| Summary: | This essay analyzes the interconnection between memory, desire, and verbal performance in the three so called “women’s love spells” in <i>Atharvaveda</i> 6.130–132. This study unpacks the many interconnected meanings of the term <i>smará</i>, which is used repeatedly in these poems, “memory”, “desire”, or “efficacious ritual speech”. I challenge the traditional definition of these texts as “magical” and argue that applying “magic” as an analytical category to ancient Hindu texts is deeply problematic. Instead, I propose that these poems are better understood in their historical and religious context as examples of ritual speech.
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