Atharva Veda Anuvaka 4
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Kanda 1910 Suktas71 Mantras

Anuvaka 4

Maṇi- and oṣadhi-based protection and restoration: prosperity, warding of hostile forces, and healing of wasting/fever with medhā-repair

Kinds of charm

Shantika (pacifying): 5Bhaishajya (healing): 3Paushtika (prosperity): 1

Suktas in Anuvaka 4

Sukta 31

This Paustika hymn empowers an audumbara-wood amulet (maṇi) to generate and stabilize prosperity—especially the increase, health, and thriving (sphāti) of cattle within one’s goṣṭha (cow-stall). Savitṛ, invoked as vedhas (the wise Ordainer and prosperity-impeller), is asked to “set” abundance firmly, while the amulet is also praised as rival-slaying, ensuring one’s gains are not contested or lost.

Rishi: Atharvanic tradition | Devata: Savitṛ (as vedhas, prosperity-impeller) | 14 Mantras

Sukta 32

AV 19.32 is a darbha (kuśa) hymn that treats the grass as a fierce, sovereign oṣadhi whose reach spans the three heavens and three earths, making it fit to “overmaster” hostile forces. It is used to bind on protection and longevity while also subjugating rivals—especially by pressing down an enemy’s tongue and nullifying curses, slander, or accusatory speech. The sukta fuses herb-amulet protection with abhicārika speech-binding, presenting darbha as both shield and weapon.

Rishi: Atharvanic tradition (often treated as Atharvan/Angiras-type for such charms) | Devata: Darbha (personified as a power/implement); indirectly the cosmic order it spans (heavens/earths) | 10 Mantras

Sukta 33

AV 19.33 is a maṇi-hymn that sacralizes darbha grass and the bound amulet-form of it as a concentrated, divine ojas (vital might) for protection and longevity. The sukta moves from praising darbha as a royal, life-uniting power to installing it as a purifier on the ritual ground and finally binding on a fierce, poison- and demon-slaying potency for svasti (well-being) and jaras (ripe old age).

Rishi: Atharvanic tradition (maṇi-hymn attribution varies by anukramaṇī; commonly treated as Atharvan/Angirasic). | Devata: Protective power embodied in the bound object (rakṣoghna/viṣaghna ojas). | 5 Mantras

Sukta 34

AV 19.34 is a Jāṅgiḍa-maṇi hymn that consecrates and deploys the Jāṅgiḍa herb/amulet as an all-round protector and healer. It frames Jāṅgiḍa as a living apotropaic power that “defiles the defiler,” nullifying kṛtyā (witchcraft), arāti (hostile intent), and named diseases, while carrying the patient’s life safely forward.

Rishi: Atharvanic tradition (hymn to Jāṅgiḍa; seer not securely fixed across all lists) | Devata: Jāṅgiḍa (personified protective herb/amulet) | 10 Mantras

Sukta 35

AV 19.35 is a protective-healing amulet hymn that installs Jāṅgiḍa as a living, vigilant ward around the patient or household. It grounds the charm in divine precedent (the gods and seers, empowered by Indra’s Name) and then expands protection into a complete cosmic enclosure—heaven, earth, midspace, plants, beings, time-to-come, and every direction. Its power is apotropaic: to break the evil eye and hostile influences by surrounding the reciter with a total, all-sides guard.

Rishi: Atharvanic tradition (amulet-hymn corpus; specific ṛṣi not securely fixed for this verse alone) | Devata: Jāṅgiḍa (personified amulet/plant) as protector; implicitly the quarters and cosmic regions | 5 Mantras

Sukta 36

This short maṇi-hymn enthrones the amulet as a “hundred-warding” power that drives out yakṣma (wasting illness), rakṣasas, and recurring spirit-afflictions. By coupling the maṇi with tejas (fiery potency) and varcas (radiant prestige), it restores bodily vigor, social repute, and protective brilliance around the wearer. The hymn’s repeated “hundred” formula functions as ritual intensification, asserting total, many-directional warding.

Rishi: Atharvanic tradition (maṇi-hymn corpus) | Devata: Maṇi (amulet) personified; allied with Tejas/Varcas as powers | 6 Mantras

Sukta 37

AV 19.37 is a late Atharvanic empowerment hymn that “invests” a person (typically a ruler or royal agent) and/or a royal implement with varcas (splendour), bala (strength), ojas (vigor), sahas (force), and abhibhūti (overcoming dominance). Moving from Agni as the giver of heroic powers to the practitioner’s internalization and ritual “bearing about” (paryūhana), it seals the consecration with the longevity formula “for a hundred autumns,” aiming at stable rule and realm-supporting capacity.

Rishi: Atharvanic tradition (late book; specific r̥ṣi not securely fixed without Anukramaṇī consultation). | Devata: Abstract powers (Ūrj, Bala, Ojas, Sahas, Abhibhūti) oriented toward rāṣṭra (realm). | 4 Mantras

Sukta 38

This brief healing hymn deploys guggulu (a fragrant medicinal resin) as an Atharvanic bheṣaja to drive away yákṣma (wasting/consumption) and to neutralize hostile śapatha (curses). By combining guggulu with purifying salts and by ‘grasping the name’ of the remedy, the sukta asserts that disease and malign influences cannot fasten upon the patient. The hymn’s power works through scent, mixture, and nāman (name-power) as a ritual seal for ariṣṭatāti—unharmed safety.

