VI, 56. Exorcism of serpents from the premises.
1. May the serpent, ye gods, not slay us along with our children and our men! The closed (jaw) shall not snap open, the open one not close! Reverence (be) to the divine folk!
2. Reverence be to the black serpent, reverence to the one that is striped across! To the brown svaga reverence; reverence to the divine folk!
3. I clap thy teeth upon thy teeth, and also thy jaw upon thy jaw; I press thy tongue against thy tongue, and close up, O serpent, thy mouth.
X, 4. Charm against serpents, invoking the horse of Pedu that slays serpents.
1. To Indra belongs the first chariot, to the gods the second chariot, to Varuna, forsooth, the third. The serpents’ chariot is the last: it shall hit a post, and come to grief!
2. The young darbha-grass burns (the serpents?), the tail of the horse, the tail of the shaggy one, the seat of the wagon (burns the serpents?).
3. Strike down, O white (horse), with thy forefoot and thy hind-foot! As timber floating in water, the poison of the serpents, the fierce fluid, is devoid of strength.
4. Neighing loudly he dived down, and, again diving up, said: ‘As timber floating in water, the poison of the serpents, the fierce fluid, is devoid of strength.’
5. The horse of Pedu slays the kasarnîla, the horse of Pedu slays the white (serpent), and also the black. The horse of Pedu cleaves the head of the ratharvî, the adder.
6. O horse of Pedu, go thou first: we come after thee! Thou shalt cast out the serpents from the road upon which we come!
7. Here the horse of Pedu was born; from here is his departure. Here are the tracks of the serpent-killing, powerful steed!
8. May the closed (serpent’s jaw) not snap open, may the open one not close! The two serpents in this field, man and wife, they are both bereft of strength.
9. Without strength here are the serpents, those that are near, and those that are far. With a club do I slay the vriskika (scorpion), with a staff the serpent that has approached.
10. Here is the remedy for both the aghâsva and the svaga! Indra (and) Pedu’s horse have put to naught the evil-planning (aghâyantam) serpent.
11. The horse of Pedu do we remember, the strong, with strong footing: behind he, staring forth, these adders.
12. Deprived are they of life’s spirit, deprived of poison, slain by Indra with his bolt. Indra hath slain them: we have slain them.
13. Slain are they that are striped across, crushed are the adders! Slay thou the one that produces a hood, (slay) the white and the black in the darbha-grass!
14. The maiden of the Kirâta-tribe, the little one digs up the remedy, with golden spades, on the mountain’s back.
15. Hither has come a youthful physician: he slays the speckled (serpent), is irresistible. He, forsooth, crushes the svaga and the vriskika both.
16. Indra did set at naught for me the serpent, (and so did) Mitra and Varuna, Vâta and Parganya both.
17. Indra did set at naught for me the serpent, the adder, male and female, the svaga, (the serpent) that is striped across, the kasarnîla, and the dasonasi.
18. Indra slew thy first ancestor, O serpent, and since they are crushed, what strength, forsooth, can be theirs?
19. I have gathered up their heads, as the fisherman the karvara (fish). I have gone off into the river’s midst, and washed out the serpent’s poison.
20. The poison of all serpents the rivers shall carry off! Slain are they that are striped across, crushed are the adders!
21. As skilfully I cull the fibre of the plants, as I guide the mares, (thus), O serpent, shall thy poison go away!
22. The poison that is in the fire, in the sun, in the earth, and in the plants, the kândâ-poison, the kanaknaka, thy poison shall go forth, and come!
23. The serpents that are sprung from the fire, that are sprung from the plants, that are sprung from the water, and originate from the lightning; they from whom great brood has sprung in many ways, those serpents do we revere with obeisance.
24. Thou art, (O plant), a maiden, Taudî by name.; Ghritâkî, forsooth, is thy name. Underfoot is thy place: I take in hand what destroys the poison.
25. From every limb make the poison start; shut it out from the heart! Now the force that is in thy poison shall go down below!
26. The poison has gone to a distance: he has shut it out; he has fused the poison with poison. Agni has put away the poison of the serpent, Soma has led it out. The poison has gone back to the biter. The serpent is dead!
XI, 2. Prayer to Bhava and Sarva for protection from dangers.
1. O Bhava and Sarva, be merciful, do not attack (us); ye lords of beings, lords of cattle, reverence be to you twain! Discharge not your arrow even after it has been laid on (the bow), and has been drawn! Destroy not our bipeds and our quadrupeds!
2. Prepare not our bodies for the dog, or the jackal; for the aliklavas, the vultures, and the black birds! Thy greedy insects, O lord of cattle (pasupate), and thy birds shall not get us to devour!
