I do not desire to enter here upon a discussion of the question of the original relation between the purohita and the brahman, whose identity is baldly assumed in many passages of the earlier Hindu literature 3. I believe that they were not originally the same, but that they were bound together by certain specific ties. They are similar,
1 Cf. the battle-charm, AV. Ill, 19 : the purohita figures in it as well as in the accompanying performances, Kaiu. 14, 22-23 (Darila). And RV. IV, 50, 7-9, perhaps earlier, shows the br/haspati (purohita) in essentially the same important relation to the king.
2 Cf. Deva at Katy. St. XV, 7, 11, purohito yo*tharvavedavihitanaw janti- kapaush/ikabhi^arakarma^aw karta.
3 Cf. Max Miiller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 485 ff. ; Weber, Ind. Stud. X, 31 ff. ; Ra^asuya, p. 23, note; Haug, Brahma und die Brahmanen, p. 9 ff. ; Geldner, Vedische Studien, II, 144 ff. ; Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, pp. 374, 395 ff Sayarca at RV. VII, 33, 14 equates purohita and brahman, and Ait. Br. VII, 16, 1 exhibits VasishMa, the typical purohita, in the office of brahman at a jrauta-rite. At RV. IV, 50, 7 ff. the activity of a purohita is sketched : the purohita, however, is called brz'haspati ( = brahman).
INTRODUCTION. Ixix
above all, in this, that they have in charge, each in his own way, the general interests of their noble employers, whereas other priests are likely ordinarily to have had only subordinate charges, because of the technical charac- ter of their knowledge and occupation. RV. X, 71, 11 expresses clearly the existence of broader theological in- terests than the mere knowledge of the recitation and chanting of hymns and the mechanical service of the sacrifice (hotar, udgatar, and adhvaryu). This is the Brah- manship which later forks into two directions, on one side the general knowledge of the procedures at the sacrifice (the Brahman as fourth priest), and the theological specula- tions attaching (brahmavadin) ; on the other, the higher theosophy which leads ultimately to the brahmavidya of the Upanishads. It is natural that a divine thus qualified should at a very early time assume permanent and con- fidential relations to the noble ra^ianya in all matters that concerned his religious and sacrificial interests. His func- tions are those of chaplain and high-priest. It seems unlikely that this Brahman was in all cases, too, competent to attend to those more secular and practical needs of the king connected with the security of his kingdom, the fealty of his people, and the suppression of his enemies. These activities, ra^akarma/zi, as the Atharvan writings call them, must have called for different training and different talents — they represent rather the functions of a chancellor, or prime-minister, than those of a chaplain — and there is no warrant to assume that every Brahman possessed these necessary qualifications in addition to his expertness in systematic theology. On the other hand, conversely, there must have been purohitas incapable of assuming the charge of their employers' interests on the occasion of the more elaborate Vedic performances (.srauta), unless we conceive that in such cases the Brahman was a mere figure-head and his office a sinecure.
And yet precisely here is to be found the measure of
truth which we may suspect in the Atharvanist claim that
the supervising Brahman shall be an adherent of the AV.
In many cases the tribal king, or ra^a, might have had but
lxx HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
one body-priest, well capable of attending to the kingdom's needs in all manner of charms and sorcery, and thus filling the paurohitya creditably with the entire armament of the Veda of charms and sorcery, himself an Atharvavedin. If the king had about him no systematic theologian re- splendent in his ^atavidya, if there was no adherent of that ideal fourth Veda, the sarvavidya that looms above the trayi vidya, the remoter applicability of the jrauta-practices to the weal and woe of everyday life, or confidence in the ability of hotar, adhvaryu, &c, to perform their duties correctly of themselves, would lead him to entrust the general supervision of the Vedic performances (in the nar- rower sense) to his Atharvan purohita. Thus the sweeping claim of the Atharvan priests may be founded at least upon a narrow margin of fact, and later the Atharvan priests are likely to have equipped themselves with a suffi- ciency of rather external and mechanical knowledge to perform the function of Brahman with a show of respecta- bility, witness the activity of the Brahman in the ^rauta- rites of the Vaitana-sutra. In very late times the ability of Atharvan priests to practise ^rauta-rites, and the canonicity of their .srauta- manual, the Vaitana-sutra, were recognised by other Vedic schools, if the matter-of-fact references to that Sutra on the part of the commentators to Katy&yana's vSrauta-sutras may be regarded as normal ; see Garbe in the preface to the edition of the Vait. Su., p. vi.
