{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/av/av05017.htm","path":"hin/av/av05017.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av05017.htm","text":"Hymns of the Atharva Veda, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895]\n1These first, the boundless Sea, and M\u0101tarisvan, fierce glowing\n \u00a0\u00a0Fire, the Strong, the Bliss-bestower,\n \u00a0\u00a0And heavenly Floods, first-born by holy Order, exclaimed\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0against the outrage on a Br\u0101hman.\n 2King Soma first of all, without reluctance, made restitution of\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the Br\u0101hman's consort.\n \u00a0\u00a0Mitra and Varuna were the inviters: Agni as Hotar took her\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0hand and led her.\n 3The man, her pledge, must by the hand be taken when he hath\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0cried, She is a Br\u0101hman's consort.\n \u00a0\u00a0She stayed not for a herald to conduct her: thus is the kingdom\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0of a ruler guarded.\n 4She whom they call the star with loosened tresses, descending as.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0misfortune on the village, p. a174\n \u00a0\u00a0The Br\u0101hman's consort, she disturbs the kingdom where hath\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0appeared the hare with fiery flashing.\n 5Active in duty serves the Brahmach\u0101ri: he is a member of the\n \u00a0\u00a0Gods' own body.\n \u00a0\u00a0Through him Brihaspati obtained his consort, as the Gods gained\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the ladle brought by Soma.\n 6Thus spake of her those Gods of old, Seven Rishis, who sate\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0them down to their austere devotion:\n \u00a0\u00a0Dire is a Br\u0101hman's wife led home by others: in the supremest\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0heaven she plants confusion.\n 7When infants die, untimely born, when herds of cattle waste\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0away,\n \u00a0\u00a0When heroes strike each other dead, the Br\u0101hman's wife\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0destroyeth them.\n 8Even if ten former husbands\u2014none a Br\u0101hman\u2014had espoused a\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0dame,\n \u00a0\u00a0And then a Br\u0101hman took her hand, he is her husband, only he,\n 9Not Vaisya, not R\u0101janya, no, the Br\u0101hman is indeed her lord:\n \u00a0\u00a0This S\u016brya in his course proclaims to the Five Races of man-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0kind.\n 10So then the Gods restored her, so men gave the woman back\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0again.\n \u00a0\u00a0Princes who kept their promises restored the Br\u0101hman's wedded\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0wife.\n 11Having restored the Br\u0101hman's wife, and freed them, with Gods'\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0aid, from sin,\n \u00a0\u00a0They shared the fulness of the earth and worn themselves ex-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0tended sway.\n 12No lovely wife who brings her dower in hundreds rests upon his\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0bed,\n \u00a0\u00a0Within whose kingdom is detained, through want of sense, a\n \u00a0\u00a0Br\u0101hman's dame.\n 13No broad-browed calf with wide-set ears is ever in his homestead\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0born.\n \u00a0\u00a0Within whose kingdom is detained, through want of sense, a\n \u00a0\u00a0Br\u0101hman's dame.\n 14No steward, golden-necklaced, goes before the meat-trays of the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0man.\n \u00a0\u00a0Within whose kingdom is detained, through want of sense, a\n \u00a0\u00a0Br\u0101hman's dame. p. a175\n 15No black-eared courser, white of hue, moves proudly, harnessed\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to his car,\n \u00a0\u00a0In whose dominion is detained, through want of sense, a\n \u00a0\u00a0Br\u0101hman's dame.\n 16No lily grows with oval bulbs, no lotus-pool is in his field,\n \u00a0\u00a0In whose dominion is detained, through senseless love, a\n \u00a0\u00a0Br\u0101hman's dame.\n 17The men whose task it is to milk drain not the brindled cow for\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0him,\n \u00a0\u00a0In whose dominion is detained, through senseless love, a\n \u00a0\u00a0Br\u0101hman's dame.\n 18His milch-cow doth not profit one, his draught-ox masters not\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the yoke,\n \u00a0\u00a0Wherever, severed from his wife, a Br\u0101hman spends the mourn-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ful night.","title":"Atharva Veda: Book 5: Hymn 17: The abduction and restorat...","type":"page"}