{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/av/av11010.htm","path":"hin/av/av11010.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av11010.htm","text":"Hymns of the Atharva Veda, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895]\n1Rise up, with all your banners rise; prepare your strength, ye\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0vapoury Forms!\n \u00a0\u00a0Serpents and fiends and Other Folk, charge and pursue our\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0enemies!\n 2Let those who bear an evil name, in air, in heaven on earth, and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0men,\n \u00a0\u00a0After Trishandhi's will, revere your power, the sway that Know-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ledge gives, together with your ruddy flags.\n 3Let those with iron faces, with faces like needles or like combs,\n \u00a0\u00a0Flesh-eaters, rapid as the wind, cling closely to our foemen with\n \u00a0\u00a0Trishandhi for their thunderbolt.\n 4Omniscient \u0100ditya, make full many a corpse to disappear.\n \u00a0\u00a0Let this devoted army of Trishandhi be in my control.\n 5Rise up, O Godlike Being, rise, Arbudi, with thine army: this,\n \u00a0\u00a0Tribute is sacrificed to thee, Trishandhi's welcome offering\n 6May this four-footed White-foot, may this arrow brace and bind\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0thee fast:\n \u00a0\u00a0Together with Trishandhi's host, be thou, O Witchcraft, meant\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0for foes.\n 7Down let the dim-eyed demon fly, and let her shorteared sister\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0shriek:\n \u00a0\u00a0Red be the banners when the host of Arbudi hath won the day.\n 8Let all the birds that move on wings come downward, all fowls\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0that roam the heavens and air's midregion. p. 72\n \u00a0\u00a0Let beasts of prey and flies attacks, and vultures that eat raw\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0flesh mangle and gnaw the carcase.\n 9By that same binding treaty which thou madest, Brihaspati!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0with Indra! and with Brahma,\n \u00a0\u00a0By Indra's pledge I bid the Gods come hither. Conquer on this\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0side, not on their side yonder.\n 10Brihaspati Angirasa, Rishis made strong and keen by prayer,\n \u00a0\u00a0Have set Trishandhi in the heaven, dire weapon that destroys\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the fiends.\n 11The Gods enjoyed Trishandhi for the sake of energy and power,\n \u00a0\u00a0Him under whose protection, both, Indra and yon \u0100ditya stand.\n 12The Gods, victorious, won themselves all worlds by this oblation,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0which\n \u00a0\u00a0Brihaspati Angirasa effused, a very thunderbolt, a weapon to\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0destory the friends.\n 13That fiend-destroying weapon which Brihaspati Angirasa poured\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0out and made a thunderbolt.\n \u00a0\u00a0Even therewith, Brihaspati, I brush that hostile armament, and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0strike the foemen down with might.\n 14Over to us come all the Gods who eat the hallowed sacrifice\n \u00a0\u00a0With this oblation be ye pleased: conquer on this side, not on\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0that.\n 15Over,to us let all Gods come: dear is Trishandhi's offering.\n \u00a0\u00a0Keen the great pledge through which, of old, the Asuras were\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0overthrown.\n 16Let V\u0101yu bend the arrow-points of those who are our enemies.\n \u00a0\u00a0Let Indra break their arms away: no power to lay the shaft be\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0theirs!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u0100ditya utterly destroy their missile! Chandram\u0101s bar the path\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0of him who lingers!\n 17If they have issued forth strongholds of Gods, and made their\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0shields of prayer,\n \u00a0\u00a0Gaining protection for their lives, protection round about, make\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0all their instigation powerless\n 18With the Flesh-eater and with Death, following the Purohita,\n \u00a0\u00a0On! forward with Trishandhi's host! conquering enemies\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0advance!\n 19Do thou, Trishandhi, with the gloom of darkness compass round\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0our foes; p. 73\n \u00a0\u00a0Let none escape of them expelled with speckled butter mixt with\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0curds.\n 20Let White-foot fall upon those wings of our opponents' arma-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ment;\n \u00a0\u00a0Mazed and bewildered be those hands of foes this day, O Nyar-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0budi.\n 21Mazed are the foemen, Nyarbudi! Slay thou each bravest man\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0of them: with this our army slaughter them.\n 22Low lie the warrior, mailed, unmailed, each foeman in the rush\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0of war.\n \u00a0\u00a0Down-smitten with the strings of bows, the fastenings of mail,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the charge!\n 23The armour-clad, the armourless, enemies clothed with coats of\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0mail,\n \u00a0\u00a0All these struck down, O Arbudi, let dogs devour upon the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0earth.\n 24Car-borne and carless fighting men, riders and those who go\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0on foot,\n \u00a0\u00a0All these, struck down, let vultures, kites, and all, the birds of\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0air devour.\n 25Low let the hostile army lie, thousands of corpses, on the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ground,\n \u00a0\u00a0Pierced through and rent to pieces where the deadly weapons\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0clash in fight.\n 26With eagles let them eat the evil-hearted, pierced in the vitals,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0lying crushed and howling.\n \u00a0\u00a0The foe whoe'er will fight against this our protecting sacrifice.\n 27With this which Gods attend, with this which never fails to gain\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0its end,\n \u00a0\u00a0Let Indra, Vritra-slayer, smite, and with Trishandhi as a bolt.","title":"Atharva Veda: Book 11: Hymn 10: An incantation for the destruction of a hostile army","type":"page"}