We may remark, however, that the entire question of
the relation of the AV. to .srauta-practices is a very obscure
point in the history of Vedic literature, it
Relation of . . 111 1 a 1
the AV. to being assumed generally that the Atharvan the jrauta- hac[ originally nothing to do with the larger Vedic ritual. The assumption in this broad form is at any rate erroneous, or defective. The existing Sa/^hitas of the AV. contain mantras which could have had no sense and purpose except in connection with jrauta- performances. A series of formulas, e. g. like AV. VI, 47 and 48, has no meaning except in connection with the three daily pressures of soma (savana), and the Vait. Su.
Introduction. 1
21, 7 exhibits them, properly no doubt, as part of an ordi- nary ^rauta-rite, the agnish/oma. It would seem then that the Atharvavedins possessed the knowledge of, and prac- tised .srauta- rites prior to the conclusion of the present redactions of their hymns, and thus perhaps, after all, the purohita, in case of his being an Atharvan, was not altogether unequipped for taking a hand in the broader Vedic rites with the three fires and the usual assortment of priests. Again, the AV. contains hymns which are evidently expiatory formulas for faults committed at the sacrifice. Thus AV. VI, 114 presents itself in the light of an ordinary praya^itta- formula, and there are MSS. of the Vaitana-sutra which add six praya^itta chapters to the eight which make up the body of that text 1. The Gop. Br., more frequently than other Brahma/zas, refers to defects in the sacrifice (virish/a, una, yatayama) which are to be corrected (sa/^dhana) by certain hymns, stanzas, and for- mulas ; see 1, 1, 13 and 22. Possibly the germs of the corre- lation of the Atharvan and the Brahman, in his function as supervisor and corrector of the sacrifice, may also turn out to be traceable to a period prior to the present redaction of the Sa/^hitas.
The present volume of translations comprises about one third of the entire material of the Atharva-veda in the text of the vSaunaka-school. But it represents the contents and spirit of the fourth Veda in a far greater measure than is indicated by this numerical statement. The twentieth book of the Sa^hita, with the exception of the so-called kuntapa- suktani (hymns 127-136 2), seems to be a verbatim repeti- tion of mantras contained in the Rig-veda, being employed in the Vaitana-sutra at the .rastras and stotras of the soma- sacrifice : it is altogether foreign to the spirit of the original
1 See Garbe, in the preface of his edition of the text, p. 5 ; Weber, Ver- zeichniss der Sanskrit und Prakrit Handschriften, II, 83 ; Kaimka, Introduction, p. xxxiii.
2 One of these, hymn 127, appears in the present volume, p. 197 ff.
lxxii HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Atharvan. The nineteenth book is a late addendum1, in general very corrupt ; its omission (with the exception of hymns 26, 34, 35, 38, 39, 53, and 54) does not detract much from the general impression left by the body of the collec- tion. The seventeenth book consists of a single hymn of inferior interest. Again, books XV and XVI, the former entirely Brahmanical prose 2, the latter almost entirely so, are of doubtful quality and chronology. Finally, books XIV and XVIII contain respectively the wedding and funeral stanzas of the Atharvan, and are largely coincident with corresponding mantras of the tenth book of the Rig-veda : they are, granted their intrinsic interest, not specifically Atharvanic 3. Of the rest of the Atharvan (books I-XIII) there is presented here about one half, naturally that half which seemed to the translator the most interesting and characteristic. Since not a little of the collection rises scarcely above the level of mere verbiage, the process of exclusion has not called for any great degree of abstemiousness.
