Atharvaveda 12.2

Ascend the reeds (naḍá); no place for thee is here; this lead is thy portion; come! what yákṣma is in kine, [what] yákṣma in men, in company with that do thou go forth downward.

By evil-plotter and ill-plotter, by actor and helper, both all yákṣma and death do we thereby drive out from here.

Out from here do we drive death, perdition, out the niggard; whoso hates us, him, O non-flesh-eating Agni, do thou eat; whomso we hate, him do we impel to thee.

If the flesh-eating Agni, or if the tiger-like, hath entered this stall (goṣṭhá), being not at home (?), him, having made him to have beans for sacrificial butter, I send far forth; let him go unto the Agnis that have seat in the waters.

If angry men put thee forth (pra-kṛ), with fury, a man having died, that, O Agni, is easy to be arranged by thee; we make thee flame up again.

The Ādityas, the Rudras, the Vasus [have set] thee again; again, O Agni, the priest (brahmán), conductor of good; Brahmaṇaspati hath set thee again, in order to length of life-time to a hundred autumns.

If the flesh-eating Agni hath entered our house, seeing this other Jātavedas, him I take afar for the Fathers' sacrifice; let him kindle the hot drink (gharmá) in the highest station.

I send far forth the flesh-eating Agni; let him go, carrying evil (riprá-), to Yama's subjects; here let this other Jātavedas carry the oblation, a god to the gods, foreknowing.

I, being sent, take the flesh-eating Agni, a death, making people fixed with the thunderbolt; I, knowing, separate (? ni-çās) him from the householder's fire; also in the world of the Fathers be he [their] portion.

The flesh-eating Agni, active, praiseworthy, I send forth by the roads that the Fathers go; come thou not back by those that the gods go; be thou just there (átra); watch thou over the Fathers.

They kindle the devouring one (sáṁkasuka) in order to well-being, becoming cleansed, bright, purifying; he abandons evil (riprá), passes over sin; Agni, kindled, purifies with a good purifier.

God Agni the devouring hath ascended the backs of the sky; being released out of sin, he hath released us from imprecation.

On this devouring Agni do we wipe off evils; we have become fit for sacrifice, cleansed; may he prolong our life-times.

The crushing ⌊sáṁkasuka⌋, the bursting (víkasuka), the destroying (nirṛthá) and the noiseless (? nisvará)—they, of like possessions (? sávedas), have made from far thy yákṣma to disappear afar.

The flesh-eating one that is in our horses, heroes, that is in our kine, goats-and-sheep, do we thrust out—the fire that obstructs the people.

Thee from inexhaustible (? ánya) men, kine, horses, thee the flesh-eating one do we thrust out—the fire that obstructs life.

On what the gods wiped off, on what human beings (manuṣyà) also—on that having wiped off the drops of ghee (?), O Agni, do thou mount the sky.

Being kindled, O Agni, thou to whom oblations are made, go (kram) thou not away against us; shine just here by day, and that [we] long see the sun.

Wipe ye off on the lead; wipe ye off on the reeds; and what on the consuming fire; likewise on the dark (rāmá) ewe; headache on the pillow.

Having settled what is foul upon the lead [and] headache upon the pillow, having wiped off on the black ewe, be ye cleansed, fit for sacrifice.

Go away, O death, along a distant road which is thine here, other than that the gods go upon; I speak to thee having sight, hearing; let these many heroes be here.

These living ones have turned away from the dead; our invocation of the gods hath been auspicious (bhadrá) today; we have gone forward unto dancing, unto laughter; may we, rich in heroes, address counsel.

I set this enclosure for the living; let not another of them now go to that goal; living a hundred numerous autumns, let them set an obstacle to death with a mountain.

Mount, choosing old age for life-time, pressing on, one after another, as many as ye be; you here let Tvashṭar, him of good births, in accord [with you], lead on to living your whole life-time.

As days take place (bhū) one after another, as seasons go along with seasons, as an after one does not desert (hā) a preceding—so, O creator (dhā́tṛ), arrange their life-times.

The stony one flows (rī); take ye hold together; play the hero, pass over, O friends; quit here them that are of evil courses; may we pass up unto powers (? vā́ja) that are free from disease.

Stand up, pass over, O friends; the stony river here runs (syand); quit ye here them that are unpropitious; may we pass up unto propitious pleasant powers.

Take ye hold on that of all the gods in order to splendor, becoming cleansed, clear, purifying; stepping over difficult tracks, may we revel a hundred winters with all our heroes.

