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HYMNS

OF THE

ATHARVA-VEDA.

I.

CHARMS TO CURE DISEASES AND POSSESSION BY DEMONS OF DISEASE (BHAISHAGYKNI).

V, 22. Charm against takman (fever) and related diseases.

1. May Agni drive the takman away from here, may Soma, the press-stone, and Varuna, of tried skill; may the altar, the straw (upon the altar), and the brightly-flaming fagots (drive him away)! Away to naught shall go the hateful powers!
2. Thou that makest all men sallow, inflarning them like a searing fire, even now, O takman, thou shalt become void of strength: do thou now go away down, aye, into the depths!
The takman that is spotted, covered Nvith spots, like reddish sediment, him thou, (O plant) of unremitting potency, drive away down below!
4. Having made obeisance to the takman, I cast him down below: let him, the champion of Sakambhara, return again to the Mahâvrishas!
5. His home is with the Mûgavants, his home with the Mahâvrishas. From the moment of thy birth thou art indigenous with the Balhikas.
6. O takman, vyâla, vîgada, vyânga, hold off (thy missile) far! Seek the gadabout slave-girl, strike her with thy bolt!
7. O takman, go to the Mûgavants, or to the Balhikas farther away! Seek the lecherous Sûdra female: her, O takman, give a good shaking-up!
8. Go away to the Mahâvrishas and the Mûgavants, thy kinsfolk, and consume them! Those (regions) do we bespeak for the takman, or these regions here other (than ours).
9. (If) in other regions thou dost not abide, mayest thou that art powerful take pity on us! Takman, now, has become eager: he will go to the Balhikas.
10. When thou, being cold, and then again deliriously hot, accompanied by cough, didst cause the (sufferer) to shake, then, O takman, thy missiles were terrible: from these surely exempt us!
11. By no means ally thyself with balâsa, cough and spasm! From there do thou not return hither again: that, O takman, do I ask of thee!
12. O takman, along with thy brother balâsa, along with thy sister cough, along with thy cousin pâman, go to yonder foreign folk!
13. Destroy the takman that returns on (each) third day, the one that intermits (each) third day, the one that continues without intermission, and the autumnal one; destroy the cold takman, the hot, him that comes in summer, and him that arrives in the rainy season!
14. To the Gandhâris, the Mâgavants, the Angas, and the Magadhas, we deliver over the takman, like a servant, like a treasure!


Next: VI, 20. Charm against takman (fever)