Atharva Veda · 156 of 724

HYMN XIX

The wickedness of robbing or insulting Brāhmans 1. The sons of Vitahavya, the Srinjayas, waxed exceeding strong.   They well-nigh touched the heavens, but they wronged Bhrigu    and were overthrown. 2. When men pierced Brihatsāman through, the Brāhman, son of   Angiras,   The ram with teeth in both his jaws, the sheep, devoured their    progeny. 3. If men have spat upon, or shot their rheum upon a Brāhman,    they.   Sit in the middle of a stream running with blood, devouring    hair. 4. While yet the Brāhman's cow which men are dressing quivers in    her throe:   She mars the kingdom's splendour: there no vigorous hero    springs to life. 5. Terrible is her cutting-up: her bitter flesh is cast away,   And it is counted sin among the Fathers if her milk is drunk. 6. If any King who deems himself mighty would eat a Brāhman    up,   Rent and disrupted is that realm wherein a Brāhman is oppres-    sed. 7. She grows eight-footed, and four-eyed, four-eared, four-jawed,    two-faced, two-tongued,   And shatters down the kingdom of the man who doth the   Brāhman wrong. 8. As water swamps a leaky ship so ruin overflows that realm.   Misfortune smites the realm wherein a Brāhman suffers scath    and harm. 9. The very trees repel the man, and drive him from their sheltering    shade,   Whoever claims, O Nārada, the treasure that a Brāhman owns. 10. That wealth, King Varuna hath said, is poison by the Gods    prepared.   None hath kept watch to guard his realm who hath devoured a   Brāhman's cow. 11. Those nine-and-ninety people whom Earth shook and cast away    from her,   When they had wronged the Brāhman race were ruined incon-    ceivably. 12. Oppressor of the Brāhmans! thus the Gods have spoken and    declared,   The step-effacing wisp they bind upon the dead shall be thy    couch. 13. Oppressor of the Brāhmans! tears wept by the man who suffers    wrong,   These are the share of water which the Gods have destined to be    thine. 14. The share of water which the Gods have destined to be thine, is    that,   Oppressor of the priest! wherewith men lave the corpse and wet    the beard. 15. The rain of Mitra-Varuna falls not on him who wrongs the    priest.   To him no counsel brings success: he wins, no friend to do his    will.