Charm Against Poison
Rigveda I.191 is the closing hymn of Maṇḍala 1, a sūkta of incantation against poison and the unseen venomous creatures — insects, vermin, and scorpions — that bite by night. It invokes the rising sun as the seer and slayer of what cannot be seen, and calls on birds, insects, and a cracked-open creature named kuṣumbhaka to carry the venom away. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books.
The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Indus-Sarasvatī region. Its hymns were preserved through oral transmission across millennia before being committed to writing. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. The kaṅkata-insect, and one like the kaṅkata, and also the satīna-kaṅkata; the pair called pluṣī — the unseen ones have fastened their poison.
2. It kills the unseen ones as it comes, and it kills as it goes away again; striking down it kills, and grinding it crushes them fine.
3. The śara-reed insects, the kuśara insects, the darbha-grass insects, and the sairya ones, the muñja-grass insects, the vairiṇa insects, the unseen ones — all of them together have fastened their poison.
4. The cows have settled down in the cow-pen, the wild animals have gone to rest, the signs of people have settled for the night — the unseen ones have fastened their poison.
5. These very ones have now appeared at dusk, like thieves; the unseen ones, seen by all, have grown alert.
6. Heaven is your father, earth your mother, Soma your brother, Aditi your sister. Unseen ones, seen by all — stay still, be calm.
7. Those that live on the shoulder, those that live on the limb, the needle-like ones, those that resemble the kaṅkata — unseen ones, whatever you are here, all of you together, be spent.
8. Up from the east comes the sun, seen by all, slayer of the unseen, crushing all the unseen ones and all the sorceresses.
9. That sun has flown upward, consuming many things, all things — the son of Aditi, up from the mountains, seen by all, slayer of the unseen.
10. In the sun I fasten the poison, like a skin in the house of one rich in liquor. Even that does not die, and we do not die. Far off is this one's yoking. Tawny-horsed one — the honey-maker has turned you to honey.
11. This little bird here has eaten up your poison. Even that does not die, and we do not die. Far off is this one's yoking. Tawny-horsed one — the honey-maker has turned you to honey.
12. Thrice seven little sparks of poison have eaten the bloom of the venom. Even those do not die, and we do not die. Far off is this one's yoking. Tawny-horsed one — the honey-maker has turned you to honey.
13. Of the ninety-and-nine venom-growing plants, I have taken hold of the name of every one. Far off is this one's yoking. Tawny-horsed one — the honey-maker has turned you to honey.
14. Thrice seven peahens, seven unmarried sisters — they have carried your poison off, like women bearing water-jars.
15. This little kuṣumbhaka here — I split it open with a stone. From it the poison turned away, following the paths that lead off.
16. The kuṣumbhaka, tumbling down from the mountain, said this: "Sapless is the scorpion's poison. Sapless, O scorpion, is your poison."
Translator's note: several names in this hymn — kaṅkata, pluṣī, kuṣumbhaka, and the plant names in verse 3 (śara, kuśara, darbha, sairya, muñja, vairiṇa) — are terms for specific insects, vermin, or plants whose exact referents are uncertain; they are rendered here as transliterated names rather than guessed at. "Adṛṣṭa" ("unseen") is kept literal throughout rather than resolved to a single English word, since the hymn plays on the creatures being both unseen and, once the sun rises, "seen by all" (viśvadṛṣṭa).
Colophon
Rigveda I.191 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation rendered verse by verse from the Sanskrit text printed below. Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda I.191
kaṅkato na kaṅkato 'tho satīnakaṅkataḥ |
dvāv iti pluṣī iti ny a1dṛṣṭā alipsata || 1 ||
adṛṣṭān hanty āyaty atho hanti parāyatī |
atho avaghnatī hanty atho pinaṣṭi piṁṣatī || 2 ||
śarāsaḥ kuśarāso darbhāsaḥ sairyā uta |
mauñjā adṛṣṭā vairiṇāḥ sarve sākaṁ ny alipsata || 3 ||
ni gāvo goṣṭhe asadan ni mṛgāso avikṣata |
ni ketavo janānāṁ ny a1dṛṣṭā alipsata || 4 ||
eta u tye praty adṛśran pradoṣaṁ taskarā iva |
adṛṣṭā viśvadṛṣṭāḥ pratibuddhā abhūtana || 5 ||
dyaur vaḥ pitā pṛthivī mātā somo bhrātāditiḥ svasā |
adṛṣṭā viśvadṛṣṭās tiṣṭhatelayatā su kam || 6 ||
ye aṁsyā ye aṅgyāḥ sūcīkā ye prakaṅkatāḥ |
adṛṣṭāḥ kiṁ caneha vaḥ sarve sākaṁ ni jasyata || 7 ||
ut purastāt sūrya eti viśvadṛṣṭo adṛṣṭahā |
adṛṣṭān sarvāñ jambhayan sarvāś ca yātudhānyaḥ || 8 ||
ud apaptad asau sūryaḥ puru viśvāni jūrvan |
ādityaḥ parvatebhyo viśvadṛṣṭo adṛṣṭahā || 9 ||
sūrye viṣam ā sajāmi dṛtiṁ surāvato gṛhe |
so cin nu na marāti no vayam marāmāre asya yojanaṁ hariṣṭhā madhu tvā madhulā cakāra || 10 ||
iyattikā śakuntikā sakā jaghāsa te viṣam |
so cin nu na marāti no vayam marāmāre asya yojanaṁ hariṣṭhā madhu tvā madhulā cakāra || 11 ||
triḥ sapta viṣpuliṅgakā viṣasya puṣyam akṣan |
tāś cin nu na maranti no vayam marāmāre asya yojanaṁ hariṣṭhā madhu tvā madhulā cakāra || 12 ||
navānāṁ navatīnāṁ viṣasya ropuṣīṇām |
sarvāsām agrabhaṁ nāmāre asya yojanaṁ hariṣṭhā madhu tvā madhulā cakāra || 13 ||
triḥ sapta mayūryaḥ sapta svasāro agruvaḥ |
tās te viṣaṁ vi jabhrira udakaṁ kumbhinīr iva || 14 ||
iyattakaḥ kuṣumbhakas takam bhinadmy aśmanā |
tato viṣam pra vāvṛte parācīr anu saṁvataḥ || 15 ||
kuṣumbhakas tad abravīd gireḥ pravartamānakaḥ |
vṛścikasyārasaṁ viṣam arasaṁ vṛścika te viṣam || 16 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).