Atharva Veda · 154 of 724

HYMN XVII

The abduction and restoration of a Brāhman’s wife 1. These first, the boundless Sea, and Mātarisvan, fierce glowing   Fire, the Strong, the Bliss-bestower,   And heavenly Floods, first-born by holy Order, exclaimed    against the outrage on a Brāhman. 2. King Soma first of all, without reluctance, made restitution of    the Brāhman’s consort.   Mitra and Varuna were the inviters: Agni as Hotar took her    hand and led her. 3. The man, her pledge, must by the hand be taken when he hath    cried, She is a Brāhman’s consort.   She stayed not for a herald to conduct her: thus is the kingdom    of a ruler guarded. 4. She whom they call the star with loosened tresses, descending as.    misfortune on the village,   The Brāhman’s consort, she disturbs the kingdom where hath    appeared the hare with fiery flashing. 5. Active in duty serves the Brahmachāri: he is a member of the   Gods’ own body.   Through him Brihaspati obtained his consort, as the Gods gained    the ladle brought by Soma. 6. Thus spake of her those Gods of old, Seven Rishis, who sate    them down to their austere devotion:   Dire is a Brāhman’s wife led home by others: in the supremest    heaven she plants confusion. 7. When infants die, untimely born, when herds of cattle waste    away,   When heroes strike each other dead, the Brāhman’s wife    destroyeth them. 8. Even if ten former husbands—none a Brāhman—had espoused a    dame,   And then a Brāhman took her hand, he is her husband, only he, 9. Not Vaisya, not Rājanya, no, the Brāhman is indeed her lord:   This Sūrya in his course proclaims to the Five Races of man-    kind. 10. So then the Gods restored her, so men gave the woman back    again.   Princes who kept their promises restored the Brāhman’s wedded    wife. 11. Having restored the Brāhman’s wife, and freed them, with Gods’    aid, from sin,   They shared the fulness of the earth and worn themselves ex-    tended sway. 12. No lovely wife who brings her dower in hundreds rests upon his    bed,   Within whose kingdom is detained, through want of sense, a   Brāhman’s dame. 13. No broad-browed calf with wide-set ears is ever in his homestead    born.   Within whose kingdom is detained, through want of sense, a   Brāhman’s dame. 14. No steward, golden-necklaced, goes before the meat-trays of the    man.   Within whose kingdom is detained, through want of sense, a   Brāhman’s dame. 15. No black-eared courser, white of hue, moves proudly, harnessed    to his car,   In whose dominion is detained, through want of sense, a   Brāhman’s dame. 16. No lily grows with oval bulbs, no lotus-pool is in his field,   In whose dominion is detained, through senseless love, a   Brāhman’s dame. 17. The men whose task it is to milk drain not the brindled cow for    him,   In whose dominion is detained, through senseless love, a   Brāhman’s dame. 18. His milch-cow doth not profit one, his draught-ox masters not    the yoke,   Wherever, severed from his wife, a Brāhman spends the mourn-    ful night.