These successive acts of exclusion have made it possible to present a fairly complete history of each of the hymns translated. The employment of the hymns in the Athar- vanic practices is in closer touch with the original purpose of the composition or compilation of the hymns than is true in the case of the other collections of Vedic hymns. Many times, though by no means at all times, the practices connected with a given hymn present the key to the correct interpretation of the hymn itself. In any case it is instruc- tive to see what the Atharvan priests did with the hymns of their own school, even if we must judge their performances to be secondary.
I do not consider any translation of the AV. at this time as final. The most difficult problem, hardly as yet ripe for final solution, is the original function of many mantras,
1 See Kaimka, Introduction, p. xl ff.
2 Translated by Professor Aufrecht, Indische Studien, I, 130, 140.
3 The fourteenth book has been rendered by Professor Weber, Indische Studien, V, p. 195 ff.; the eighteenth book by the same scholar in the Pro- ceedings of the Royal Prussian Academy, 1895, p. 815 ff. ; 1896, p. 253 ff.
INTRODUCTION. lxxiii
after they have been stripped of certain adaptive modifica- tions, imparted to them to meet the immediate purpose of the Atharvavedin. Not infrequently a stanza has to be rendered in some measure of harmony with its connection, when, in fact, a more original meaning, not at all applicable to its present environment, is but scantily covered up by the secondary modifications of the text. This garbled tradition of the ancient texts partakes of the character of popular etymology in the course of the transmission of words. New meaning is read into the mantras, and any little stubbornness on their part is met with modifications of their wording. The critic encounters here a very difficult situation : searching investigation of the remaining Vedic collections is necessary before a bridge can be built from the more original meaning to the meaning implied and required by the situation in a given Atharvan hymn. Need- less to say the only correct and useful way to translate a mantra in the Atharvan, is to reproduce it with the bent which it has received in the Atharvan. The other Vedic collections are by no means free from the same taint. The entire Vedic tradition, the Rig-veda not excepted, presents rather the conclusion than the beginning of a long period of literary activity. Conventionality of subject-matter, style, form (metre), &c, betray themselves at every step : the ' earliest ' books of the RV. are not exempt from the same processes of secondary grouping and adaptation of their mantras, though these are less frequent and less obvious than is the case in the Atharva-veda.
Obligations to previous translators : Weber, Muir, Ludwig, Zimmer, Grill 1, Henry, &c, are acknowledged in the intro- duction to each hymn. I regret that the work was in the hands of the printer prior to the appearance of Professor Henry's excellent version of books X-XII 2. The late lamented Professor Whitney kindly furnished me with the
1 Grill's work, entitled, Hundert Lieder des Atharva-veda, second edition (1888), is cited as * Grill V My own six series of Contributions to the Interpre- tation of the Veda, are cited for the sake of brevity as ' Contributions/
2 Les livres X, XI, et XII de 1' Atharva-veda. Paris, 1896.
lxxiv HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
advance sheets of the late Shankar Pandurang Pandit's
scholarly edition of the AV. with Saya/za's commentary,
as also with many of the readings of the Cashmir text
(the so-called Paippalada-^akha) of the AV. Neither the
Paippalada nor Saya/za sensibly relieves the task of its
difficulty and responsibility.
MAURICE BLOOMFIELD.
Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore: April, 1896.
Hymns
Of the
ATHARVA-VEDA.
Hymns
Of the
ATHARVA-VEDA.
CHARMS TO CURE DISEASES AND POSSESSION BY DEMONS OF DISEASE (BHAISHAGYANI).
V, 22. Charm against takman (fever) and related diseases.
i. May Agni drive the takman away from here,
may Soma, the press-stone, and Varima, of tried
skill ; may the altar, the straw (upon the altar), and
the brightly-flaming fagots (drive him away) ! Away
to naught shall go the hateful powers !
2. Thou that makest all men sallow, inflaming
them like a searing fire, even now, O takman, thou
shalt become void of strength : do thou now go
away down, aye, into the depths !
3. The takman that is spotted, covered with
spots, like reddish sediment, him thou, (O plant) of
unremitting potency, drive away down below !
4. Having made obeisance to the takman, I cast
him down below : let him, the champion of .Sakaw-
bhara, return again to the Mahavrzshas !