavardhanī) through remembered lineage—Jamadagni’s discovery for his daughter and Vītahavya’s proper acquisition from Asita’s house. The mantras then “measure” and shape the desired growth: hairs should rise evenly like reeds, dark and abundant, while the herb is commanded to strengthen root, tip, and mid-length. The sukta thus combines provenance (authority of tradition) with direct medicinal-command to secure thick, stable hair growth.
Sukta 138
This short Abhicāra hymn weaponizes Oṣadhi (the sovereign herb) as a coercive, binding power to induce klībatva (sexual impotence) and submissiveness in a targeted man. Through blunt performative declarations (“I have made thee impotent”) and sympathetic acts of covering and splitting, the sukta aims to sap virility, obstruct potency, and enforce compliance.
Sukta 139
This five-verse Atharvavedic charm channels Kāma (desire) as a coercive force to produce love-sickness—"drying" the target’s heart and mouth until they come under the operator’s influence. The hymn blends oṣadhi-power (Nyastikā/Sahasraparṇī) with psychological compulsion, using vivid somatic imagery (parching, thirst, withering) as the mechanism of attraction and control.
Sukta 140
This brief domestic healing charm addresses the erupting “two Teeth” as a potentially fierce, biting power that can disturb the household during teething. By offering a small bali-portion of staple grains and invoking Brahmaṇaspati and Agni (Jātavedas), the hymn redirects the “ghora” (dreadful) aspect elsewhere and seals a blessing: let the teeth become auspicious and not harm father and mother, while prosperity (ratna) accrues to the home.
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