Sukta 5

Kind of hymn

Bhaisajya (Healing) / Śānti (Apotropaic purification)

What it is for

To obtain consecrated, auspicious healing efficacy—cleansing impurity and illness, restoring vitality, and securing a stable, thriving household.

Who it is for

Householders and village ritualists (Atharvan-practitioners) performing domestic healing and purification; also suitable for any patient needing cleansing and restorative rites.

Also used as

• Shantika
• Paustika

The deity

Āpaḥ are personified as a sovereign, maternal power: the dwelling/support of peoples and the bearer of cleansing and healing. In this hymn, their potency overlaps with plant ‘rasa,’ the auspicious essence that nourishes and cures.

Powers of the deity

• Purification and removal of defilement (śuddhi/śānti)
• Healing and ‘medicine’ (bheṣaja)
• Bestowal of safe abode/secure settlement (kṣaya)
• Generativity and increase for the household (janay-/puṣṭi)
• Nourishment like a mother’s care (mātṛvat)

Why the deity is called

They are invoked to grant bheṣaja (curative remedy), to cleanse affliction and impurity, and to establish well-being—health, stability, and increase—through ritually handled water and its blessed essence.

The seer

• Atharvanic/Āṅgirasa tradition (anonymous in this unit)Atharvan. Bhaiṣajya and śānti formulae: healing through lustration, consecrated water, and the mobilization of auspicious ‘rasa’ (curative essence) to remove illness and impurity.

Other hymns of this seer

• AV 1.4 (healing/purificatory formulas, allied early bhaiṣajya style)
• AV 1.6 (early protective/śānti-type utterances, stylistically adjacent)
• AV 6.23 (waters as purifiers/healers; thematic parallel)

Preparing for the rite

• Fetch clean water in a new/washed vessel (preferably from a flowing or ‘living’ source).
• Seat the patient/householder facing east; keep the water covered until the recitation begins.
• Optionally place simple medicinal greens/herbs nearby to ‘receive’ the mantra’s rasa.

The rite

• Recite the hymn over the vessel of water, treating the Waters as conscious hearers.
• Sprinkle (prokṣaṇa) the patient and the dwelling; optionally have the patient sip a small portion (ācamanīya-style) if appropriate.
• Conclude by touching the water to the head/heart area, marking it as bheṣaja (medicine).

What it needs

• Ritually fetched water (āpaḥ)
• Vessel (kalaśa/pātra)
• Optional: simple medicinal herbs/greens to symbolize ‘rasa’

When

At onset of illness; after contact with impurity; also at dawn or before household rites for general purification and welfare.

The main substance

Consecrated water (āpaḥ)

Herbs

• Oṣadhi (general medicinal plants, unspecified)

How it is prepared

Collect clean water, place in a vessel, and consecrate by reciting the hymn over it; use by sprinkling for purification and (if suitable) sipping for internalized ‘rasa’/healing.