Atharva Veda · 447 of 724

BOOK X

HYMN I A charm against witchcraft 1. Afar let her depart: away we drive her whom, made with hands,    all-beautiful,   Skilled men prepare and fashion like a bride amid her nuptial    train. 2. Complete, with head and nose and ears, all-beauteous, wrought    with magic skill   Afar let her depart: away we drive her. 3. Made by a Sidra or a Prince, by priests or women let her go.   Back to her maker as her kin, like a dame banished by her lord. 4. I with this salutary herb have ruined all their magic arts,   The spell which they have cast upon thy field, thy cattle, or thy    men. 5. Ill fall on him who doeth ill, on him who curseth fall the    curse!   We drive her back that she may slay the man who wrought the    witchery. 6. Against her comes the Angirasa, the Priest whose eye is over us.   Turn back all witcheries and slay those practisers of magic arts. 7. Whoever said to thee, Go forth against the foeman up the    stream,   To him, O Krityā, go thou back. Pursue not us, the sinless    ones. 8. He who composed thy limbs with thought as a deft joiner builds    a car,   Go to him: thither lies thy way. This man is all unknown to    thee. 9. The cunning men, the sorcerers who fashioned thee and held thee    fast,— p. 2   This cures and mars their witchery, this, repellent, drives it back    the way it came. With this we make thee swim. 10. When we have found her ducked and drenched, a hapless cow    whose calf hath died,   Let all my woe depart and let abundant riches come to me. 11. If, as they gave thy parents aught, they named thee, or at sacri-    fice,   From all their purposed evil let these healing herbs deliver thee. 12. From mention of thy name, from sin against the Fathers or the   Gods,   These herbs of healing shall by prayer release thee, by power,    by holy texts, the milk of .Rishis. 13. As the wind stirs the dust from earth and drives the rain cloud    from the sky,   So, chased and banished by the spell, all misery departs from    me. 14. Go with a resonant cry, depart, like a she-ass whose cords are    loosed.   Go to thy makers: hence! away! Go driven by the potent    spell. 15. This, Krityā, is thy path, we say, and guide thee. We drive thee    back who hast been sent against us.   Go by this pathway, breaking loose for onslaught even as a host    complete with cars and horses. 16. No path leads hitherward for thee to travel. Turn thee from us:    far off, thy light is yonder.   Fly hence across the ninety floods, the rivers most hard to pass.   Begone, and be not wounded. 17. As wind the trees, so smite and overthrow them: leave not cow,    horse, or man of them surviving   Return, O Krityā, unto those who made thee. Wake them from    sleep to find that they are childless. 18. The charm or secret power which they have buried for thee in    sacred grass, field, cemetery,   Or spell in household fire which men more cunning have    wrought against thee innocent and simple,— 19. That tool of hatred, understood, made ready, stealthy and buried    deep, have we discovered, Let that go back to whence it came, turn thither like a horse    and kill the children of the sorcerer. 20. Within our house are swords of goodly iron. Krityā, we know    thy joints and all their places.   Arise this instant and begone! What, stranger! art thou seek-    ing here? 21. O Krityā, I will cut thy throat and hew thy feet off. Run, be-    gone!   Indra and Agni, Guardian Lords of living creatures, shield us    well! 22. May Soma, gracious friend, imperial Sovran, and the world's   Masters look on us with favour. 23. Bhava and Sarva cast the flash of lightning, the weapon of the   Gods, against the sinner who made the evil thing, who deals    in witchcraft! 24. If thou hast come two-footed or four-footed, made by the    sorcerer, wrought in perfect beauty,   Become eight-footed and go hence. Speed back again, thou evil    one. 25. Anointed, balmed, and well adorned, bearing all trouble with    thee, go.   Even as a daughter knows her sire, so know thy marker, Krityā,    thou. 26. Krityā, begone, stay not. Pursue as 'twere the wounded crea-    ture's track.   He is the chase, the hunter thou he may not slight or humble thee. 27. He waits, and aiming with his shaft smites him who first would    shoot at him,   And, when the foeman deals a blow before him, following strikes    him down. 28. Hearken to this my word; then go thither away whence thou    hast come; to him who made thee go thou back. 29. The slaughter of an innocent, O Krityā, is an awful deed. Slay    not cow, horse, or man of ours.   In whatsoever place thou art concealed we rouse thee up there-    from: become thou lighter than a leaf. 30. If ye be girt about with clouds of darkness, bound as with a    net.   We rend and tear all witcheries hence and to their maker send    them back. 31. The brood of wizard, sorcerer, the purposer of evil deed.   Crush thou, O Krityā spare not, kill those practisers of magic    arts. 32. As Sūrya frees himself from depth of darkness, and casts away    the night and rays of morning,   So I repel each baleful charm which an enchanter hath pre-    pared;   And, as an elephant shakes off the dust, I cast the plague aside.