Anuvaka 10
Suktas in Anuvaka 10
Sukta 91
This one-mantra hymn invokes Indra as Sutrāmā (“the good protector”) to secure gracious protection, repel hostility, and establish fearlessness. It also asks for “lordship of excellent heroism” (suvīrya)—a blend of prosperity, status, and victorious strength under Indra’s guarding power.
Sukta 92
This one-verse Atharvavedic charm invokes Indra as Sutrāmā (“the good protector”) to push hostility and ill-will far away from the reciter and their community. Its power is both apotropaic (driving off dveṣas, hatred) and social-ethical (establishing bhadra-saumānasa, auspicious concord). The hymn frames safety and harmony as gifts of Indra’s favorable mind (sumati) toward the worshipper.
Sukta 93
This single-verse martial charm invokes Indra empowered by Manyu (battle-wrath) to surge against a hostile aggressor and break all Vr̥tra-like obstructions. Its force is apotropaic and abhicārika: it aims to render the enemy’s resistance futile while making the practitioner’s advance “irresistible.”
Sukta 94
This one-verse Atharvavedic concord (sāṃmanasya) charm uses a “firm” (dhruva) offering to draw down Soma as the stabilizing ritual essence. It petitions Indra as kevalī (“sole lord/unchallenged leader”) to unify the viśaḥ (clans/peoples) into a single mind, strengthening communal stability and coordinated action.
Sukta 95
This short śatrunāśana hymn drives out paired hostile agencies imagined as dark death-birds and as “burning/piercing” tormentors lodged in an enemy’s heart and body. It asserts the speaker’s coercive mastery—lifting, expelling, and finally binding—so that malign portents withdraw and the offender’s vitality (especially sexual potency) is checked. The sukta thus functions as an apotropaic expulsion-and-binding spell aimed at neutralizing threat and enforcing social order.
Sukta 96
This one-verse Atharvavedic charm fixes the household’s prosperity firmly in place while driving away hostile portents and predatory forces. By aligning the home with images of settled cattle and immovable mountains, it “stations” danger (symbolized by wolves) so it cannot roam and harm the patron. The hymn’s power is apotropaic stabilization: to make the dwelling a secured, non-leaking container of wealth and safety.
Sukta 97
This sukta is a yajña-framed prosperity and auspiciousness hymn that gathers all supports of success—mind/intention, cattle-wealth, patrons, mantra-power, and the gods’ favor—into a single, concordant outcome. Indra is asked to “lead together” (sam-) the rite and its resources, while brief svāhā-formulas present and stabilize the offering as effective across the cosmic realms. The hymn’s power lies in unification: aligning human resolve, ritual speech, and divine consent so the sacrifice lands rightly and yields welfare and vigor.
Sukta 98
This one-mantra sukta is a śrauta-style “dispatch” formula that consecrates the barhis and havis with ghee and then ritually sends the oblation to Indra. By naming Indra together with the Vasus, Maruts, and Viśve Devāḥ, it frames the offering as divinely escorted and socially validated within the cosmic assembly, ensuring acceptance at the deity’s seat. The hymn’s power lies in its performative sequencing: anointing → uniting with divine groups → directing the oblation to its proper recipient under the sealing call svāhā.
Sukta 99
This one-mantra hymn is a protective enclosure (pari-dhā/pari-staraṇa) for the vedi, treating the ritual space as a living power that must be properly spread, bounded, and guarded. It petitions that one’s “own” (jāmi)—people, goods, and ritual requisites—not be stolen, especially in vulnerable conditions such as sleep, and it anchors prosperity through the golden, green-hued Hotṛ-seat and niṣka as tokens of secured wealth within the yajamāna’s domain.
Sukta 100
This one-mantra śānti charm turns back duḥsvapna—evil or ominous dreaming—and the misfortune believed to arise from it. By a forceful verbal act (“I turn it back on every side”), the hymn repels dream-born pāpa and restores bhūti (thriving, well-being). It functions as an apotropaic seal placed at the liminal boundary of sleep, reversing harm before it can manifest in waking life.
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