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A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s3: The Atharvaveda-Saṃhitā

A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s3

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The Atharvaveda-Saṃhitā

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¹ There are two complete English translations of the Atharvaveda, one by R.T.H. *Griffith* (Benares 1895-6), and another by W.D. *Whitney*, revised and brought nearer to completion and edited by C.R. *Lanman* (HOS, vols. 7 and 8, Cambridge Mass. 1905), a selection of hymns in excellent English translation by M *Bloomfield* (SBE, vol. 42, 1897). A great number of hymns have been translated into German by A. *Ludwig* in the 3rd volume of his "Rigveda" (Prague 1878), pp. 428-551. A selection of hymns into German verse by J. *Grill* (Hundert Lieder des Atharva-Veda, 2. Aufl., Stuttgart 1888). German translations of books I-V and XIV by A. *Weber* (Ind. Stud., vols. 4, 5, 13, 17, 18), of book XVIII by the same (SBA 1895 and 1896), of book XV by Th. *Aufrecht* (Ind. Stud., vol. 1) and of VI, 1-50 by C.A. *Florenz* (Diss., Göttingen 1887). A French translation of books VII-XIII by V. *Henry* (Paris 1891-96). *Bloomfield* has treated of the Atharvaveda in detail in the "Grundriss" (II, 1, B), and I am particularly indebted to this work for this chapter. For the contents and interpretation of the Atharvaveda, see also V. *Henry*, La magie dans l'Inde antique, Paris 1904; *Oldenberg*, AR 7, 1904, 217 ff.; F. *Edgerton*, American Journal of Philology, 35, 1914, 435 ff.

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"Atharva-veda" means "the Veda of the Atharvan" or "the knowledge of Magic Formulas." Originally, however, the word *Atharvan* meant a fire-priest, and it is probably the oldest Indian name for "priest" in general, for the word dates back to the Indo-Iranian period. For the Athravans or "fire-people" of the Avesta correspond to the Indian Atharvans.² The fire-cult played no less a part in the daily life of the ancient Indians than in that of the ancient Persians, so often designated as "fire-worshippers;" the priests of this very ancient fire-cult, however, were still, like the Shamans of Northern Asia and the Medicine-men of the American Indians, "priests of magic," that is, priest and wizard combined in one person, as in the word "Magi"—as the Āthravans in Medea were called—the ideas of wizard and priest are merged together. Thus we can understand that the name Atharvan designated also the "incantations of the Atharvan or the wizard-priest," that is, the spells and magic formulas themselves. The oldest name, however, by which this Veda is known in Indian literature is Atharvāṅgirasah, that is, "the Atharvans and the Aṅgiras." The Aṅgiras, similarly, are a class of prehistoric fire-priests, and the word also, like the word atharvan, attained the meaning of "magic formulas and spells." The two expressions *atharvan* and *aṅgiras*, however, designate two different species of magic formulas: atharvan is "holy magic, bringing happiness," while aṅgiras means "hostile magic, black magic." Among the Atharvans, for example, are the formulae for the healing of diseases, while among the Aṅgiras are the curses against enemies, rivals, evil magicians, and such like. The old name Atharvāṅgirasaḥ thus means these *two* kinds of magic formulae, which form the chief contents of the Atharvaveda. The later name Atharvaveda is merely an abbreviation of "Veda of the Atharvans *and Aṅgiras*."¹

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² In Ancient Rome, too, the *Flamines*, who had to perform the burnt-sacrifice, belong to the oldest priests. (Th. *Mommsen*, Römische Geschichte, 4. Aufl. I p. 170 f.)

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¹ In later literature we meet also with the terms bhṛgvaṅgirasaḥ and bhṛguvistara (Cūlikā-Upaniṣad 11) for the Atharvaveda. The Bhṛgus also were ancient firepriests.

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Now the Atharvaveda-Saṃhitā, usually called simply "the Atharvaveda," is a collection of seven hundred and thirty-one hymns, which contain about six thousand verses, in the recension which is best preserved.² It is divided into twenty books.¹ The twentieth book was added quite late, and the nineteenth book, too, did not originally belong to the Saṃhitā. The twentieth book is almost entirely composed of hymns which have been taken literally from the Ṛgveda-Saṃhitā. Besides this, about one-seventh of the Atharvaveda-Saṃhitā is taken from the Ṛgveda; moreover, more than half of the verses which the Atharvaveda has in common with the Ṛgveda, are to be found in the tenth book, most of the remaining verses in the first and the eighth book of the Ṛgveda. The arrangement of the hymns in the eighteen genuine books is according to a definite plan, and shows fairly careful editorial activity. The first seven books consist of numerous *short* hymns, the hymns in Book I having, as a rule, four verses, in Book II five, in Book III six, in Book IV seven. The hymns of Book V have a minimum of eight and a maximum of eighteen verses. Book VI consists of one hundred and forty-two hymns mostly of three verses each, and the seventh Book consists of one hundred and eighteen hymns, most of which contain only one or two verses. Books VIII-XIV, XVII and XVIII consist throughout of very *long* hymns, the shortest hymn (twenty-one verses) being at the beginning of this series (VIII, 1) and the longest (eighty-nine verses) at the end (XVIII, 4). Book XV and the greater part of Book XVI, which interrupt the series, are composed in prose, and are similar in style and language to the Brāhmaṇas. Although in this arrangement something quite external—the number of verses—has been considered first, yet some consideration is also given to the contents. Two, three, four, and even more hymns, which deal with the same subject frequently stand side by side. Occasionally the first hymn of a book is placed at the beginning on account of its contents; thus Books II, IV, V and VII, begin with theosophical hymns, which, no doubt, is intentional. On the whole we can say thus:¹ the first section of the Saṃhitā (Books I to VII) contains the short hymns of miscellaneous contents, the second section (Books VIII to XII) the long hymns of miscellaneous contents, while Books XIII to XVIII are almost entirely uniform as to their contents. Thus Book XIV contains only marriage prayers and Book XVIII only funeral hymns.

