The abduction and restoration of a Brāhman's wife

Hymns of the Atharva Veda, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895], at sacred-texts.com

HYMN XVII

The abduction and restoration of a Brāhman's wife

1These first, the boundless Sea, and Mātarisvan, fierce glowing
  Fire, the Strong, the Bliss-bestower,
  And heavenly Floods, first-born by holy Order, exclaimed
   against the outrage on a Brāhman.
2King Soma first of all, without reluctance, made restitution of
   the Brāhman's consort.
  Mitra and Varuna were the inviters: Agni as Hotar took her
   hand and led her.
3The man, her pledge, must by the hand be taken when he hath
   cried, She is a Brāhman's consort.
  She stayed not for a herald to conduct her: thus is the kingdom
   of a ruler guarded.
4She whom they call the star with loosened tresses, descending as.
   misfortune on the village, p. a174
  The Brāhman's consort, she disturbs the kingdom where hath
   appeared the hare with fiery flashing.
5Active in duty serves the Brahmachāri: he is a member of the
  Gods' own body.
  Through him Brihaspati obtained his consort, as the Gods gained
   the ladle brought by Soma.
6Thus spake of her those Gods of old, Seven Rishis, who sate
   them down to their austere devotion:
  Dire is a Brāhman's wife led home by others: in the supremest
   heaven she plants confusion.
7When infants die, untimely born, when herds of cattle waste
   away,
  When heroes strike each other dead, the Brāhman's wife
   destroyeth them.
8Even if ten former husbands—none a Brāhman—had espoused a
   dame,
  And then a Brāhman took her hand, he is her husband, only he,
9Not Vaisya, not Rājanya, no, the Brāhman is indeed her lord:
  This Sūrya in his course proclaims to the Five Races of man-
   kind.
10So then the Gods restored her, so men gave the woman back
   again.
  Princes who kept their promises restored the Brāhman's wedded
   wife.
11Having restored the Brāhman's wife, and freed them, with Gods'
   aid, from sin,
  They shared the fulness of the earth and worn themselves ex-
   tended sway.
12No lovely wife who brings her dower in hundreds rests upon his
   bed,
  Within whose kingdom is detained, through want of sense, a
  Brāhman's dame.
13No broad-browed calf with wide-set ears is ever in his homestead
   born.
  Within whose kingdom is detained, through want of sense, a
  Brāhman's dame.
14No steward, golden-necklaced, goes before the meat-trays of the
   man.
  Within whose kingdom is detained, through want of sense, a
  Brāhman's dame. p. a175
15No black-eared courser, white of hue, moves proudly, harnessed
   to his car,
  In whose dominion is detained, through want of sense, a
  Brāhman's dame.
16No lily grows with oval bulbs, no lotus-pool is in his field,
  In whose dominion is detained, through senseless love, a
  Brāhman's dame.
17The men whose task it is to milk drain not the brindled cow for
   him,
  In whose dominion is detained, through senseless love, a
  Brāhman's dame.
18His milch-cow doth not profit one, his draught-ox masters not
   the yoke,
  Wherever, severed from his wife, a Brāhman spends the mourn-
   ful night.