Hymn to a Herb Against a Rival Wife
Rigveda X.145 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 10 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia.
This hymn is not addressed to a great god but to an oṣadhi — a plant dug up and used as a charm. The speaker is a wife who invokes the herb's power to drive away a rival wife (sapatnī) and secure her husband's devotion.
This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. I dig up this plant, this growing thing, strongest of all — the one by which a woman drives off her rival, the one by which she wins her husband for herself.
2. O broad-leaved one, fortunate one, sent by the gods, full of overpowering strength — blow my rival wife far away, and make my husband mine alone.
3. I am the higher one, O higher plant — higher than the higher ones. And the rival wife who is mine is the lower one, lower than the lower ones.
4. I do not even speak her name, nor does she find joy among these people. We drive the rival wife away, to the farthest distance.
5. I am the one who overpowers, and you, O herb, are the overpowerer. Let the two of us, both grown strong, overpower my rival wife together.
6. I have laid upon you the overpowering one; I have endowed you with the mightier power. May your mind run after me, as a cow runs after her calf, as water runs along its course.
Translator's note: Verses 5–6 shift address between the herb and the husband; verse 6 in particular ("your mind," "te mano") turns from the plant to address the husband directly, asking that his devotion follow the speaker as naturally as a cow follows her calf or water follows its channel.
Colophon
Rigveda X.145 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.
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Source Text: ṛgveda X.145
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
imāṁ khanāmy oṣadhiṁ vīrudham balavattamām |
yayā sapatnīm bādhate yayā saṁvindate patim || 1 ||
uttānaparṇe subhage devajūte sahasvati |
sapatnīm me parā dhama patim me kevalaṁ kuru || 2 ||
uttarāham uttara uttared uttarābhyaḥ |
athā sapatnī yā mamādharā sādharābhyaḥ || 3 ||
nahy asyā nāma gṛbhṇāmi no asmin ramate jane |
parām eva parāvataṁ sapatnīṁ gamayāmasi || 4 ||
aham asmi sahamānātha tvam asi sāsahiḥ |
ubhe sahasvatī bhūtvī sapatnīm me sahāvahai || 5 ||
upa te 'dhāṁ sahamānām abhi tvādhāṁ sahīyasā |
mām anu pra te mano vatsaṁ gaur iva dhāvatu pathā vār iva dhāvatu || 6 ||
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).