Rig Veda 8.18.10: Mandala 8, Sukta 18, Mantra 10
Sukta 8.18
- Devata
- Ādityas
- Rasa
- Vira (heroism) and Shanta (peace)
अपामीवामप स्रिधमप सेधत दुर्मतिम् । आदित्यासो युयोतना नो अंहसः ॥
apā́mīvā́m ápa srídham ápa sedhata durmatím | ādityāso yuyótanā no aṃ́hasaḥ ||
Wahai Āditya, halaukanlah daripada kami penyakit yang menyerbu; halaukanlah rintangan yang memusuhi; dan usirlah fikiran yang menyimpang. Pisahkanlah kami daripada kesempitan dan kegelapan yang menghimpit.
Word by Word
- अप
- away, offIndeclinableनिपात/उपसर्ग (अव्यय)Root अप (उपसर्ग/निपात)
- अमीवाम्
- disease, sicknessNounस्त्रीलिङ्ग, द्वितीया, एकवचनRole कर्मRoot अमीवा (प्रातिपदिक)
- अप
- awayIndeclinableनिपात/उपसर्ग (अव्यय)Root अप (उपसर्ग/निपात)
- स्रिधम्
- harm, injury; hostile actNounपुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया, एकवचनRole कर्मRoot स्रिध्/स्रिध (प्रातिपदिक; ‘हानि/विघ्न/द्रोह’)
- अप
- awayIndeclinableनिपात/उपसर्ग (अव्यय)Root अप (उपसर्ग/निपात)
- सेधत
- ward off!, repel!Verbलोट् (आज्ञार्थ), परस्मैपद, मध्यमपुरुष, बहुवचनRole क्रियाRoot सिध् (धातु; ‘निवारणे/प्रतिषेधे’)
- दुर्मतिम्
- evil thought, ill-willNounस्त्रीलिङ्ग, द्वितीया, एकवचनRole कर्मRoot दुर्मति (प्रातिपदिक; दुर्+मति)
- आदित्याः
- Ādityas (sons of Aditi)Nounपुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा, बहुवचनRole कर्तृRoot आदित्य (प्रातिपदिक)
- युयोतन
- separate!, drive away!Verbलोट् (आज्ञार्थ), परस्मैपद, मध्यमपुरुष, बहुवचनRole क्रियाRoot यु (धातु; ‘वियोगे/अपसारणे’)
- नः
- from us / ourPronounषष्ठी/चतुर्थी-एकवचन (एन्क्लिटिक ‘नः’ = ‘our/to us’), यहाँ अपादान-संबन्धे ‘from us’Role अपादानRoot अस्मद् (सर्वनाम)
- अंहसः
- from distress, from sin/anguishNounनपुंसकलिङ्ग, पञ्चमी, एकवचनRole अपादानRoot अंहस् (प्रातिपदिक)
Sandhi Notes
- संहिता-पाठ: अपामी॑वा॒मप॒ स्रिध॒मप॑ सेधत दुर्म॒तिम् । आदि॑त्यासो यु॒योत॑ना नो॒ अंह॑सः ॥ पदच्छेद (sandhi-resolved): अप | अमीवाम् | अप | स्रिधम् | अप | सेधत | दुर्मतिम् | आदित्याः | युयोतन | नः | अंहसः । टिप्पणी: ‘अप’ निपात का पुनरावर्तन (त्रिवार) क्रिया ‘सेधत/युयोतन’ के साथ ‘दूर करो’ अर्थ को बल देता है। ‘नः अंहसः’ में ‘नः’ एन्क्लिटिक सर्वनाम है
- अर्थ-सम्बन्ध से ‘हमसे/हमारे से’ (अपादान) लिया गया है।
The meaning
Outer meaning
O Ādityas, drive away from us sickness, drive away harm/obstruction, repel crooked thought; separate us from distress/anguish.
Inner meaning
The Ādityas (solar powers of truth and vastness) are invoked for a comprehensive purification: remove amīvā (invading sickness—psychophysical disturbance), remove sridham (hostile obstruction/inner injury), and repel durmati (crooked, distorted thinking—false formations that invite darkness). Finally, ‘yuyotanā no aṃhasaḥ’ asks to be separated from aṃhas: the narrowing anguish and error. In Aurobindo’s line, this is the solar law clearing both body-vital disorder and mental falsehood so the being can widen into ṛta.
Universal truth
Suffering persists through a triad: disorder in life-force, hostile obstruction, and distorted thought. The solar truth-powers heal by expelling all three and restoring the being to wideness and right order.
Themes
protection, healing, removal-of-evil, truth-powers (Ādityas)
The seer
- Other hymns
- Rig Veda 8.18.6, Rig Veda 8.18.7, Rig Veda 8.18.8, Rig Veda 8.18.9
Significance
A direct solar exorcism of inner negativity: the mantra targets the roots of obstruction—vital disorder and mental crookedness—seeking a clean separation into wideness.
The deity
- Devata
- Ādityas
- Epithets
- truth-guardians (implied), Aditi-putrāḥ (implied), yuyotṛ (separators from anguish, implied)
- Related deities
- Aditi, Mitra, Varuṇa, Aryaman, Bhaga, Sūrya
Cosmic role
Upholders of ṛta and moral-cosmic law; protectors who bind falsehood and release the soul into wideness.
Inner power
Solar discernment and right law in the mind; force of purification that expels invasive vibrations and false formations.
In ritual
Where it is used
Protective/expulsive (rakṣā) and śānti recitation; suitable during illness, negativity, or before important undertakings.
