Atharva Veda

The Hymns of the Atharvaveda

Translation by Ralph T.H. Griffith

BOOK I

HYMN XII

A prayer to Lightning, against fever, headache, and cough

1          Born from the womb, brought forth from wind and from the
            cloud, the first red bull comes onward thundering with the  rain.
            Our bodies may he spare who, cleaving, goes straight on; he who,
             a single force, divides himself in three.

2          Bending to thee who clingest to each limb with heat, fain would
            we worship thee with offered sacrifice,
            Worship with sacrifice the bends and curves of thee who with a
            vigorous grasp hast seized on this one's limbs.

3          Do thou release this man from headache, free him from cough
            which has entered into all his limbs and joints.
            May he, the child of cloud, the offspring of the wind, the whiz-
            zing lighting, strike the mountains and the trees.

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