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² It is the Śaunaka recension of the Saṃhitā text belonging to the Śaunaka school. The Paippalāda recension is known only in one single inaccurate manuscript. The text of the Śaunaka recension is published by R. *Roth* and W.D. *Whitney*, Berlin 1856. The Atharvaveda-Saṃhitā, with the commentary of Sāyaṇa, has been published by Shankar P. Pandit, 4 vols., Bombay 1895-1898. The manuscript of the Paippalāda recension has been published in facsimile by M. *Bloomfield* and R *Garbe* (The Kashmirian Atharva-Veda, Stuttgart 1901). Books I, II, IV-X of the Kashmirian recension have been published with critical notes on the text by *Le Roy Carr Barret* and *F Edgerton* in JAOS, Vols 26, 30, 32, 34, 35, 37, 40-43, 1906-1923.

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¹ We can distinguish three main divisions of the Saṃhitā, cf. *Lanman*, HOS, vol. 7, pp. CXXVII ff) 1. Books I-VI, an appendix to which is contained in Book VII; 2. Books VIII-XII and 3. Books XIII-XVIII, an appendix to which is contained in Book XIX.

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¹ On the divisions of the Atharvaveda-Saṃhitā see *Whitney* and *Lanman*, HOS, vol. 7, pp. cxxvii ff.

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The language and metre of the hymns of the Atharvaveda are in essentials the same as those of the Ṛgveda-Saṃhitā. Yet in the language of the Atharvaveda we find some decidedly later forms and some more popular forms: also the metre is not nearly so strictly handled as in the Ṛgveda. Apart from Book XV, which is wholly composed in prose, and Book XVI, the greater part of which is in prose, we occasionally find also other prose pieces among the verses; and frequently it is not easy to distinguish whether a piece is composed in lofty prose or in badly-constructed verses. It also happens that an originally correct metre is spoiled through an interpolation or corruption of the text.² In certain cases, indeed, the facts of language and metre indicate that we are dealing with later pieces. In general, however, no conclusions can be drawn from the language and the metre with regard to the date of the composition of the hymns, still less with regard to the date of the compilation of our Saṁhitā. For it always remains an open question, whether the peculiarities of language and the freedom of metre, by which the magic incantations of the Atharvaveda are distinguished from the hymn-poetry of the Ṛgveda, are based upon a difference in the period of origin or on the difference between *popular* and *priestly* composition. (*Cf.* above, pp. 53 f.)

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² On the metre of the Atharvaveda see *Whitney*, HOS, vol. 7, pp. cxxvi f. Irregularities of metre are equally peculiar to the Atharvaveda as to all metrical Vedic texts other than the Ṛgveda. To correct the metre everywhere, would mean changing the text arbitrarily.

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On the other hand there are other facts which prove indisputably that our text of the Atharvaveda-Saṁhitā is later than that of the Ṛgveda-Saṁhitā. Firstly, the geographical and cultural conditions show us a later period than that reflected in the Ṛgveda. The Vedic Aryans have now penetrated further to the South-east and are already settled in the Ganges country. The tiger, native to the marshy forests of Bengal, and therefore still unknown in the Ṛgveda, appears in the Atharvaveda already as the mightiest and most feared of all beasts of prey, and the king, at his consecration, steps upon a tiger-skin, the symbol of kingly power. The Atharvaveda knows not only the four castes—Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas and Śūdras,—but in a number of hymns, the highest privileges are already claimed (as later happens more and more frequently) by the priestly caste, and the Brahmans are already often called the "gods"¹ of this earth. The songs of magic in the Atharvaveda, which, according to their main contents, are certainly popular and very ancient, have no longer *even their original form* in the Saṁhitā, but are *brahmanised.* These old charms and formulas, whose authors are equally unknown as the authors of the magic incantations and formulas of other peoples, and which originally were just as much "popular poetry" as the poetry of magic everywhere is, have already in the Atharvaveda-Saṁhitā partly lost their popular character. We see at every step, that the collection was made by priests, and that many of the hymns were also composed by priests. This priestly outlook of the compilers and partly also of the authors of the hymns of the Atharvaveda, reveals itself in occasional comparisons and epithets, as for instance, when, in a charm against field-vermin, it is said that the insects are to leave the corn untouched "as the Brahman does not touch unfinished sacrificial food." A whole class of hymns of the Atharvaveda, with which we shall deal below, is concerned only with the interests of the Brahmans, the feeding of priests, the fees for the sacrifice, and such like, and they are, of course, the work of priests.

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¹ The expression "gods" for "priests" *occurs once* also in the Ṛgveda (Ṛv. I, 128, 8). *Cf.* *Zimmer*, Altindisches Leben, pp. 205 f.

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And just as the brahmanizing of the ancient magic poetry indicates a later period of the collection, so the part which the Vedic gods play in the Atharvaveda points to a later origin for the Saṁhitā. We here meet the same gods as in the Ṛgveda: Agni, Indra and so on; but their character had quite faded, they hardly differ from each other, their original signification as natural beings is, for the greater part, forgotten, and as the magic songs deal mostly with the banishment and destruction of demons—the gods being invoked only for this purpose—they have all become demon-killers. Finally, also those hymns of the Atharvaveda which contain theosophical and cosmogonic speculations indicate a later period. We already find in these hymns a fairly developed philosophical terminology, and a development of pantheism standing on a level with the philosophy of the Upaniṣads. The fact that even these philosophical hymns themselves are used for magic purposes, that, for instance, a philosophical conception such as *Asat*, "the non-existent," is employed as a means of destroying enemies, demons, and magicians,¹ shews that here already we have before us an artificial and very modern development of ancient witchcraft.

