अथ यस्य जायायै जारः स्यात् तम् चेद् द्विष्यात् आमपात्रे अग्निम् उपसमाधाय प्रतिलोमं शरबर्हिः स्तीर्त्वा तस्मिन्न् एताः शरभृष्टीः प्रतिलोमाः सर्पिषाक्ता जुहुयात् मम समिद्धे अहौषीः प्राणापानौ ते आददे असौ इति मम समिद्धे अहौषीः पुत्रपशूंस् ते आददे असौ इति मम समिद्धे अहौषीः इष्टासुकृते ते आददे असौ इति मम समिद्धे अहौषीः अशापराकाशौ ते आददे असौ इति सः वा एषः निरिन्द्रियः विसुकृतः अस्माल् लोकात् प्रैति यम् एवंवित् ब्राह्मणः शपति तस्मात् एवंवित्श्रोत्रियस्य दारेण न उपहासम् इच्छेत् उत हि एवंवित् परः भवति
atha yasya jāyāyai jāraḥ syāt tam ced dviṣyāt āmapātre agnim upasamādhāya pratilomaṃ śarabarhiḥ stīrtvā tasminn etāḥ śarabhṛṣṭīḥ pratilomāḥ sarpiṣāktā juhuyāt mama samiddhe ahauṣīḥ prāṇāpānau te ādade asau iti mama samiddhe ahauṣīḥ putrapaśūṃs te ādade asau iti mama samiddhe ahauṣīḥ iṣṭāsukṛte te ādade asau iti mama samiddhe ahauṣīḥ aśāparākāśau te ādade asau iti saḥ vā eṣaḥ nirindriyaḥ visukṛtaḥ asmāl lokāt praiti yam evaṃvit brāhmaṇaḥ śapati tasmāt evaṃvitśrotriyasya dāreṇa na upahāsam icchet uta hi evaṃvit paraḥ bhavati
If someone's wife has a lover and [the husband] wishes him ill — let him, having laid a fire in an unbaked vessel and strewn reed arrows point-backwards, offer these reed points, smeared with butter, in reverse [of the custom]: "You have offered into my kindled fire — I take away your in-breath and out-breath… I take away your sons and cattle… I take away your sacrifices and merits…" The one whom a brāhmaṇa who knows this curses departs from this world impotent and devoid of merit. Therefore one does not trifle, even in jest, with the wife of a learned man who knows this: for the knower is a formidable rival.
fa8200f929f8 · published Jul 27, 2026, 1:28:50 AM UTC
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A dark rite of the section — a curse upon a rival: everything is turned backwards (an unbaked vessel, grass with points reversed, oblations "against the grain") — a liturgy inverted, stripping the offender of his powers, his offspring and his merits. The Upaniṣad honestly preserves this too: the ancient household had a weapon for the ultimate injury.
But note the frame: the rite is given not as an encouragement to revenge but as a fence for marriage, with a concluding warning: "one does not trifle with a knower's wife". The sanctity of a family is declared protected at the highest level, the level of vidyā; and the tradition, growing up, will keep the essential thing from this arsenal: the inviolability of another's hearth as a law, with judgment left to the Lord of merits and not to the injured party.