By upward roads, full of wind, by distant (pára) ones, stepping over those that are lower (ávara), thrice seven times did the departed (páreta) seers bear back death with the track-obstructor.

Come ye, obstructing the track of death, assuming further on a longer life-time; sitting in your station, thrust ye [away] death; then may we, living, speak to the council.

Let these women, not widows, well-spoused, touch themselves with ointment, with butter; tearless, without disease, with good treasures (-rátna), let the wives ascend first to the place of union (yóni).

I separate (vy-ā-kṛ) these two by oblation; I shape them apart with a spell (bráhman); I make for the Fathers unwasting svadhā́; I unite these with a long life-time.

What Agni, O Fathers, hath entered into our hearts, an immortal into mortals, that god do I enclose in me; let him not hate us, nor let us [hate] him.

Having turned away from the householder's fire, go ye forth to the right with the flesh-eating one; do ye what is dear to the Fathers, to self, what is dear to the priests (brahmán).

The flesh-eating Agni that is unremoved (á-nir-ā-hita), taking to himself the double-portioned riches of the oldest son, destroys [him] with ruin.

What one plows, what one wins (van), and what one gains (vid) by pay (vasná)—all that is not a mortal's, if the flesh-eating one be unremoved.

He becomes unfit for sacrifice, of smitten splendor; not by him is the oblation to be eaten; [him] the flesh-eating one cuts off from plowing, kine, riches, whom it pursues.

A mortal, going down to mishap, speaks forth repeatedly with greedy ones (? gṛ́dhya); whom (pl.) the flesh-eating Agni, from near by, after-knowing, follows (? vi-tāv).

The houses are united with seizure (grā́hi) when a woman's husband dies; a knowing priest (brahmán) is to be sought, who shall remove the flesh-eating one.

What evil (riprá), pollution we have committed, and what ill-doing, from that let the waters cleanse me, and from the crushing Agni what.

These fore-knowing ones (f.) have turned hither upward from below by roads that the gods go upon; upon the back of the virile (vṛṣabhá) mountain the ancient streams (sarít) go about new.

O non-flesh-eating Agni, push out the flesh-eating one; bring the god-sacrificing one.

The flesh-eating one entered into this man; he has gone after the flesh-eating one; having made two tigers severally, I take him, who is other than propitious.

Concealment of the gods, defense (paridhí) of men (manuṣyà), the householder's fire is set (çritá) between both classes.

Lengthen thou out, O Agni, the life-time of the living; let them who are dead go unto the world of the Fathers; do thou, a good householder's fire, burning away the niggard, assign to this man an ever better dawn.

Overcoming, O Agni, all [our] rivals, do thou assign to us their refreshment [and] wealth.

Take ye hold after this saving (pápri) carrier (váhni) Indra; he shall carry you out of difficulty [and] reproach; by him smite away the on-flying shaft; by him ward off (pari-pā) Rudra's hurled [missile].

Lay ye hold after the draft-ox [as] float (plavá); he shall carry you out of difficulty [and] reproach; mount this boat of Savitar; may we cross over misery by the six wide [directions].

Day-and-night thou goest after, bearing, standing comfortable (kṣemyá), prolonging [life], having good heroes; bearing, O couch, healthful (ánātura), well-minded ones (m.), do thou long be for us smelling of men (púrusagandhi).

They fall under the wrath of the gods, they live always evilly, after whom the flesh-eating fire, from near by, like a horse, scatters reeds.

Whoever, without faith, from desire of riches then sit together with the flesh-eating one, they verily feed the fire (ā-dhā) about the pot (kumbhī́) of others ⌊always⌋.

He desires, as it were, to fly forth with his mind; repeatedly he returns again—they whom the flesh-eating Agni, from near by, after-knowing follows.

A black ewe [is] of cattle [thy] portion; lead, too, they call thy gold (? candrá), O flesh-eating one; ground beans ⌊are⌋ thy portion [as] oblation; seek (sac) thou the thicket of the forest-spirit (araṇyānī́).

Having made offering of withered (? járat) cane (iṣī́kā), of tilpíñja, of dáṇḍana, of reeds; having made fuel of this, Indra removed Yama's fire.

Having sent in opposition an opposing (pratyáñc) song (arká), I, foreknowing, have entered abroad on the road; I have directed away the lifebreaths of them yonder; these here I unite with long life-time.