Mythology & Folklore

Atharva Veda 7.76: A charm to cure scrofulous pustules and scrofula

by The Rishis of the Atharva Veda c. 1200–900 BCE (traditional; uncertain)

Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1895–96) · From The Hymns of the Atharva-Veda (1895–96)

Mythology & Folklore

Rapidly dropping, quick to drop, more evil than the evil ones, More sapless than a dried-up bone, swifter than salt to melt away.

Pustules that rise upon the neck, Pustules upon the shoulder-joints, Pustules that, falling of themselves, spring up on every twofold limb:

I have expelled and banished all Scrofula harboured in the head, And that which bores the breast-bone through, and that which settles in the sole.

Scrofula flies borne on by wings: it penerates and holds the man.
Here is the cure of either kind, the chronic and the transient.

We know thine origin, Scrofula! know whence thou, Scrofula, art born.
How hast thou then struck this man here, him in whose house we sacrifice?

Boldly drink Soma from the beaker, Indra! hero in war for treasure! Vritra-slayer.
Fill thyself full at the mid-day libation: thyself possessing riches grant us riches.

MLA

Veda, The Rishis of the Atharva. “Atharva Veda 7.76: A charm to cure scrofulous pustules and scrofula.” Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/atharvaveda-rishis/378/.

Chicago

Veda, The Rishis of the Atharva. “Atharva Veda 7.76: A charm to cure scrofulous pustules and scrofula.” Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/atharvaveda-rishis/378/.

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