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¹ Ath. IV, 19, 6.

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It is no sign of a later date that the sacredness of the Atharvaveda was not recognised by the Indians themselves for a long time, and even to-day is frequently disputed. The reason for this is to be found in the character of this Veda. The purpose of the Atharvaveda is, as the Indians say, "to appease, to bless and to curse."¹ Those numerous magic formulas, however, which contain curses and exorcisms, belong to the province of "unholy magic," which the priesthood and the priestly religion endeavoured more and more to renounce. On the whole there is no essential difference between cult and magic; by means of both man seeks to influence the transcendental world. Moreover, priests and magicians are originally one and the same. But in the history of all peoples there begins a time when the cult of the gods and witchcraft strive to separate (never quite succeeding), when the priest, who is friendly with the gods, renounces the magician, who is in league with the uncanny demon-world, and looks down on him. This contrast between magician and priest developed also in India. Not only the Buddhist and Jain monks are forbidden to devote themselves to the exorcisms of the Atharvaveda and to magic, but also the brahmanical law-books declare sorcery to be a sin, place the magician on a level with impostors and rogues, and invite the king to proceed against them with punishments.² Certainly in other places in the law-books of the Brahmans permission to make use of the exorcisms of the Atharvaveda against enemies is expressly given,³ and the ritual texts, which describe the great sacrifices, contain numerous exorcism-formulas and descriptions of magic rites by means of which the priest can annihilate—so runs the formula—“him who hates us, and him whom we hate.” Yet a certain aversion to the Veda of the magic formulas arose in priestly circles; it was not considered sufficiently orthodox and was frequently excluded from the canon of sacred texts. From the beginning it held a peculiar position in the sacred literature. Wherever, in old works, there is talk of sacred knowledge, there the *trayī vidyā*, “the three-fold knowledge,” that is, Ṛgveda, Yajurveda, and Sāmaveda, is always mentioned first; the Atharvaveda always follows *after* the trayī vidyā, and sometimes is even entirely passed over. It even happens that the Vedāṅgas and the epic narratives (itihāsapurāṇa) are represented as sacred texts, while the Atharvaveda remains unmentioned. Thus in a Gṛhyasūtra¹ a ceremony is described, by which the Vedas are to be “laid into” the new-born child. This takes place by means of a formula, which says: “I lay the Ṛgveda into thee, I lay the Yajurveda into thee, I lay the Sāmaveda into thee, I lay the discourses (vākovākya) into thee, the tales and legends (itihāsapurāṇa) I lay into thee, all the Vedas I lay into thee.” Here, then, the Atharvaveda is intentionally passed over. Even in old Buddhist texts it is said of learned Brahmans that they are versed in the *three Vedas*.² The fact however that already in one Saṁhitā of the Black Yajurveda³ and also occasionally in old Brāhmaṇas and Upaniṣads the Atharvaveda is mentioned by the side of the three other Vedas shows that this non-mention of the Atharvaveda is no proof of the late origin of the Saṃhitā.

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¹ *i.e.* to appease the demons, to bless friends and to curse enemies.

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² SBE X, II, p. 176. XLV, pp. 105, 133, 363. Manu IX, 258, 290; XI, 64. Viṣṇu-Smṛti 54, 25.

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³ See Manu XI, 33.

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¹ Śāṅkhāyana-Gṛhyasūtra I, 24, 8.

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² Suttanipāta, Selasutta is especially remarkable, where it is said of the Brahman Sela that he is conversant with the *three vedas*, the Vedāṅgas and the Itihāsa as fifth (ed. Fausböll, p. 101). Also in Suttanipāta 1019 it is said of Bāvarī that he has mastered th three Vedas. (SBE, vol. X, II, pp. 98 and 189).

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³ Taittirīya-Saṁhitā, VII, 5, 11, 2, where the plural of Aṅgiras stands in the sense of “Atharvaveda.” See above, pp. 120 f.

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But even though it is certain that our *version* of the Atharvaveda-*Saṃhitā* is later than that of the Ṛgveda-*Saṃhitā*, yet it by no means follows from this that the *hymns* themselves are later than the Ṛgveda hymns. It only follows that the latest hymns of the Atharvaveda are later than the latest hymns of the Ṛgveda. However, certain as it is that among the hymns of the Atharvaveda there are many which are later than the great majority of Ṛgveda hymns, it is equally certain that the magic poetry of the Atharvaveda is in itself at least as old as, if not older than, the sacrificial poetry of the Ṛgveda, that numerous pieces of the Atharvaveda date back into the same dim prehistoric times as the oldest songs of the Ṛgveda. It will not do at all to speak of a "period of the Atharvaveda." Like the Ṛgveda-Saṃhitā, so too the collection of the Atharvaveda contains pieces which are separated from each other by centuries. Only of the later parts of the Atharvaveda-Saṃhitā it can be said that many of them were only composed after the pattern of the Ṛgveda-hymns. I consider as erroneous the opinion of Oldenberg,[^1) that the oldest form of magic formulas in India was the prose form, and that the whole literature of magic verses and magic songs was only created after the "pattern of its elder sister, the poetry of the sacrificial hymns."

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After all it is quite a different spirit that breathes from the magic songs of the Atharvaveda than from the hymns of the Ṛgveda. Here we move in quite a different world. On the one hand the great gods of the sky, who embody the mighty phenomena of Nature, whom the singer glorifies and praises, to whom he sacrifices, and to whom he prays, strong, helpful, some of them lofty beings, most of them friendly gods of life—on the other hand the dark, demoniacal powers,

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[^1): Literatur des alten Indien, p. 41.

