Mythology & Folklore
Atharva Veda 7.76: A charm to cure scrofulous pustules and scrofula
Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1895–96) · From The Hymns of the Atharva-Veda (1895–96)
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.
Cite this poem
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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- Atharva Veda 7.81: A hymn to the New Moon
- Atharva Veda 19.23: A prose hymn of homage to various portions of the Atharva-vada classed according to the number of verses which their hymns contain