Anuvaka 4
Suktas in Anuvaka 4
Sukta 31
This brief cosmological-paustika hymn invokes the cosmic Cow (Gauḥ/Pṛśni) as the nourishing principle that establishes beings between Mother and Father and leads them toward svàr (heavenly light). It links prosperity to right cosmic ordering: vital breath (prāṇa/apāna) reveals the sovereign luminous power, and Vāk (sacred speech) is anchored in the sun’s flight and the measured stations of time. Recited for increase, cattle-wealth, vitality, and auspicious alignment with the daily and heavenly rhythms.
Sukta 32
AV 6.32 is a compact rakṣohā (demon-expelling) hymn that weaponizes the household fire and divine sovereignty to drive away yātudhānas, rākṣasas, and piśācas from the home and its boundaries. It combines fiery counter-attack (Agni), bodily disabling force (Rudra), and juridical-protective order (Mitra–Varuṇa) to render the attackers unable to locate the family or its “standing-place” (pratiṣṭhā), finally consigning them to Yama (removal/death).
Sukta 33
AV 6.33 is a compact Indra-stuti used to draw in broad, auspicious, “good-looking” wealth and to keep that prosperity from being overpowered or taken away. Across three mantras it praises Indra’s vast domain and unassailable force, converting that divine “śavaḥ” (might) into human success—gain, social standing, victory, and renown.
Sukta 34
AV 6.34 is a compact Agni-protective charm that repeatedly asks the “bright, sharp-flaming” Fire to ferry the chanter across hostility and obstruction. Agni is praised as rakṣohā (demon-crusher) and as an all-seeing guardian whose transcendent birth “beyond the rajas” makes him uniquely able to lead one past both visible enemies and hidden malice.
Sukta 35
This brief three-verse hymn summons Vaiśvānara Agni from “afar” into the household/sacrificial sphere, asking him to draw near to well-made praise and to stand present in moments of distress (aṃhas). It frames Agni not only as protector but as the inner organizer of stoma and uktha, whose correct ordering generates dyumna (splendour), svaḥ (heavenly light), and the stabilizing favour of Aryaman.
Sukta 36
AV 6.36 invokes Vaiśvānara-Agni as the lord of ṛta’s light, asking for unceasing gharma (protective warmth) that dispels coldness, misfortune, and ritual breakdown. It then expands Agni’s role from household fire to cosmic regulator—ordering all things, releasing the seasons in harmony with ṛta, and carrying the sacrifice to completion. The final verse crowns this power as a single sovereign radiance, where Agni and Kāma converge as the ruling force over what has been and what will be.
Sukta 37
AV 6.37 is a compact counter-curse hymn that invokes Śapatha—the personified, all-seeing oath/curse-force—to hunt down the one who has uttered a harmful imprecation. It tears the curse out of the victim’s inner life (hṛd) and redirects the punitive momentum back onto the curser with the inevitability of fire and lightning. The final turn consigns the offender to Mṛtyu, sealing the reversal and restoring safety to the household/community.
Sukta 38
AV 6.38 is a varcasyam charm that summons Tvís/Várchas—personified splendour—out of the most prestigious and forceful loci in nature and society (predators, fire, sun, royal and martial instruments). By repeatedly naming where “lustre” already resides and asking the Devī to come “in concord,” the hymn internalizes charisma, authority, and victorious brilliance in the reciter or patron, with Indra held up as the sovereign exemplar she herself “brought forth.”
Sukta 39
AV 6.39 is a compact royal-prosperity charm that concentrates Indra’s victorious impulse (indrajūta) into the social goods of rāṣṭra (stable dominion), yaśas (public fame), and varcas (radiant presence). Across three mantras it treats fame as something that can be ritually nourished like an oblation, then claimed as an enduring, publicly visible pre-eminence (jyeṣṭhatā).
Sukta 40
This short Atharvanic protection-hymn establishes a complete “field of fearlessness” (abhaya) around a village and its people by invoking cosmic supports—Heaven-and-Earth, the midspace, Soma, Savitar, and the Seven Seers. It then turns to Indra to render the community “foeless” in all directions, while redirecting hostile wrath away from the settlement. The hymn functions as a compact apotropaic seal (dig-bandhana) that expands from cosmic order to local security.
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