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which bring disease and misfortune upon mankind, ghostly beings, against whom the wizard hurls his wild curses, or whom he tries to soothe and banish by flattering speeches. Indeed, many of these magic songs, like the magic rites pertaining to them, belong to a sphere of conceptions which, spread over the whole earth, ever recur with the most surprising similarity in the most varying peoples of all countries. Among the Indians of North America, among the Negro races of Africa, among the Malays and Mongols, among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and frequently still among the peasantry of present-day Europe, we find again exactly the same views, exactly the same strange leaps of thought in the magic songs and magic rites, as have come down to us in the Atharvaveda of the ancient Indians. There are, then, numerous verses in the Atharvaveda, which, according to their character and often also their contents, differ just as little from the magic formulas of the American-Indian medicine-men and Tartar shamans, as from the Merseburg magic maxims, which belong to the sparse remains of the oldest German poetry. Thus we read, for example, in one of the Merseburg magic incantations that "Wodan, who well understood it," charmed the sprained leg of Balder's foal with the formula:

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"Bone to bone,
Blood to blood,
Limb to limbs,
As if they were glued."

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And quite similarly it is said in Atharvaveda IV, 12, in a spell against the breaking of a leg:

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"With marrow be the marrow joined, thy limb united with the limb.
Let what hath fallen of thy flesh, and the bone also grow again. [3]
Let marrow close with marrow, let skin grow united with the skin,
Let blood and bone grow strong in thee, flesh grow together with the flesh. [4]

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Join thou together hair with hair,¹ join thou together skin with skin,
Let blood and bone grow strong in thee. Unite the broken part, O Plant." ² [5]

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¹ The healing herb is addressed.

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² Translated by R. T. H. *Griffith*.

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The great importance of the Atharvaveda-Saṁhitā lies in the very fact that it is an invaluable source of knowledge of the real popular belief as yet uninfluenced by the priestly religion, of the faith in numberless spirits, imps, ghosts, and demons of every kind, and of the witchcraft, so eminently important for ethnology and for the history of religion. How very important the Atharvaveda is for the ethnologist, may be shown by the following glance at the various classes of hymns which the collection contains.

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One of the chief constituent parts of the Atharvaveda-Saṁhitā consists of Songs and Spells for the Healing of Diseases, which belong to the magic rites of healing (bhaiṣajyāni). They are either addressed to the diseases themselves imagined as personal beings, as demons,³ or to whole classes of demons who are considered to be the creators of diseases. And in India, as among other peoples, it is believed that these demons either oppress and torment the patient from outside, or that the patient is possessed by them. Some of these spells are also invocations and praises of the curative herb, which is to serve as the cure of the disease; others again, are prayers to the water to which special healing power is ascribed, or to the fire which is looked on by the Indians as the mightiest scarer of demons. These songs of magic, together with the magic rites attached to them, of which we learn in the Kauśikasūtra which will be mentioned later, form the oldest system of Indian medical science. The symptoms of the various diseases are often described with great clearness in the songs, and therefore they are not uninteresting for the history of medicine. This is true particularly of the spells against fever. In the later text-books of medicine the fever is still called "the king of diseases," on account of its frequency and violence. Numerous charms are addressed to Takman¹—this is the name of the fever imagined as a demon in the Atharvaveda. Thus, for instance, hymn Ath. V. 22, from which a few verses may here be quoted:

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³ The name of the disease is at the same time the name of the demon. It is exactly the same, for instance, with the Malays: they have as many names of disease-spirits as of diseases known to them.

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¹ On the hymn to Takman, see J. V. *Grohmann*, Ind. Stud. 9, 1865, 381 ff.

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"And thou thyself who makest all men yellow, consuming them with
burning heat like Agni,
Thou, Fever! then be weak and ineffective. Pass hence into the realms
below or vanish. [2]
Endowed with universal power! send Fever downward, far away,
The spotty, like red-coloured dust, sprung from a spotty ancestor. [3]
Go, Fever, to the Mūjavans, or, farther, to the Bahlikas,²)
Seek a lascivious Śūdra girl and seem to shake her through and through. [7]
Since thou now cold, now burning hot, with cough besides, hast made us
shake,
Terrible, Fever, are thy darts; forbear to injure us with these. [10]
Go, Fever, with Consumption, thy brother, and with thy sister, Cough,
And with thy nephew Herpes, go away unto that alien folk."³ [12]

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² Names of tribes.

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³ Translated by R. T. H. *Griffith*.

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This pious wish, that the diseases may go to other people, may visit other lands, returns frequently in the songs of the Atharvaveda. In a similar manner the cough is sent away from the patient into the far distance with the spell Ath. VI, 105:

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"As the soul with the soul's desires swiftly to a distance flies, thus do
thou, O cough, fly forth along the soul's course of flight! (1)
As a well-sharpened arrow swiftly to a distance flee, thus do thou,
O cough, fly forth along the expanse of the earth! (2)

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As the rays of the sun swiftly to a distance fly, thus do thou, O cough, fly forth along the flood of the sea”!¹ (3)

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¹ Translated by M. *Bloomfield*, SBE, 42, p. 8.

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On account of their picturesque, sublime language, some of these magic songs deserve to be valued as examples of lyrical poetry. Certainly we must not expect too much in this poetry; we must be content to be surprised here and there by a pretty simile, as when, in a spell against bleeding, the magician addresses the veins as red-robed maidens (Ath. I, 17):

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“Those maidens there, the veins, who run their course in robes of ruddy hue,
Must now stand quiet, reft of power, like sisters who are brotherless. [1]
Stay still, thou upper vein, stay still, thou lower, stay, thou midmost one,
The smallest one of all stand still: let the great vessel e’en be still. [2]
Among a thousand vessels charged with blood, among a thousand veins,
Even these the middlemost stand still and their extremities have rest. [3]
A mighty rampart built of sand hath circled and encompassed you.
Be still, and quietly take rest.”²

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² Translated by R. T. H. *Griffith*.

