Charm Against the Demoness Arāyī
Rigveda X.155 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 is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension. Unlike most Rigvedic hymns, X.155 is not addressed to a great god in praise; it is a short apotropaic charm, spoken against Arāyī, a demoness of misfortune and ill luck also called Sadānvā, who is driven off with the help of Śirimbiṭha's warriors and the war-god Brahmaṇaspati.
1. O Arāyī, one-eyed, misshapen one — go to the mountain, O Sadānvā! With the warriors of Śirimbiṭha, with them, we drive you off.
2. Cast out from here, cast out from there — the reddish one who preys on every unborn child. O Brahmaṇaspati, sharp-horned bull, go against the Arāyī.
3. That log yonder, drifting on the far bank of the river, without a man to steer it — seize hold of that, you evildoer, and go by it still farther away.
4. When you went forth eastward with your rusted caskets, then were all the enemies of Indra struck down, swift-vanishing as bubbles.
5. Around him they led the cow, around him they made the fire blaze up. Among the gods they won renown. Who now will dare to assail these men?
Translator's note: verse 4 is textually difficult. "maṇḍūradhāṇikīḥ" (rendered here as "rusted caskets") is an obscure compound whose exact sense — possibly rust-colored vessels or rust-stained containers belonging to the hostile spirits — is not certain; the rendering is conservative rather than confident. In verse 5, "ahṛṣata" (rendered "made the fire blaze up") could also mean they rejoiced or bristled with excitement around the fire; both senses are present in the root and the verse is ambiguous between them.
Colophon
Rigveda X.155 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.155
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.
arāyi kāṇe vikaṭe giriṁ gaccha sadānve |
śirimbiṭhasya satvabhis tebhiṣ ṭvā cātayāmasi || 1 ||
catto itaś cattāmutaḥ sarvā bhrūṇāny āruṣī |
arāyyam brahmaṇas pate tīkṣṇaśṛṇgodṛṣann ihi || 2 ||
ado yad dāru plavate sindhoḥ pāre apūruṣam |
tad ā rabhasva durhaṇo tena gaccha parastaram || 3 ||
yad dha prācīr ajagantoro maṇḍūradhāṇikīḥ |
hatā indrasya śatravaḥ sarve budbudayāśavaḥ || 4 ||
parīme gām aneṣata pary agnim ahṛṣata |
deveṣv akrata śravaḥ ka imām̐ ā dadharṣati || 5 ||
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).