be characterised in the single statement that its importance
Th AV in as a Veda, an<^ *ts canonicity, are finally and
the Maha- completely established ; that its practices are familiarly known and, in general, not sub- jected to any particular criticism. There is no especial affinity between the great Epic and the ^rauta-literature, barring the continuance of a considerable quantity of the legendary materials (akhyana) which are woven into the descriptions of the Vedic sacrifices in the Brahma/zas ; hence there is nothing in the Epic to induce preoccupa- tion with the trayi vidya. On the other hand, the great collection deals so largely with the interests of the Kshatriyas as to preclude any conscious discrimination against the fourth Veda, since this Veda also is to a very considerable extent engaged in the interest of the kings (ra^-akarmam, Kaimka, chapters 14 to 17), and the prac- tices of their chaplains (purohita) are also largely Athar- vanic in character. It is true that the Mahabharata in common with all Hindu literature, the Atharvan literature not excluded, mentions frequently only the three Vedas by their distinctive names, or by the generic terms trayi vidya and trayo veda//. Thus in the passages assembled in A. Holtzmann's sufficiently exhaustive collectanea on this question in his work on the Epic, Das Mahabharata und seine Theile, vol. iv, p. 5, the prevailing Vedic habit of referring to the Vedas is continued. But there can be little question that this mode of reference has at this time, as doubtless in a measure also in the period of Vedic produc- tivity, become a stereotyped mechanical habit, continued from the tradition of earlier times ; cf. Biihler, Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. XL, 701, who compares the German expression * die vier Erdtheile,' and the like. There is no indication that the mention of the Atharvan is con- sciously avoided.
Hi HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
INTRODUCTION. liil
By itself the Atharvan is mentioned numerous times: as atharvangiras (singular), atharvangirasa/z (plural), atharva- ngirasa, atharvan, atharva/za, atharva;za, and atharva-veda. Invariably the statements presenting these names are either directly laudatory, or they exhibit the Atharvan in an in- disputable position of usefulness. At III, 305, 20=17066 Kunti knows mantras, atharvarigirasi * .mitam, for com- pelling the gods to appear; at II, 11, 19 = 437 the athar- vahgirasa/£, personified, are mentioned honorifically along with other Vedic ^shis ; at V, 18, 5 = 548 ff. Angiras praises Indra with atharvavedamantrai/&, and Indra declares that this Veda shall henceforth have the name atharvangi- rasa. At XII, 342, 99 = 13258 ff. Pra^apati declares that the sages skilled in the Atharvan (vipra atharva/zavidas) fashion him into an Atharvan priest, devoted to the practice of the five kalpas (pa/^akalpam atharva/zam). At V, 37, 58 = 1391 Atharvan practitioners (atharva/za/£) are spoken of in a friendly way : ' For him that has been wounded with the arrow of wit there are no physicians and no herbs, no sacrificial formulas, no amulets, no Atharva^as (conjurers), and no skilful remedies2.' See also I, 70, 40 = 2883; III, 251, 24=15147 ; XIII, 14, 309 = 901 ; XIII, 94, 44 = 4590. In a number of places weapons are said to be as fierce and efficacious as the sorcery-practices of the Atharvan (krztyam atharvangirasim iva), VIII, 40, 33=1848; VIII, 90, 4=4625 ; VIII, 91, 48 = 4795 5 IX, 17, 44 = 9°7 ; XIII, 98. 13 = 4706 : the passages imply neither praise nor blame, but represent Atharvan practices as familiarly established among the customs of the people.
It is scarcely to be expected that the Atharvan and its practices, notwithstanding their establishment in the good graces of the epic writers, shall come off entirely without criticism ; there must have been persons aching under its supposed inflictions, and moods awake to a full sens* of its vulgarity. In such cases the Mah&bharata reflects entirely the spirit of the dharma-texts. Thus at XII, 36-28 = 1322 ;
In the Calcutta edition, atharva^irasi for atharvangirasi. Cf. Bohtlingk, Indische Spruche, 1497-8.
liv HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
XIII, 90, 13 = 4282, physicians are declared to be impure (cf. above, p. 1). Practices undertaken by bad women with charms and roots (mantramulapara stri . . . mula- pra^ara) are inveighed against : the man that has a wife addicted to them would be afraid of her, as of a snake that had got into the house, III, 233, 13 = 14660 fT. ; cf. the identical prohibition of the dharma-texts above, p. I)1. Women are said at XIII, 39, 6 = 2237 fT. (cf. Bohtlingk's Indische Spriiche 2, 6407) to be skilled in the sorceries of the evil demons Namu^i, vSambara, and Kumbhinasi. Magic or sorcery is in general regarded as good. Thus krz'tya is regarded as the divinity of witchcraft (abhi^aradevata) by the commentator on VII, 92, 54 = 3314, and krztya, abhi- £ara, and maya are in general allowable, but yet it is possible in the view of the Epic to bewitch right to make it wrong, to be a dharmabhi^arin, XII, 140, 42 = 5288, or to use foul m&y&, VII, 30, 15 = 1316 fT. (see above, p. xxix, and cf. Hopkins, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XIII, 312 fT.).