Rishi: Atharvanic healer tradition. | Devata: Bheṣaja (medicine) embodied in guggulu; anti-yákṣma power. | 3 Mantras

Sukta 39

AVŚ 19.39 is a healing and demon-expelling charm that summons the Himalayan herb Kuṣṭha as a living divine rescuer to annihilate every form of takmán (fever) and to repel yātudhānīs (harmful witch-like beings). The hymn grounds Kuṣṭha’s efficacy in a cosmic origin-myth—born from the Aśvattha in the “third heaven,” standing together with Soma—then turns that authority into direct commands that drive the illness away, downward, and out of the patient’s sphere.

Rishi: Atharvanic tradition (often transmitted under Atharvan/Angiras lineages for oṣadhi-sūktas). | Devata: Kuṣṭha (oṣadhi as devatā); secondarily Takmán (as adversary) and Yātudhānīs (as adversaries). | 10 Mantras

Sukta 40

This late Atharvavedic hymn is a compact restoration-charm for medhā—intelligence, memory, and ritual-speech capacity—when mind and voice feel “breached” or scattered by agitation. It petitions Bṛhaspati, in concord with Sarasvatī and the Viśve Devāḥ, to re-compose what has been carried off, and it seals the work with śānti for dīkṣā and tapas and with Aśvinic nourishment that “crosses darkness.”

Rishi: Atharvanic tradition (late AV strata) | Devata: Bṛhaspati (primary), with Sarasvatī and Viśve Devāḥ as supporting agencies | 4 Mantras

Deities of Anuvaka 4

  • SavitriSavitṛ

    Prosperity-giver and energizer

    In 1 hymn

  • Darbha / KushaDarbha / Kuśa (personified oṣadhi)

    Protector and overmasterer of hostile forces

    In 2 hymns

  • JangidaJāṅgiḍa (herb/maṇi)

    Healer-protector and defiler-of-defilers

    In 3 hymns

  • ManiMaṇi (amulet power, tejas/ojas)

    Protector and disease-expeller

    In 1 hymn

  • Guggulubheṣaja

    Healer and curse-neutralizer

    In 1 hymn

  • KushthaKuṣṭha (Himalayan oṣadhi)

    Fever-destroyer and demon-repeller

    In 1 hymn

  • BrihaspatiBṛhaspati

    Restorer of medhā and ritual speech

    In 1 hymn

  • Varcas / Ojasempowerment complex

    Strengthener and legitimizer

    In 1 hymn

Inside Anuvaka 4

The theme

Maṇi- and oṣadhi-based protection and restoration: prosperity, warding of hostile forces, and healing of wasting/fever with medhā-repair

Threads through it

  • Paustika increase of cattle and household thriving (sphāti)
  • Darbha/kuśa as sovereign apotropaic oṣadhi and as bound amulet
  • Jāṅgiḍa-maṇi as all-round guardian and healer
  • Expulsion of yakṣma, rakṣasas, yātudhānīs and curse-force (śapatha)
  • Royal/agent empowerment with varcas, bala, ojas, sahas
  • Medicinal resins and Himalayan herbs (guggulu, kuṣṭha) as Atharvanic bheṣaja
  • Restoration of medhā, memory, and ritual speech (vāk)

Who it serves

For householders and ritual specialists seeking cattle-wealth and stability, daily protection via amulets, and targeted cures for wasting illness and fever, alongside strengthening of authority, vitality, and mental-ritual capacity.

What it heals

  • Cattle increase, herd health, and stable prosperity (sphāti) in the goṣṭhaSukta 19.31
  • General protection from hostile forces and overmastering opponents/negativitySukta 19.32, 19.33, 19.34, 19.35, 19.36
  • Yakṣma (wasting/consumption) and recurring spirit-afflictionSukta 19.36, 19.38
  • Takmán (fever) and fever-demon afflictionsSukta 19.39
  • Curse-pressure (śapatha), hostile imprecations, and malign speech-effectsSukta 19.38, 19.39
  • Loss/scattering of medhā (intelligence, memory) and breach of voice/ritual speechSukta 19.40
  • Need for authority, splendour (varcas), strength (bala), vigor (ojas) in a ruler/agentSukta 19.37

Frequently Asked Questions

It concentrates on Atharvanic protection and restoration through maṇi-amulets and potent oṣadhis—securing prosperity (especially cattle), warding hostile forces, curing wasting/fever, and repairing medhā and speech.

Yakṣma is driven out especially in 19.36 and also treated with the bheṣaja logic of 19.38; fever (takmán) is centrally annihilated by the Kuṣṭha hymn 19.39.

Both are treated as living, sovereign powers: darbha is praised as an oṣadhi and also bound as an amulet (19.32–19.33), while Jāṅgiḍa is consecrated as a protective-healing maṇi (19.34–19.36) that repels defilement and hostile beings.

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