Women in the Atharva-veda Samhita

by Pranab Jyoti Kalita | 2017 | 62,142 words

This page relates ‘6g. Hymn to Imprecate Misfortune on a Woman’ of the study on women in the Vedic society reflecting the Atharva-veda Samhita in English. These pages discusses the social aspects of women, education, customs of marriage, practices of polyandry and polygamy, descriptions of female deities and various rites and rituals. It is shown how women earned much praise in ancient Indian society. Included are Sanskrit text and references of the Atharvaveda and commentary by Sayana-Acharya.

6g. Hymn to Imprecate Misfortune on a Woman

[Full title: 6. Hymns Related to Love and Jealousy (g): Hymn to Imprecate Misfortune on a Woman]

Next to these, comes the hymn which begins with the mantra, bhagamasya varca[1] …, etc., which reflects the intention of a man who becomes relucted to his wife. As people pluck the flowers from a blooming tree, in the same way, the man also wants to take the fortune and splendour of his wife to himself.[2] Then, the woman, deprived of her fortune is wanted to be stayed in her parents’ home for ever, just like the mountain, which too, never moves from its centre.[3] Her return to her husband’s home, thus, is totally opposed.[4] That a woman gets married to Soma, Gandharva and Agni before her marriage to the human one, has already been discussed earlier. Here, her first husband, i.e. Soma is asked to turf the woman out her husband’s abode and to place her in the residence of her mother, father and her brother.[5]

The point to be noted here is that though the commentator[6] paraphrases the term Yama as the epithet of Soma, but, taking the same as the god of death, Whitney[7] observes that a girl, remaining unmarried, perhaps is called ‘the bride of Yama’, i.e. as good as death, and her stay at home compared to that in the other world. However, in the Ṛgveda also, Yama is found to be identical with Soma.

A woman is, again, called as kulapā, i.e. the protector of her husband’s race by means of her fidelity to her husband.[8] Here, in this context, she is called so for her loyalty to Soma, her first husband.[9] Hence, she is, again, wanted to be returned to Soma after her residence at her husband’s abode for a period.[10] She is wanted to stay at her parents’ home till her death.[11] In order to remove the fortune from such a woman, certain mantras of the sages Asita, Kaśyapa and Gaya are applied.[12] The removal of good luck is compared with covering of certain boxes where sisters store their riches like money, clothes etc.[13]

Thus, from the contents of this hymn, though it is clear that the hymn is aimed at bringing misfortune to a woman, but, nowhere else in the hymn, the user is referred to. Though some scholars[14] opine the user as a rival woman, but, from the contents of the hymn, it does not seem to be so. It is only on the conjectural ground that the husband may be the user here.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Atharvaveda, 1.14

[2]:

bhagamasyā varca ādiṣyadhi vṛkṣādiva srajam / Ibid., 1.14.1

[3]:

mahābudhna iva parvato jyok pitṛṣvāstām / Ibid.

[4]:

pitrādigṛhāt na kadācit patyurmukhamavalokayatu ityarthaḥ / Sāyaṇa, Ibid.

[5]:

cf., Atharvaveda, 1.14.2

[6]:

he rājan rājamāna soma / prathamātithitvena niyāmakatvāt yameti tasyaiva viśeṣaṇam / Sāyaṇa, Ibid., 1.14.2

[7]:

Vide, Whitney, W. D. (ed. & trans.), Op.cit., p.15

[8]:

kulapā pātivratyena kulasya pālayitrī yā / Sāyaṇa on Atharvaveda, 1.14.3

[9]:

he rājan soma eṣā strī te tava kulapā … / vivāhakāle prathamatastvayā parigṛhītatvāt/ Sāyaṇa on Atharvaveda, 1.14.3

[10]:

… tāmu te pari dadmasi / Atharvaveda, 1.14.3 te tubhyameva pari dadmasi paridadmaḥ / rakṣaṇārthaṃ dānaṃ paridānam / etāvantaṃ kālaṃ patisamīpe sthitām enāṃ rakṣaṇārthaṃ punastvadāyattāmeva karomītyarthaḥ / Sāyaṇa, Ibid.

[11]:

jyok pitṛṣvāsātā ā śīrṣṇaḥ samīpyāt / Atharvaveda, 1.14.3

[12]:

asitasya te brahmaṇā kaśyapasya gayasya ca / Ibid., 1.14.4 he nāri te tava bhagam bhāgyam asitasya etannāmna ṛṣeḥ brahmaṇā mantreṇa api nahyāmi / apinaddhaṃ pihitaṃ karomi / tvat sakāśād nivartayāmītyarthaḥ / tathā kaśyapasya ṛṣeḥ gayasya ca / Sāyaṇa, Ibid.

[13]:

antaḥ kośamiva jāmayopi nahyāmi te bhagam / Atharvaveda, 1.14.4 jāmayaḥ / jāyante āsu apatyānīti jāmayaḥ striyaḥ bhaginyādirūpāḥ / tāḥ antaḥ gṛhamadhye avasthitaṃ kośamiva dhanavastrādisthāpanārtham āvṛtaṃ sthānamiva / tādṛśaṃ sthānaṃ yathā pihitaṃ kurvanti tadvat ityarthaḥ / Sāyaṇa, Ibid.

[14]:

Vide, Bloomfield, M., Sacred Books of the East, (ed.) F. Max Müller, Vol. 42, p.107

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