In the Ramaya/za the Vedas in general are mentioned
very frequently ; special Vedic names appear to be rare,
the Sama-veda (samaga/2) being mentioned at IV, 27, 10,
the Taittiriya (a^aryas taittiriya^am) at II, 32, 7 (cf. Ind.
Stud. I, 297). The Atharvan (mantrlr /£a*tharva;za^)
occurs at II, 26, 21.
In the proverb-literature the Atharvan is scarcely men-
tioned (cf. Mahabh. V, 37, 58 = 1391 in Bohtlingk's Indische
Spriiche2, 4216), but the mantras of the Athar-
The AV .in t . , _ ,
the later van are in the minds of the poets, though
in^eneral ^^ usuaMy sPea-k of mantras in general
without specification. Thus a comparison
of proverbs 1497-8 with 4216 seems to call up the atmo-
sphere of the Atharvan practices in their mention of ausha-
dhani and mantram ; still more clearly rogaviyogamantra-
mahima at 2538 refers to the bhesha^ani of the AV., and
sakyam varayitum . . . vyadhir bhesha^asa^grahau ks.
vividhamantraprayogair visham, proverb 6348, both to the
1 The sentiment has become proverbial ; see Skrhg. Paddh., niti 76 b (Bohtlingk's Indische Spriiche"2, 5260).
INTRODUCTION. lv
bhesha^&ni and the charms against poison (see p. 25 ff.). The knowledge of sorcery, dreaded in women (see the prohibitions in the dharma, p. 1 above), is alluded to in proverbial form at 526o = Mahabh. Ill, 233, 13=14660; and 6407 = Mahabh. XIII, 39, 6 = 2237.
In the Daj-akumara-^arita the Atharvan is employed twice, once in an obvious sorcery practice, atharva/zikena vidhina (chapter ill, p. 108, 13), where priests perform sacri- fices preliminary to transforming a person from one shape to another. Another time (chapter ii, p. 94) a marriage is celebrated with Atharvanic ceremonies (atharva^ena vidhina). Cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. I, 297; Ind. Streifen, 1,328.
In the Kiratar^uniya X, 10 (cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. I, 289 ; Muir, Orig. Sanskrit Texts I2, p. 395) there is a passage which shows that the potency of the Atharvan had not then waned : anupama^amadiptitagariyan krztapadapanktir atharva^ena veda^, ' he ( Ar^*una), being through unparal- leled composure and fervour exceedingly powerful, as the Veda arranged by Atharvan V
The Pura/zas always speak of the fourfold Veda 2, and present the Atharvan in the advanced position of the ritual- istic literature of the AV. itself; cf. below, p. lvii ff. The Vish/zu-pura//a, p. 276, assigns the four Vedas to the four priests of the ^rauta-ritual, the AV. to the Brahman. Similarly at Prasthana-bheda, p. 16, 1. 10, there is the statement, paurohitya#z ^antipaushrikani ra^zzam atharva- vedena karayed brahmatva;^ ka. ; cf. Max Muller, Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 476. The Bhagavata-pura^a I, 4, 19. 20 speaks of the fourfold Veda designed for the execu-
1 Mallin&tha comments upon the passage, and cites an agama, to wit : jama^ jantir abhyudayakara/e diptita, ugrata abhi^arakaw^e atharva^a vasishMena krz'ta ra/£ita padanaw panktir anupurvo yasya sa vedas ^aturthaveda^, atharvawas tu mantroddharo vasish/^ena krz'ta ity agama/$. The passage has a twofold interest : it reflects the ancient Atharvanic (abhyudaya) and Angirasic (abhi- Hra) components of the Veda, and it ascribes its redaction to Vasish^a ; cf. above, p. xviii, and below, p. lxv.