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However, these sayings are not always so poetical. Very often they are most monotonous, and in many of them, in common with the poetical compositions of primitive peoples, it is chiefly that monotonous repetition of the same words and sentences of which their poetical form consists.³ Often, too, as is the case with the magic incantations of all peoples, their meaning is intentionally problematic and obscure. Such a monotonous and, at the same time, obscure verse is, for instance, that against scrofulous swellings (Ath. VI, 25):

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³ On repetition as the crudest rudimentary form of poetry, *cf.* H. *Schurtz*, Urgeschichte der Kultur, Leipzig and Vienna, 1900, pp. 523 ff.

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“The five and fifty (sores) that gather together upon the nape of the neck, from here they all shall pass away, as the pustules of the (disease called) apakit! (1)

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The seven and seventy (sores) that gather together upon the neck, from here they all shall pass away, as the pustules of the (disease called) apakit! (2)
The nine and ninety (sores) that gather together upon the shoulders from here they all shall pass away, as the pustules of the (disease called) apakit!") (3)

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There is here again a remarkable agreement between Indian and German magic incantations. Similarly as 55, 77, or 99 diseases are mentioned in the Atharvaveda, so in German incantations too, 77 or 99 diseases are often spoken of. For example in this German spell against fever:

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"This water and the blood of Christ is good for the
seventy-seven kinds of fever."

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A conception which the ancient Indians have in common not only with the Germans but also with many other peoples, is that many diseases are caused by worms. There are therefore a series of magic songs, which are intended to serve the purpose of exorcism and driving away all kinds of worms. Thus we read Ath. II, 31:

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"The worm which is in the entrails, that which is in the head, and that which is in the ribs......these worms we crush with this spell. [4]
The worms which have settled down in the hills, in the woods, in the plants, in the cattle, in the waters, and those which have settled down in our bodies, this whole breed of worms I crush." [5]

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These worms are regarded as demoniacal beings, their king and governor are mentioned, also male and female ones, worms of many colours and fantastical forms, and so on: for instance, in the spell against worms in children (Ath. V. 23):

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Slay the worms in this boy, O Indra, lord of treasures! Slain are all the evil powers by my fierce imprecation! (2)

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) Translated by M. *Bloomfield*, SBE., 42, p. 19.

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Him that moves about in the eyes, that moves about in the nose, that gets to the middle of the teeth, that worm do we crush. (3)
The two of like colour, the two of different colour; the two black ones, and the two red ones; the brown one; and the brown-eared one; the (one like a) vulture, and the (one like a) cuckoo, are slain. (4)
The worms with white shoulders, the black ones with white arms, and all those that are variegated, these worms do we crush. (5)
Slain is the king of the worms and their viceroy also is slain. Slain is the worm, with him his mother slain, his brother slain, his sister slain. (11)
Slain are they who are inmates with him, slain are his neighbours; moreover all the quite tiny worms are slain. (12)
Of all the male worms, and of all the female worms do I split the heads with the stone, I burn their faces with fire.” [^1) (13)

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Similarly, German spells are directed against “he-worm and she-worm” and worms of various colours are mentioned in the German spell against toothache:

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“Pear-tree, I complain to thee,
Three worms are pricking me.
The one is grey,
The other is blue,
The third is red,
I wish they were all three dead.”[^2)

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Very numerous, too, are the incantations which are directed against whole classes of demons, which are looked upon as the originators of diseases, especially against the *Piśācas* (goblins) and *Rākṣasas* (devils). The object of these spells is the scattering or exorcising of these demoniacal beings. An example is found in the song Ath. IV, 36 against

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[^1): Translated by M. *Bloomfield*, SBE., 42, p. 24. [^2): The belief that toothache is caused by worms, is not only prevalent in India, Germany, England and France. In Madagascar, too, it is said of one who has toothache: “He is ill through the worm.” And the Cherokees have a spell against toothache which says: “The intruder in the tooth has spoken, and it is only a worm.” (James Mooney in the 7th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1885-86, Washington, 1891, pp. 357 f.).

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the Piśācas, from which the following verses, here reproduced in prose, are taken, which indicated a boundless self-assertion on the part of the wizard.

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"I am a pest to the Piśācas, as the tiger to the owners of oxen. Like dogs, when they have perceived the lion, they find no loophole. [6]
I cannot bear with the Piśācas, nor with thieves and prowlers in the forests. From the village which I enter, the Piśācas vanish. [7]
From the village which my violent strength encounters, the Piśācas vanish; they have no more evil intentions." [8]

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Along with this belief in devilish beings which bring diseases upon mankind, we find in India also the world-wide belief in male and female demons (Incubi and Succubi), which visit mortal women and men by night. These are the *Apsaras* and *Gandharvas* of the ancient Indian popular belief, which correspond in every respect and in an amazing manner with the sprites and elves and fairies of the German popular belief. They are originally spirits of nature, river and forest deities. Rivers and trees are their dwelling places, which they leave only to entice mortals and to injure them by unnatural co-habitation. In order to drive away these spirits, the ancient Indian magicians made use of a pleasant-smelling plant, called Ajaśṛṅgī (*Odina pinnata*), and recited the song Ath. IV, 37, from which I quote the following verses :

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"With thee do we scatter the Apsaras and Gandharvas. O ajaśriṅgī (*Odina pinnata*), goad (aga) the Rakshas, drive them all away with thy smell! (2)
The Apsaras, Guggulû, Pîlâ, Naladî, Aukshagandhi, and Pramandanî (by name), shall go to the river, to the ford of the waters, as if blown away! Thither do ye, O Apsaras, pass away, (since) ye have been recognised ![^1) (3)

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[^1): According to the magic lore of the Indians, as of other peoples, spirits and ghosts become powerless when recognized and called by name. Guggulū, and so on, are names of certain Apsaras.

