Rudram, anuvāka 10 — do not harm our children, our cattle, our men
The popular claimAfter eight sections of bowing, the Namakam asks. The asking is for the household.
The tenth anuvāka is where the Namakam stops naming and starts asking, and it asks in the Ṛgveda's own words: two of its verses are lifted from Ṛgveda 1.114, the hymn to Rudra in the first maṇḍala.
The call
Drāpe andhasas pate daridran nīlalohita, eṣāṁ puruṣāṇām eṣāṁ paśūnāṁ mā bher mā'ro mo eṣāṁ kiñcanāmamat. — O striker, lord of food, you who are poor, blue-and-red one: of these men and these animals, do not frighten, do not kill, and let none of them fall sick. Drāpi — Sāyaṇa: the one who makes run, or the one clothed; daridra — poor, naked — the ascetic god with nothing; nīlalohita — blue and red, the throat and the body. The request is plain: no fear, no death, no illness — mā bheḥ, mā araḥ, mā āmamat.
The gracious body
Yā te rudra śivā tanūḥ śivā viśvāhabheṣajī, śivā rudrasya bheṣajī tayā no mṛḍa jīvase. — That body of yours, Rudra, which is gracious, which is medicine for all days, Rudra's gracious medicine — with that, be kind to us, that we may live. The first anuvāka's śivā tanū returns, now as bheṣajī, healing. This is the verse the tradition points to when it calls the Rudram a healing text; the word is in the text.
The Ṛgvedic verses
Imāṁ rudrāya tavase kapardine kṣayadvīrāya prabharāmahe matim, yathā naḥ śam asad dvipade catuṣpade viśvaṁ puṣṭaṁ grāme asminn anāturam. — To Rudra the strong, the braided, who rules over heroes, we bring this thought, that there may be welfare for our two-footed and four-footed, and everything in this village be well-nourished and free of disease. Ṛgveda 1.114.1. Dvipade catuṣpade — the two-legged and the four-legged; the household and its herd, in one phrase.
Mṛḍā no rudrota no mayas kṛdhi kṣayadvīrāya namasā vidhema te, yac chaṁ ca yoś ca manur āyeje pitā tad aśyāma tava rudra praṇītau. — Be kind to us, Rudra, and make us joy; to the ruler of heroes we offer worship; the welfare and the happiness that Manu the father won by sacrifice, may we reach that under your guidance, Rudra. Ṛgveda 1.114.2. Manu is invoked as the first sacrificer; the reciter asks for what he got.
The petition
Mā no mahāntam uta mā no arbhakaṁ mā na ukṣantam uta mā na ukṣitam, mā no vadhīḥ pitaraṁ mota mātaraṁ priyā mā nas tanuvo rudra rīriṣaḥ. — Do not harm our great one nor our small one, not the growing nor the grown; do not kill our father nor our mother; do not injure our dear bodies, Rudra. Ṛgveda 1.114.7.
Mā nas toke tanaye mā na āyuṣi mā no goṣu mā no aśveṣu rīriṣaḥ, vīrān mā no rudra bhāmito vadhīr haviṣmanto namasā vidhema te. — Do not injure us in our children, in our offspring, in our lifespan, in our cows, in our horses; do not, angered, kill our heroes, Rudra; with offerings and obeisance we worship you. Ṛgveda 1.114.8. This is the verse most Rudram listeners can say. The list — children, offspring, life, cows, horses, men — is what a Vedic household had, in the order it valued them.
The far arrow
Ārāt te goghna uta pūruṣaghne kṣayadvīrāya sum-nam asme te astu, rakṣā ca no adhi ca deva brūhy athā ca naḥ śarma yaccha dvibarhāḥ. — Far from us be your cow-killing and man-killing; ruler of heroes, let your favour be with us; protect us, speak for us, god, and grant us shelter, you who are doubly strong.
Stuhi śrutaṁ gartasadaṁ yuvānaṁ mṛgan na bhīmam upahatnum ugram, mṛḍā jaritre rudra stavāno anyaṁ te asman ni vapantu senāḥ. — Praise the famous one, seated in the chariot, young, terrible as a wild beast, the smiter, the fierce; be kind to the singer, Rudra, when praised; let your armies strike down another than us.
The closing
Pariṇo rudrasya hetir vṛṇaktu pari tveṣasya durmatir aghāyoḥ, ava sthirā maghavadbhyas tanuṣva mīḍhvas tokāya tanayāya mṛḍaya. — May Rudra's weapon pass us by, and the ill-will of the blazing, wrathful one; loosen the firm bow for the generous; bountiful one, be kind to our children and our children's children.
Mīḍhuṣṭama śivatama śivo naḥ sumanā bhava, parame vṛkṣa āyudhaṁ nidhāya kṛttiṁ vasāna ācara pinākaṁ bibhrad āgahi. — Most bountiful, most gracious, be gracious to us, well-minded; having laid your weapon on the highest tree, wearing the hide, come; bearing the Pināka bow, come. The god is asked to hang the weapon in the tree and come as the ascetic in the skin. The Pināka is named.
Vikirida vilohita namas te astu bhagavaḥ, yās te sahasraṁ hetayo'nyam asman nivapantu tāḥ. — Scatterer, deep-red one, obeisance to you, lord; your thousand weapons — let them fall on another than us.
Sahasrāṇi sahasradhā bāhuvos tava hetayaḥ, tāsām īśāno bhagavaḥ parācīnā mukhā kṛdhi. — Thousands, in thousands of ways, are the weapons in your two arms; lord of them, turn their faces away.
What the section is
The Namakam's petition: no fear, no death, no illness; children, lifespan, cows, horses, men spared; the weapon in the tree, the faces of the arrows turned. The eleventh anuvāka will count the Rudras by thousands and ask the same of all of them.
What this page does not say
It does not say the request is granted, and it does not read let them fall on another than us as anything other than what a Vedic reciter said. It gives the tenth anuvāka in sentences, with the two Ṛgvedic verses marked, so that the mā nas toke tanaye everyone knows is seen in the place it was asked.
Source — Taittiriya Samhita 4.5.10 (Namakam, tenth anuvaka), Krishna Yajurveda; Sayana's bhashya on the Taittiriya; Rigveda 1.114.7–8, the source of the "do not harm our children" verses; Bhattabhaskara's commentary on the Rudram
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