2 Cf. Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, vol. i, p. 10. See, e.g. Vish;m- pura^a I, 5 (Wilson's translation, vol. i, p. 85), where the Atharvan is said to be the northern mouth of Brahman.
lvi HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
tion of the sacrifice (ya^asa/^tatyai vedam eka/^ £atur-
vidham), mentioning them by name in the sequel. At VI,
6, 19 figures the atharvangirasa veda. Also, the Matsya-
pura/za, as quoted by Saya/za in the introduction to the
AV., p. 6, orders that the purohita shall compass the
Mantras and the Brahma/za of the AV. ; and the Mar-
ka/^eya-pura/za claims that the king consecrated with the
Mantras of the AV. enjoys the earth and the ocean ; see
Saya/m, ibid.
In the Gainist Siddhanta, fifth anga (bhagavati), I, 441 ;
II, 246-7 ; upanga, I, 76 ; X, $ the scope of Vedic or
Brahmanical literature is stated as riuveda,
the £aina ^a^-uveda, samaveda, ahavva;zaveda (athav- and Bauddha Va/za-), itihasapa^/£ama/^ . . . ; see Weber,
writings. /y x ' '
Verzeichniss der Sanskrit- und Prakrit-Hand- schriften, II, 423-4; and Ind. Stud. XVI, pp. 238, 304, 379, 423, 474 \ According to Weber, ibid., p. 237, the Siddhanta is to be placed between the second and fifth centuries of our era. This mode of describing the Vedic literature we found above to prevail from the time of the vSat. Br. to the Mahabharata. In the Sutrakrz'tahga-sutra II, 27 (see Jacobi's translation, Sacred Books, vol. xlv, p. 366) the incantations of the Atharvan (atharvam) are naturally spoken of in condemnatory language.
As specimens of the view of the Buddhist writings we may quote the A#//akavagga 14, 13 of the Sutta-nipata (Fausboll's translation, Sacred Books, vol. x, part ii, p. 176), where the practice of the Athabba^a-veda is forbidden. To the condemnation of practices essentially Atharvanic in character is devoted the Maha Sila^, in the second chapter of the Tevigg-a-sutta ; see Rhys Davids' translation in the Sacred Books, vol. xi, pp. 196-200, similarly the Vinaya, Kullavagga V, 32, 2, ibid., vol. xx, p. 152.
1 Cf. also Kalpa-sutra, in Jacobi's translation, Sacred Books, vol. xxii, p. 221.
INTRODUCTION. lvil
III. The Atharva-veda in the view of its Ritualistic Literature.
It is but natural to expect, and the expectation nowhere
meets with disappointment, that the Atharvan texts in
general should allude with predilection, and
The normal . r . . i • i r
estimate of m terms of praise, to their own kind ot com- theAV. in its positions, to the mythical sages who are
own literature. r J °
their reputed authors, and to the priests devoted to the practices that went hand in hand with the recitation of the Atharvans and Angiras. We found above, (pp. xxxii, xlii), a sufficiently marked tendency on the part of the Sawhita itself and the Atharvan Upanishads to do this ; there was occasion to note, too, that this tendency was followed out naturally and with moderation. Certainly there is no indication in these texts of any systematic attempt to make battle against the ancient threefold Veda, or to enter into polemics against the priests devoted to their respective duties while reciting or chanting its mantras. Similarly the ritual texts of the AV. allude preferably, and yet incidentally, to their own Veda, and as occasion offers, bring to the front the priests schooled in it. Thus Kau.s\ 139, 6 an oblation is offered to Bhrzgu and Angiras along with other divinities, without mention, however, of any specific representatives of the other Vedas. The expression. Kauj\ 125, 2, vedabhigupto brahma/^a parivrzto *tharvabhi^ santak 1, illustrates this passive preference for the Atharvan very well; cf. also 137, 25. Again, Kaor. 63, 3, four priests descended from i?zshis, skilled in the bhrzgvangirasa^, are employed very naturally, and simi- larly allusion is made to Atharvan priests and Atharvan schools, Kaui". 59, 25 ; 73, 12 ; Vait. Su. 1, 5 ; Ath. Park 46, 2 ; 73, i ; 77, 4. In the Atharva-parLnsh/as Bhr/gu, Angiras, and Atharvan figure more frequently than any
1 The passage reflects also the Atharvanic connection of their Veda with Brahman and the brahma ; cf. Ath. Pari*. 2,1, brahmawe brahmavedaya . . . namaskrz'tya, and see below, p. lxii ff.
lviii HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
other names : they have become the typical teachers of the trivialities which these texts profess.
But over and above this the ritual texts raise certain
special claims regarding the position of the Atharvan
among the Vedas, and they further make the
Nature of the , to , . - ' .
especial claims demand with strident voice and obvious of the ritual polemic intention that certain offices shall be
texts. i