3. Reverence we offer, O Bhava, to thy roaring, to thy breath, and to thy injurious qualities; reverence to thee, O Rudra, thousand-eyed, immortal!
4. We offer reverence to thee from the east, from the north, and from the -south; from (every) domain, and from heaven. Reverence be to thy atmosphere!
5. To thy face, O lord of cattle, to thy eyes, O Bhava, to thy skin, to thy form, thy appearance, (and to thy aspect) from behind, reverence be!
6. To thy limbs, to thy belly, to thy tongue, to thy mouth, to thy teeth, to thy smell (nose), reverence be!
7. May we not conflict with Rudra, the archer with the dark crest, the thousand-eyed, powerful one, the slayer of Ardhaka!
8. Bhava shall steer clear from us on all sides, Bhava shall steer clear from us, as fire from water! May he not bear malice towards us: reverence be to him!
9. Four times, eight times, be reverence to Bhava, ten times be reverence to thee, O lord of cattle! To thy (charge) have been assigned these five (kinds of) cattle: cows, horses, men, goats and sheep.
10. Thine, O strong god (ugra), are the four regions, thine the sky, thine the earth, and thine this broad atmosphere; thine is this all that has a spirit and has breath upon the earth.
11. Thine is this broad, treasure-holding receptacle within which all worlds are contained. Do thou spare us, O lord of cattle: reverence be to thee! Far from us shall go the jackals, evil omens, dogs; far shall go (the mourning women) who bewail rnisfortune with dishevelled hair!
12. Thou, O crested (god), carriest in (thy hand), that smites thousands, a yellow, golden bow that slays hundreds; Rudra’s arrow, the missile of the gods, flies abroad: reverence be to it, in whatever direction from here (it flies)!
13. The adversary who lurks and seeks to overcome thee, O Rudra, upon him thou dost fasten thyself from behind, as (the hunter) that follows the trail of a wounded (animal).
14. Bhava and Rudra, united and concordant, both strong (ugrau), ye advance to deeds of heroism: reverence be to both of them, in whatever direction (they are) from here!
15. Reverence be to thee coming, reverence to thee going; reverence, O Rudra, be to thee standing, and reverence, also, to thee sitting!
16. Reverence in the evening, reverence in the morning, reverence by night,reverence byday! I have offered reverence to Bhava and to Sarva, both.
17. Let us not with our tongue offend Rudra, who rushes on, thousand-eyed, overseeing all, who hurls (his shafts) forward, who is manifoldly wise!
18. We approach first the (god) that has dark horses, is black, sable, destructive, terrible, who casts down the car of Kesin: reverence be to him!
19. Do not hurl at us thy club, thy divine bolt; be not incensed at us, O lord of cattle! Shake over some other than us the celestial branch!
20. Injure us not, interpose for us, spare us, be not angry with us! Let us not contend with thee!
21. Do not covet our cattle, our men, our goats and sheep! Bend thy course elsewhere, O strong god (ugra), slay the offspring of the blasphemers!
22. He whose missile, fever and cough, assails the single (victim), as the snorting of a stallion, who snatches away (his victims) one by one, to him be reverence!
23. He who dwells fixed in the atmosphere, smiting the blasphemers of the god that do not sacrifice, to him be reverence with ten sakvarî-stanzas!
24. For thee the wild beasts of the forest have been placed in the forest: flamingoes, eagles, birds of prey, and fowls. Thy spirit, O lord of cattle, is within the waters, to strengthen thee the heavenly waters flow.
25. The dolphins, great serpents (boas), purîkayas (water-animals), sea-monsters, fishes, ragasas at which thou shootest-there exists for thee, O Bhava, no distance, and no barrier. At a glance thou lookest around the entire earth; from the eastern thou slayest in the northern ocean.
26. Do not, O Rudra, contaminate us with fever, or with poison, or with heavenly fire: cause this lightning to descend elsewhere than upon us!
27. Bhava rules the sky, Bhava rules the earth; Bhava has filled the broad: atmosphere. Reverence be to him in whatever direction from here (he abides)!
28. O king Bhava, be merciful to thy worshipper, for thou art the lord of living beasts! He who believes the gods exist, to his quadruped and biped be merciful!
29. Slay neither our great nor our small; neither those of us that are riding, nor those that shall ride; neither our father, nor our mother. Cause no injury, O Rudra, to our own persons!
30. To Rudra’s howling dogs, who swallow their food without blessing, who have wide jaws, I have made this obeisance.
31. Reverence, O god, be to thy shouting hosts, reverence to thy long-haired, reverence to thy reverenced, reverence to thy devouring hosts! May well-being and security be to us!