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Where grow the asvattha (*Ficus religiosa*) and the banyan-trees, the great trees with crowns, thither do ye, O Apsaras pass away, (since) ye have been recognised! (4)
Of the crested Gandharva, the husband of the Apsaras, who comes dancing hither, I crush the two mushkas and cut off the sepas. (7)
One is like a dog, one like an ape. As a youth with luxuriant locks, pleasant to look upon, the Gandharva hangs about the woman. Him do we drive out from here with our powerful charm. (11)
The Apsaras you know, are your wives; ye, the Gandharvas are their husbands. Speed away, ye immortals, do not go after mortals! ” ¹ (12)

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¹ Translated by M. *Bloomfield*, SBE., Vol. 42, pp. 33 f.

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Just as in this song in the Atharvaveda, the elf in the German incantations is exhorted to leave the houses of mortals, and to depart to the rivers and trees. Just like the Apsaras and the Gandharvas, too, the Germanic water-fairies and elves love music and dancing, with which they lure mortal men and women. Just as in the ancient Indian magic song the Gandharva appears now as a dog, now as an ape, now as a youth with beautiful curls, the elf of the German legends makes his appearance in all kinds of transformations. Again, just as the Apsaras of the Indians have their swings in the branches of the banana and fig trees, the water-fairies of German popular belief swing in the branches and on the tree-tops. As here in the Atharvaveda a sweet-smelling plant serves to scare away the demons, so too sweet-smelling herbs (like thyme) were thought by the Germans to be an excellent means of driving away elves and other spirits. These points of agreement can scarcely be mere coincidences: and we may well agree with Adalbert Kuhn, who compared Indian and German incantations as long as sixty years ago,² in assuming that not only certain phenomena of magic lore, but also quite definitely developed forms of magic songs and magic formulas may be traced back to the Indo-European period, and that the German and Indian magic songs thus give us a clue to a kind of prehistoric poetry of the Indo-Europeans.

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² In Vol. XIII of *Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft* (1864), pp. 49 ff., 113 ff.

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The prayers for health and long life, called by the Indians āyuṣyāṇi sūktāni, *i.e.* "hymns achieving long life," which form the second class of the hymns of the Atharvaveda, are but little different from the magic spells for healing. These are prayers, as they were used chiefly at family festivals, such as the first hair-cutting of the boy, the first shaving of the youth, and the initiation (upanayana). The prayer for a great age, for a life of "a hundred autumns" or "a hundred winters," for deliverance from the 100 or 101 kinds of death, and for protection against all sorts of diseases, here recurs again and again in a rather monotonous manner. Book XVII, consisting of a single hymn of thirty stanzas, belongs to this class of hymns. As in the spells of healing, the healing herb which the magic-doctor uses is often invoked, so some of these prayers for long life are addressed to amulets which are to ensure health and long life to the wearer.

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In the closest connection with these prayers are the extremely numerous benedictions (pauṣṭikāni), by means of which the farmer, the shepherd, the merchant hope to gain happiness and success in their undertakings. Here we find a prayer which is used at the building of a house, benedictions for ploughing, for sowing, for the growth of the corn, and exorcisms against field-vermin, spells against the danger of fire, prayers for rain used in rain-magic, numerous benedictions for the prosperity of the herds of cattle, exorcisms of a herdsman against wild animals and robbers, prayers of a merchant for good business and good fortune on his journey, of a gamester for good luck with the dice, proscriptions and exorcisms against snakes, and so on. Only a few of these songs and spells are of any worth as poetry. It frequently happens, however, that in a very mediocre poem of considerable length, we find single verses of great beauty. The most beautiful is perhaps the rain-song Ath. IV, 15. Here we read: Driven by the wind may the clouds pass by, and "while the great, cloud-enwrapped bull roars,¹ may the rushing waters refresh the earth." Parjanya himself is invoked with the words:

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¹ The rain-god Parjanya.

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"Roar, thunder, set the sea in agitation, bedew the
ground with thy sweet rain, Parjanya!
Send plenteous showers on him who seeketh shelter,
and let the owner of lean kine go homeward."²

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² Ath. IV, 15, 6, translated by R. T. H. *Griffith*. In time of drought the cows have become lean on account of scanty food. Now the herdsman must flee before the rain, and better times will come for the cattle (Weber, Ind. Stud., Vol. 18, p. 62).

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The least amount of poetry is found in those benedictions which contain only quite general prayers for happiness and blessing or for protection against danger and evil. Among the latter are the so-called "mṛgārasūktāni" (Ath. IV, 23-29), a litany consisting of seven hymns of seven verses each. They are addressed respectively to Agni (1), Indra (2), Vāyu and Savitar (3), heaven and earth (4), the Maruts (5), Bhava and Śarva³ (6), Mitra and Varuṇa (7), and every verse concludes with the refrain-like prayer for deliverance from affliction.

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³ Names or forms of *Rudra*, a god who plays a prominent part in witchcraft and in the magic songs of the Atharvaveda, while he occupies a more subordinate position in the hymns of the Ṛgveda.

