{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/av/av12005.htm","path":"hin/av/av12005.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av12005.htm","text":"Hymns of the Atharva Veda, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895]\n1Created by toil and holy fervour, found by devotion, resting in\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0right;\n 2Invested with truth, surrounded with honour, compassed about\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0with glory;\n 3Girt round with inherent power, fortified with faith, protected,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0by consecration, installed at sacrifice, the world her resting-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0place;\n 4Brahma her guide, the Br\u0101hman her lord and ruler;\n 5Of the Kshatriya who taketh to himself this Br\u0101hman's cow and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0oppresseth the Br\u0101hman.\n 6The glory, the heroism, and the favouring fortune depart.\n 7The energy and vigour, the power and might the speech and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0mental strength, the glory and duty;\n 8Devotion and princely sway, kingship and people, brilliance and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0honour, and splendour and wealth;\n 9Long life and goodly form, and name and fame, inbreathing and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0expiration, and sight, and hearing;\n 10Milk and flavour, and food and nourishment, and right and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0truth, and action and fulfilment, and children and cattle;\n 11All these blessings of a Kshatriya depart from him when he\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0oppresseth the Br\u0101hman and taketh to himself the hhman's\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0cow.\n 12Terrible is she this Br\u0101hman's cow, and fearfully venomous,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0visibly witchcraft.\n 13In her are all horrors and all death.\n 14In her are all dreadful, deeds, all slaughters of mankind.\n 15This, the Br\u0101hman's cow, being appropriated, holdeth bound in\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the fetter of Death the oppressor of the Br\u0101hman, the blas-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0phemer of the Gods.\n 16A hundred-killing bolt is she: she slays the Br\u0101hman's injurer.\n 17Therefore the Br\u0101hmans' cow is held inviolable by the wise.\n 18Running she is a thunderbolt, when driven away she is Vaisv\u0101-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0nara;\n 19An arrow when she draweth up her hooves, and Mah\u0101deva when\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0she looketh around;\n 20Sharp as a razor when she beholdeth, she thundereth when she\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0belloweth. p. 104\n 21Death is she when she loweth, and a fierce God when she whis-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0keth her tail;\n 22Utter destruction when she moveth her ears this way and that,\n \u00a0\u00a0Consumption when she droppeth water;\n 23A missile when milking, pain in the head when milked;\n 24The taking away of strength when she approacheth, a hand-to-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0hand fighter when roughly touched;\n 25Wounding like an arrow when she is fastened by her mouth,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0contention when she is beaten;\n 26Fearfully venomous when falling, darkness when she hath fallen\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0down.\n 27Following him, the Br\u0101hman's cow extinguisheth the vital breath\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0of the injurer of the Br\u0101hman.\n 28Hostility when being cut to pieces, woe to children when the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0portions are distributed,\n 29A destructive missile of Gods when she is being seized,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0misfortune when carried away;\n 30Misery while being additionally acquired, contumely and abuse\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0while being put in the stall;\n 31Poison when in agitation, fever when seasoned with condi-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ments;\n 32Sin while she is cooking, evil dream when she is cooked;\n 33Uprooting when she is being turned round, destruction when she\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0hath been turned round;\n 34Discord by her smell, grief when she is being eviscerated: ser-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pent with poison in its fang when drawn;\n 35Loss of power while sacrificially presented, humiliation when she\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0hath been offered;\n 36Wrathful Sarva while being carved. Simid\u0101 when cut up:\n 37Poverty while she is being eaten. Destruction when eaten.\n 38The Br\u0101hman's cow when eaten cuts off the injurer of Br\u0101hmans\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0both from this world and from the world yonder.\n 39Her slaughter is the sin of witchcraft, her cutting-up is a thunder-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0bolt, her undigested grass is a secret spell.\n 40Homelessness is she when denied her rights.\n 41Having become Flesh-eating Agni the Br\u0101hman's cow entereth\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0into and devoureth the oppressor of Br\u0101hmans.\n 42She sunders all his members, joints, and roots.\n 43She cuts off relationship on the father's side and destroys mater-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0nal kinship. p. 105\n 44The Br\u0101hman's cow, not restored by a Kshatriya, ruins the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0marriages and all the kinsmen of the Br\u0101hman's oppressor.\n 45She makes him houseless, homeless, childless: he is extinguished\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0without posterity to succeed him.\n 046. So shall it be with the Kshatriya who takes to himself the cow\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0of the Braman who hath this knowledge.\n 47Quickly, when he is smitten down by death, the clamorous vul-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0tures cry:\n 48Quickly around his funeral fire dance women with dishevelled\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0locks,\n \u00a0\u00a0Striking the hand upon the breast and uttering their evil shriek.\n 49Quickly the wolves are howling in the habitation where he\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0lived:\n 50Quickly they ask about him, What is this? What thing hath\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0happened here?\n 51Rend, rend to pieces, rend away, destroy, destroy him utterly.\n 52Destroy Angirasi! the wretch who robs and wrongs the Brah-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0mans, born.\n 53Of evil womb, thou witchcraft hid, for Vaisvadevi is thy name,\n 54Consuming, burning all things up, the thunderbolt of spell and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0charm.\n 55Go thou, becoming Mrityu sharp as razor's edge pursue thy\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0course:\n 56Thou bearest off the tyrants' strength, their store of merit, and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0their prayers.\n 57Bearing off wrong, thou givest in that world to him who hath\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0been wronged.\n 58O Cow, become a tracker through the curse the Br\u0101hman hath\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pronounced,\n 59Become a bolt, an arrow through his sin, be terribly venomous.\n 60O Cow, break thou the head of him who wrongs the Br\u0101hmans,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0criminal, niggard, blasphemer of the Gods.\n 61Let Agni burn the spiteful wretch when crushed to death and\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0slain by thee.\n 62Rend, rend to bits, rend through and through, scorch and con-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0sume and burn to dust,\n 63Consume thou, even from the root, the Br\u0101hmans' tyrant, god-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0like Cow!\n 64That he may go from Yama's home afar into the worlds of sin.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0its p. 106\n 65So, Goddess Cow, do thou from him, the Br\u0101hmans' tyrant,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0criminal, niggard, blasphemer of the Gods,\n 66With hundred-knotted thunderbolt, sharpened and edged with\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0razor-blades,\n 67Strike off the shoulders and the head.\n 68Snatch thou the hair from off his head, and from his body strip\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the skin:\n 69Tear out his sinews, cause his flesh to fall in pieces from his\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0frame.\n 70Crush thou his bones together, strike and beat the marrow out\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0of him.\n 71Dislocate all his limbs and joints.\n 72From earth let the Carnivorous Agni drive him, let Vayu burn.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0him from mid-air's broad region.\n 73From heaven let S\u016brya drive him and consume him.","title":"Atharva Veda: Book 12: Hymn 5: On the duty of giving cows to Br\u0101hmans, and the sin and danger of withholding the gift","type":"page"}