History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.16

v7.c92.16

The Ṛgveda frequently mentions magicians who appear to have been mostly non-Aryans described as *adeva* (godless), *anṛtadeva* (worshipping false gods), *śiśnadeva* (lecherous, Ṛg. VII. 21. 5, X. 99. 3). For reasons of space, it is not possible to go into great details. Tāntrik works describe the six cruel acts which will be dealt with later on. In the Vedic times it was supposed that some wicked people could by charms and incantations bring about the death of men and animals or make them ill. Two long hymns (VII. 104 and X. 87 both containing 25 verses) are enough to show how the Ṛgveda people were afraid of black magic. Both hymns are full of the words '*Yātudhāna*' (one who employs black magic) and '*rakṣas*' (devil or evil spirit), the word yātu being the same as '*jādu*' (employed in Marathi and other regional Indian languages). There were female evil spirits also called '*piśācī*' (Ṛg. I. 133. 5 'O Indra! destroy the reddish very powerful piśācī and kill all evil spirits)'. A few verses from the Ṛgveda may be translated here. 'May I (Vasistha) die this very day if I be a practitioner of black magic or if I have scorched the life of any person; may he, who falsely called me a practitioner of black magic, lose his ten sons; may Indra kill with a terrible weapon him who called me *yātudhāna*, though I am not so and who, being himself a raksas, declares himself to be pure; may he, being most wretched, fall below all beings (Ṛg. VII. 104. 15-16); O Maruts! may you spread in different places among the people, and wish to seize the devils and pound to dust the devils (raksasah) who assuming the form of birds fly about at night and who, when the sacrifice is shining, produce deadly obstacles (*ibid*. verse 18); O Indra! kill the male practitioner of black magic and also the female (magician) that destroys with wiles; may the (devils) worshippers of foolish deities perish with their necks cut off; and may they not be able to see the sun rising (Ṛg. VII 104. 24); O Agni, split the skin of the yātudhāna, may thy destructive bolt kill him by its heat; O Jātavedas! shatter his joints, may some carnivorous beast longing for flesh seek (devour) the broken (yātudhāna), O Agni! shatter the yātudhānas by your heat, and the raksas by your glow and destroy the worshippers of foolish gods (*mūradevān*) and, shining towards those that feed on the lives of men (*asutṛpaḥ*), shatter them' (Ṛg. X. 87. 5 and 14)