Hinduism · Vedas · Atharva Veda

Atharva Veda 19.47

A hymn to Night for protection from fiends, robbers, snakes and wolves

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Night! the terrestrial realm hath been filled with the Father's power and might. Thou spreadest forth on high unto the seats of Heaven: darkness that strikes with awe comes near.

Each moving thing finds rest in her whose yonder boundary is not seen, nor that which keeps her separate. O spacious, darksome Night, may we uninjured reach the end of thee, reach, O thou blessed One, thine end.

Thy ninety-nine examiners, O Night, who look upon mankind, Eighty-and-eight in number, or seven-and-seventy are they.

Sixty-and-six, O opulent, fifty-and-five, O happy One, Forty-and-four and thirty-three are they, O thou enriched with spoil.

Twenty-and-two hast thou, O Night, eleven, yea, and fewer still. With these protectors guard us well. O Daughter of the Sky, to- day.

Let not a fiends or spiteful man, let no ill-wisher master us. Let not the robber seize our cows, nor the wolf take our sheep today.

Let not the thief, O Blessed, seize our horses, nor she-fiends our men. Let thief and robber run away on pathways most remote from us.

Far from us let Rope with Fangs, far from us let the wicked flee. Do thou make blind and headless. Night, the serpent with his pungent breath.

Crush the wolf's jaws in pieces, strike the robber dead against a post. In thee, O Night, do we abide: we here will sleep. Be watchful thou.

Give thou protection to our kine; and to our horses, and our men.