अपामी॑वा॒मप॒ स्रिध॒मप॑ सेधत दुर्म॒तिम् । आदि॑त्यासो यु॒योत॑ना नो॒ अंह॑सः ॥
अप॑ । अमी॑वाम् । अप॑ । स्रिध॑म् । अप॑ । से॒ध॒त॒ । दुः॒ऽम॒तिम् । आदि॑त्यासः । यु॒योत॑न । नः॒ । अंह॑सः ॥
apa | amīvām | apa | sridham | apa | sedhata | duḥ-matim | ādityāsaḥ | yuyotana | naḥ | aṃhasaḥ
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4×~11 (approx.)
Strong expulsive rhythm with repeated ‘apa… apa… apa…’ building force; ends with a decisive separation phrase.
Cathartic clearing; strengthens will to reject false thoughts and invasive moods.
- आदित्याः (ādityāsaḥ)
- Literal: sons of Aditi; solar deities. Symbolic: powers of truth, law, wideness; guardians against darkness and falsehood
- अमीवा (amīvā)
- Literal: sickness; disease. Symbolic: invasive disturbance in the vital-physical and nervous being
- स्रिधम् (sridham)
- Literal: harm; injury; obstruction. Symbolic: hostile interference; recurring breakdown patterns
- दुर्मतिम् (durmatim)
- Literal: bad/crooked thought. Symbolic: distorted mental formations, pessimism, false reasoning that narrows consciousness
- युयोतन (yuyotana)
- Literal: separate; drive away. Symbolic: decisive dis-identification; cutting the link with anguish/darkness
- अंहसः (aṃhasaḥ)
- Literal: distress; sin; anguish. Symbolic: constriction and suffering born of ignorance; narrowing darkness
Protective and purificatory invocation within communal worship; suited to apotropaic use alongside Āditya praise (general sūkta recitation context).
During periods of mental turmoil, sickness, or collective stress; also at sunrise as a solar cleansing.
Recite facing east; on each ‘apa’ gesture outward (symbolic casting away); end in stillness as the ‘separation from aṃhas’ is felt.
Use as a ‘thought detox’ mantra: identify one recurring durmati pattern, chant, then consciously replace with a wide truthful intention.
Key terms: amīvā́m ‘affliction’ (connected with √am/ām ‘to hurt, to be sick’ in Vedic usage); srídha- ‘injury/hostile obstruction’ (Vedic noun of harm/resistance; semantic field of ‘clogging, thwarting’); sedhata (2pl impv) from √sedh ‘to ward off, keep back’; dur-matí- (duḥ + matí from √man ‘to think’) ‘ill-thinking, perverse mentality’; yuyótana (2pl impv) from √yut/√yuj in sense ‘to separate, keep apart’; aṃhas- ‘narrowness, distress’ (contrast with uru ‘wide’; fits Āditya function of releasing into vastness/ṛta).
Ṛta (right order) as protection against aṃhas (constriction), Aditi (vastness, freedom) opposed to inner narrowing
Ādityas restore ṛta by removing what violates right order: disease, obstruction, crooked thought.
Durmati is asatya in the mind; the Ādityas re-establish satya-cognition.
Sustaining creation requires continual rejection of forces of contraction; the solar powers preserve openness.
Vedic ethical-psychological realism: inner falsehood has real force; truth-powers are invoked to cleanse and re-align.
sunrise/day (Āditya domain)
Solarity = clarity and law; ‘apa’ = throwing out toxins from the prāṇic and mental atmosphere.
- What is the primary Vedic 'mythologem' present in this verse?
- The Ādityas as guardians of ṛta who ‘drive away’ (apa-, yuyotana) sickness, hostile obstruction, and durmati—an apotropaic mythic action of separation: the Truth-powers expel forces of narrowing (aṃhas) that besiege the human vessel.
- How does the linguistic structure reflect Proto-Indo-European roots?
- dur-matí- transparently preserves PIE *men- ‘to think’ (Skt √man; cf. Lat mens, Eng. mind). The imperative sedhata reflects an old restraining/warding verb (√sedh) comparable in function to PIE *seǵh-/ *sed- class notions of holding back (semantic rather than strict cognate claim). aṃhas ‘narrowness/distress’ aligns with inherited Indo-European poetic polarity of ‘wide vs. narrow’ spaces (Skt uru vs. aṃhas), a common IE metaphor for freedom vs. constraint.
- What is the relationship between the Rishi and the Devata here?
- The speaker approaches the Ādityas as inner executors of right order: the human offers the yajña/voice and asks for an active intervention—removal and separation of hostile forces. The reciprocity is protection and widening of being in response to the invocation.
Solar purification: expel invasive energies and crooked thought; establish wide, truthful cognition.
Manipura (clearing toxins/force) and Ajna (straightening thought)
Kapalabhati (mild, if suitable) or strong exhales on ‘apa’; then 2 minutes of quiet nasal breathing to stabilize.
Clear, decisive, protected; then quiet wideness.
On each ‘apa’ name inwardly what is being removed (sickness, obstruction, crooked thought). On ‘yuyotanā’ feel a clean cut—dis-identify from the pattern and rest in Aditi-like wideness.
The triple ‘apa’ should be articulated as three distinct expulsions; preserve Vedic accent where indicated in the Saṃhitā (notably on key nouns/verbs).
Strike ‘apa’ with a clean outward release; emphasize ‘durmatim’ as the central mental target; slow slightly on ‘yuyotanā’.
amīvām: long ‘ī’; keep ‘vām’ nasal resonance minimal, sedhata: dental ‘dh’ voiced aspirate, durmatim: retroflex ‘ṛ’ not present—use ‘duḥ’ with visarga; ‘mati’ clear, ādityāsaḥ: long ‘ā’; ‘ty’ palatal; visarga light
Firm, bright, cleansing; end softly to settle.
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