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The word "aṃhas," however, which we here translate by "affliction," combines in itself the meanings "distress, affliction" on one side, and "guilt, sin" on the other. Therefore the above-mentioned litany can be reckoned among that class of Atharvaveda hymns which is connected with expiatory ceremonies (prāyaścittāni). These expiatory formulæ and spells for cleansing from guilt and sin are less different from the spells of healing than one might think. For, to Indian ideas, an expiation, a prāyaścitta, is necessary not only for "sins" in our sense, *i.e.* offences against the moral rule, or transgressions against religion, but by the side of propitiatory formulae for imperfectly performed sacrifices and ceremonies, for crimes consciously and unconsciously committed, for sins of thought, for non-payment of debts, especially gambling debts, for the marriage prohibited by the law, of a younger brother before the elder, and beside general prayers for liberation from guilt and sin and their consequences, we find also propitiatory formulas, and, in connection with atonement ceremonies, songs and spells by which mental and physical infirmities, unpropitious omens (*e.g.* by the flight of birds or the birth of twins or the birth of a child under an unlucky star), bad dreams and sudden accidents are "expiated," *i.e.* warded off or weakened in their effects. The conception "guilt," "sin," "evil," "misfortune" are continually merged one into the other. The fact is that everything evil—disease and misfortune, just the same as guilt and sin—is looked on as caused by evil spirits. Like the invalid or the madman, so is the evil-doer, too, the sinner, possessed by a wicked demon. The same fiends which bring disease, also send the unfavourable omens and the accidents themselves. Thus, for example, Ath. X, 3, an amulet, which is tied on the person, is praised extravagantly in twenty-five verses and glorified as a mighty protection against dangers and evils of every kind, against evil magic, against bad dreams and unfavourable omens, against "the sin which my mother, which my father, which my brothers and which my sister and which we ourselves have committed," and at the same time as a universal remedy for all diseases.

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Family discord, too, arises through the influence of evil demons or malicious wizards. Therefore we find in the Atharvaveda also a number of spells for the restoration of harmony, which stand midway between the expiatory formulas and the benedictions. For to this class belong not only the spells by which peace and harmony are to be restored in the family, but also formulas by which one can appease the wrath of a great master, or by which one desires to gain influence in an assembly, the art of persuasion in a court of law, and so on. One of the most pleasing of this kind of songs is Ath. III, 30, which begins with the words:

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"Of one heart and of one mind,
Free from hatred do I make you,
Take delight in one another,
As the cow does in her baby calf.

Loyal to his sire the son be,
Of one mind, too, with his mother;
Sweet and kindly language ever
Let the wife speak to her husband.

Brother shall not hate the brother,
And the sister not the sister.
Of one mind and of one intent,
Speak ye words of kindness only."¹

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¹ This is an almost literal translation. The translation by J. Muir, Metrical Translations from Sanskrit Writers, p. 139, is rather free.

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Of course some of these reconciliation-spells could also be employed in the restoration of unity between husband and wife. But the magic songs referring to marriage and love form a large separate class of hymns of the Atharvaveda; and in the Kauśikasūtra we become acquainted with the manifold kinds of love-magic and all the magic rites, which are called "strīkarmāṇi" or "women's rites," and for which these songs and spells were employed. There are, however, two sorts of spells belonging to this class. Those of the one kind have a sociable and peaceful character and refer to marriage and the begetting of children. They are pious spells connected with harmless magical rites by which a maiden tries to obtain a bridegroom, or a young man a bride, benedictions upon the bridal pair and the newly-married, magic songs and spells through which conception shall be accelerated and the birth of a male child effected, prayers for protection of the pregnant woman, also of the unborn and the new-born child, and so on. Of this kind is the whole of Book XIV, which contains a collection of marriage-verses and is, on the whole, a second, greatly enlarged edition of the marriage verses of the Ṛgveda.¹ More numerous is the second kind of these spells, consisting of wild exorcisms and curses, which refer to love-intrigues and disturbances of the married life. Still fairly harmless are the spells through which a wife wishes to pacify her husband's jealousy, or the verses which are to bring the unfaithful wife back to her husband, or the charm for inducing sleep (Ath. IV, 5), in which the following verse proves that the song is used by a lover who steals to his sweetheart: "May the mother sleep, may the father sleep, may the dog sleep, may the eldest in the house sleep, may *her* relations sleep, may all the people round about sleep."² Less harmless and partly of primeval savageness are the spells by which a person is to be forced to love against his or her will. The belief, existing all over the world, that by means of the *picture* of a person one can harm or obtain power over that person, is also found in ancient India. If a man wished to gain the love of a woman, he made a picture out of clay, took a bow with a string of hemp, an arrow the barb of which was a thorn, the feather of which came from an owl, the shaft of which was made of black wood, and began to pierce the heart of the picture through and through with the arrow—a symbolical piercing of the heart of the beloved with the arrow of the love-god Kāma—while he recited the verses of the magic song, Ath. III, 25:

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¹ See above, pp. 107 f. The marriage prayers as also the love-charms of the Atharvaveda have been translated and explained by A. *Weber*, Ind. Stud., Vol. V.

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² *Bloomfield* (SBE., Vol 42, p. 105) calls the hymn a "charm at an assignation," *Whitney* (HOS., Vol. 7, p. 151) "an incantation to put to sleep." See also Th. *Aufrecht*, Ind. Stud. 4, 337 ff., on the two sleeping-spells, Ṛv. VII, 55 and Ath. IV, 5.

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"May (love) the disquieter, disquiet thee; do not hold out upon thy bed: with the terrible arrow of Kâma (love) do I pierce thee in the heart.
The arrow, winged with longing, barbed with love, whose shaft is undeviating desire, with that, well-aimed, Kâma shall pierce thee in the heart!
With that well-aimed arrow of Kâma which parches the spleen, whose plume flies forward, which burns up, do I pierce thee in the heart.
Consumed by burning ardour, with parched mouth, do thou (woman) come to me, pliant (thy) pride laid aside, mine alone, speaking sweetly and and to me devoted!
I drive thee with a goad from thy mother and thy father, so that thou shalt be in my power, shalt come up to my wish.
All her thought do ye, O Mitra and Varuṇa, drive out of her!
Then, having deprived her of her will, put her into my power alone!"¹

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¹ Translated by M. *Bloomfield*, SBE., Vol. 42, p. 102.

