{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/av/av08004.htm","path":"hin/av/av08004.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av08004.htm","text":"Hymns of the Atharva Veda, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895]\n1Indra and Soma, burn, destroy the demon foe! Send downward,\n \u00a0\u00a0O ye Bulls, those who add gloom to gloom.\n \u00a0\u00a0Annihilate the fools, slay them and burn them up: chase them\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0away from us, pierce the voracious fiends. p. a331\n 2Let sin, Indra and Soma! round the wicked boil, like as a cald-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ron set amid the flames of fire.\n \u00a0\u00a0Against the foe of prayer, eater of gory flesh, the fearful-eyed\n \u00a0\u00a0Kimidin, keep perpetual hate.\n 3Indra and Soma, plunge the wicked in the depth, yea, cast them\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0into darkness that hath no support,\n \u00a0\u00a0So that not one of them may ever thence return: so may your\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0wrathful might prevail and conquer them.\n 4Indra and Soma, hurl your deadly crushing bolt down on the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0wicked fiend from heaven and from the earth.\n \u00a0\u00a0Yea, fashion from the big clouds your celestial dart wherewith\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ye burn to death the waxing demon race.\n 5Indra and Soma, cast ye downward from the sky your deadly\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0bolts of stone burning with fiery flame,\n \u00a0\u00a0Eternal, scorching darts. Plunge the voracious fiends within the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0depth, and let them pass without a sound.\n 6Indra and Soma, let this hymn control you both, even as the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0girth encompasses two vigorous steeds\n \u00a0\u00a0The song of praise which I with wisdom offer you. Do ye, as\n \u00a0\u00a0Lords of men, animate these my prayers.\n 7In your impetuous manner think ye both thereon: destroy those\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0evil spirits, kill the treacherous fiends.\n \u00a0\u00a0Indra and Soma, let the wicked have no bliss whoso at any time-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0attacks and injures us.\n 8Whoso accuses me with words of falsehood when I pursue my\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0way with guileless spirit,\n \u00a0\u00a0May he, the speaker of untruth, be, Indra! like water which the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0hollowed hand compresses.\n 9Those who destroy, as is their wont, the simple, and with their\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0evil natures harm the righteous,\n \u00a0\u00a0May Soma give them over to the serpent, or to the lap of\n \u00a0\u00a0Nirriti consign them.\n 10O Agni, whosoever seeks to injure the essence of our food, kine,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0steeds, or bodies,\n \u00a0\u00a0May he, the adversary, thief, and robber, sink to destruction,.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0both himself and offspring.\n 11May he be swept away, himself and children; may all the three\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0earths press him down beneath them.\n \u00a0\u00a0May his fair glory, O ye Gods, be blighted, who in the day or\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0night would fain destroy us. p. a332\n 12The prudent finds it easy to distinguish the true and false: their\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0words oppose each other.\n \u00a0\u00a0Of these two that which is the true and honest Soma protects,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and brings the false to nothing.\n 13Never doth Soma aid and guide the wicked or him who falsely\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0claims the Warrior's title.\n \u00a0\u00a0He slays the fiend and him who speaks untruly: both lie entan-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0gled in the noose of Indra.\n 14As if I worshipped deities of falsehood, or thought vain thoughts\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0about the Gods, O Agni!\n \u00a0\u00a0Why art thou angry with us, J\u0101tavedas? Destruction fall on\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0those who lie against thee!\n 15So may I die this day if I have harassed any man's life, or if I\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0be a demon.\n \u00a0\u00a0Yea, may he lose all his ten sons together who with false tongue\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0hath called me Y\u0101tudh\u0101na.\n 16May Indra slay him with a mighty weapon, and let the vilest of\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0all creatures perish,\n \u00a0\u00a0The fiend who says that he is pure, who calls me a demon\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0though devoid of demon nature.\n 17She too who wanders like an owl at night-time, hiding her body\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0in her guile and malice,\n \u00a0\u00a0May she fall downward into endless caverns. May press-stones\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0with loud ring destroy the demons.\n 18Spread out, ye Maruts, search among the people: seize ye and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0grind the R\u0101kshasas to pieces,\n \u00a0\u00a0Who fly abroad, transformed to birds, at night-time, and sully\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and pollute our holy worship.\n 19Hurl down from heaven thy bolt of stone, O Indra: sharpen it,\n \u00a0\u00a0Maghavan, made keen by Soma.\n \u00a0\u00a0Forward, behind, and from above and under, smite down the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0demons with thy rocky weapon.\n 20They fly, the demon dogs, and, bent on mischief, fain would they\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0harm indomitable Indra.\n \u00a0\u00a0Sakra makes sharp his weapon for the wicked: now let him\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0cast his bolt at fiendish wizards.\n 21Indra hath ever been the fiends' destroyer who spoil oblations of\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the Gods' invokers.\n \u00a0\u00a0Yea, Sakra, like an axe that splits the timber, assails and sma-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0shes them like earthen vessels. p. a333\n 22Destroy the fiend shaped like an owl or owlet, destroy him in.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the form of dog or cuckoo.\n \u00a0\u00a0Destroy him shaped as eagle or as vulture: as with a stone, O\n \u00a0\u00a0Indra, crush the demon.\n 23Let not the fiend of witchcraft-workers reach us: may Dawn.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0drive off the couples of Kimidins.\n \u00a0\u00a0Earth keep us safe from earthly woe and trouble! From grief\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0that comes from heaven Mid-air preserve us!\n 24Indra destroy the demon, male and female, joying and triumph-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ing in arts of magic!\n \u00a0\u00a0Let the fools' gods with bent necks fall and perish, and see no.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0more the Sun when he arises.\n 25Look, each one, hither, look around. Indra and Soma, watch ye\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0well.\n \u00a0\u00a0Cast forth your weapon at the fiends: against the sorcerers hurl\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0your bolt.","title":"Atharva Veda: Book 8: Hymn 4: Imprecations on demons","type":"page"}