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A woman acts in a similar manner if she wants to compel the love of a man. She makes an effigy of the man, places it before herself, and hurls heated arrow-heads at it, while she recites the song, Ath. VI, 130 and 138 with the refrain: "Send forth Desire, ye Deities! Let him consume with love of me!" Thus she says:

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"Madden him, Maruts, madden him. Madden him, madden him, O Air.
Madden him, Agni, madden him. Let him consume with love of me.
(130, 4.)

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Down upon thee, from head to foot, I draw the pangs of longing love.
Send forth Desire, ye Deities! Let him consume with love of me.
(131, 1.)

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If thou shouldst run three leagues away, five leagues, a horse's daily stage,
Thence thou shalt come to me again and be the father of our sons."²
(131, 3.)

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² Translated by R. T. H. *Griffith*. In the refrain (131, 1) I have corrected "send forth the charm" into "send forth Desire."—*The author.*

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The wildest incantations, actually bristling with hatred, are those which women use in the attempt to oust their rivals. One example is Ath. I, 14:

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“I have taken unto myself her fortune and her glory, as a wreath of a tree. Like a mountain with broad foundation may she sit a long time with her parents!

This woman shall be subjected to thee as thy wife, O King Yama¹) (till then) let her be fixed to the house of her mother, or her brother, or her father!

This woman shall be the keeper of thy house, O king (Yama), and her do we make over to thee! May she long sit with her relatives, until (her hair) drops from her head!

With the incantation of Asita, of Kaśyapa, and of Gaya²) do I cover up thy fortune, as women cover (something) within a chest.”³)

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¹ The god of death.

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² Probably names of famous wizards.

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³ Translated by M. *Bloomfield*, (SBE., Vol. 42, p. 107) who was the first to give a correct interpretation of this difficult charm (*ib.* pp. 252 ff.) *Whitney* (HOS., Vol. 7, p. 15) describes it as an “imprecation of spinsterhood on a woman.”

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Language of unbridled wildness, of unmistakeable meaning is also found in the songs which are intended to make a woman barren (Ath. VII, 35) or to rob a man of his generative power (Ath. VI, 138; VII, 90).

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*These* love-incantations really belong already to that class of hymns which are designated by the old name “Aṅgiras,”⁴) to the class of the curses and exorcisms against demons, wizards and enemies (ābhicārikāṇi). Some of the charms of healing, too, can just as well be included in this class inasmuch as they contain exorcisms against the demons of disease. Of this kind is among other things, also the second half of Book XVI, which contains an exorcism against nightmare in which this demon is told to visit the enemies. In these exorcisms no difference is made between demons and malicious wizards and witches, and against them, Agni especially, the fire as a demon-destroyer, is called to the rescue. Numerous popular names of demons, otherwise quite unknown, are found in these hymns, in which indeed we continually meet with ideas more genuinely popular than usual. Thus we here come across the view, deeply-rooted in the popular belief—and that, of all peoples—that disease and misfortune can be caused not only by demons, but also by malicious people who are endowed with magic power. The magic by means of which these bad people work evil, is often personified in the songs, and a magic antidote—a healing herb, an amulet, a talisman—is confronted with it. The spells and songs connected with this hostile magic and its magic antidotes are often distinguished by a raciness and ferocity which are not without a certain beauty. In any case, in some of these curses and exorcisms of the Atharvaveda, there is more good popular poetry than in most of the sacrificial songs and prayers of the Ṛgveda. An example of this is the song for averting evil magic, Ath. V, 14, of which a few verses may here be quoted :

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⁴ See above, pp. 120 f.

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“An eagle found thee: with his snout a wild boar dug thee
from the earth.
Harm thou, O Plant, the mischievous, and drive the sorcerer
away. [1]
Beat thou the Yātudhānas back, drive thou away the sorcerer;
And chase afar, O Plant, the man who fain would do us injury. [2]
As 'twere a strip cut round from skin of a white-footed antelope,
Bind, like a golden chain, O God, his witchcraft on the sorcerer. [3]
Take thou his sorcery by the hand, and to the sorcerer lead it back.
Lay it before him, face to face, that it may kill the sorcerer. [4]
Back on the wizard fall his craft, upon the curser light his
curse.
Let witchcraft, like a well-naved car, roll back upon the sorcerer. [5]
Whoso, for other's harm hath dealt—woman or man—in
magic arts,
To him we lead the sorcery back, even as a courser with a rope. [6]

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Go as a son goes to his sire : bite as a trampled viper bites,
As one who flies from bonds, go back, O Witchcraft to the sorcerer.” [^1) [10]

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In a similar manner in the song Ath. VI, 37, the curse is personified and returned to the cursing one in the following vigorous verses :

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“ Hitherward, having yoked his steeds, came
Imprecation, thousand-eyed,
Seeking my curser, as a wolf the home of one who owneth sheep. [1]
Avoid us, Imprecation ! as consuming fire avoids the lake.
Smite thou the man who curses us, as the sky's lightning strikes the tree. [2]
Who curses us, himself uncursed, or, cursed, who curses us again,
Him cast I as a sop to Death, as to a dog one throws a bone.” [^2) [3]

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Here we may mention the magnificent hymn to Varuṇa (Ath. IV, 16), the first half of which celebrates the almighty power and omniscience of God in language which is familiar to us from the Psalms, but which is extremely rarely heard in India, while the second half is nothing but a vigorous exorcism-formula against liars and libellers, such as are not infrequent in the Atharvaveda. I give the first five verses of this remarkable poem in the beautiful poetical translation of Muir,[^3) and verses 6-9 in the prose translation of M. Bloomfield.[^4)

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“ The mighty lord on high our deeds, as if at hand, espies ;
The gods know all men do, though men would fain their acts disguise . [1]
Whoever stands, whoever moves, or steals from place to place,
Or hides him in his secret cell,—the gods his movements trace.

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