Atharvaveda

“ Brahmā gave ear to the pleading, and designed to fashion a Veda in which tradition (itihāsa) should be combined with instruction in all the ends of men. To accomplish his task he took from the Ṛgveda the element of recitation, from the Sāmaveda song, from the Yajurveda the mimetic art, and from the Atharvaveda sentiment. ”

“ From the head of Namuchi sprang the plant Apâmârga. Indra afterwards destroyed all the monsters by means of this plant. As may be supposed after such a marvellous origin, the plant was soon looked upon as a powerful talisman. According to the Atharvaveda, it should be held in the hand, and invoked against the malady Kshetriya, and against witches, monsters, and nightmares. They call it the Victor, having in itself the strength of a thousand, destroying the effects of maledictions, and especially of those inimical to generation, which produce hunger, thirst, and poverty. ”

“ There followed the ‘Hymns of the Sāmaveda,’ or Veda of chants concerned with the Soma ritual (Benares, 1893) ; the ‘Hymns of the Atharvaveda,’ or Veda mainly consisting of magical spells (2 vols. Benares, 1895–6) , and finally ‘The Texts of the White Yajurveda,’ or sacrificial Veda (Benares, 1899) . ”

“ In its main contents the Atharva-veda is more superstitious than the Rigveda. For it does not represent the more advanced religious beliefs of the priestly class, but is a collection of the most popular spells current among the masses who always preserve more primitive notions with regard to demoniac powers. The spirit which breathes in it is that of a prehistoric age. A few of its actual charms probably date with little modification from the Indo-European period ”

“ Yet the Rigveda, though it is mainly concerned with praises of the gods in connection with the sacrifice, contains hymns showing that sorcery was bound up with domestic practices from the earliest times in India. The only reference to the spells of the Atharva-veda as a class in the Yajurvedas is found in the Taittirīya Saṃhitā, where they are alluded to under the name of angirasaḥ by the side of Rik, Sāman, and Yajus, which it elsewhere mentions alone. Yet the formulas of the Yajur-veda are often pervaded by the spirit of the Atharva-veda, and are sometimes Atharvan even in their wording. ”

“ There is one hymn (xi. 7) in which even Ucchishṭa (the remnant of the sacrifice) is deified as the Supreme Being; except for its metrical form it belongs to the Brāhmaṇa type of literature.
In concluding this survey of the Atharva-veda, I would draw attention to a hymn to Varuṇa (iv. 16) , which, though its last two stanzas are ordinary Atharvan spells for binding enemies with the fetters of that deity, in its remaining verses exalts divine omniscience in a strain unequalled in any other Vedic poem. ”

“ The Rigveda hymns reveal the religious beliefs and aspirations of the advanced thinkers of their age; the Atharva-veda contains the germs of folk religion—the magical formulas chanted to dispel or invoke the vague spirits who helped or thwarted mankind. It teaches that the Universe is upheld by sacrifice and the spiritual exaltation of Brahmans, and that Brahmanic power may be exercised by the use of appropriate charms. Human beings might also be influenced by the spirits invoked by means of formulas. ”

“ At the same time it is only natural that we should first meet with censures of the practices of the Atharva in the legal literature, because such practices were thought to enable one man to harm another. The verdict of the law treatises on the whole is, that as incantations of various kinds are injurious, the Atharva-veda is inferior and its practices impure. This inferiority is directly expressed in the Dharma Sūtra of Āpastamba; and the later legal treatise (smṛiti) of Vishṇu classes the reciter of a deadly incantation from the Atharva among the seven kinds of assassins. ”

“ The comm. reads in a-b atharvā yā jātāya havyām, and in d tābhi stutaḥ; he explains that Atharvan means the paramātman, who at the beginning of creation made an oblation to please the gods whom he had created; pāda b signifies this: "what (yā being used instead of yām) oblation, given by Atharvan, Jātavedas made worthy to be offered for his progeny ⌊the progeny of Atharvan in the rôle of paramātman?⌋: that is, for the crowd of gods made manifest by him." ”

“ The rendering of b implies the necessary and obvious emendation of sáṁ cakṣe (P.M.W. -kṣve) to saṁcákṣe, infinitive. Kā́mena seems taken adverbially, = kāmāya, kāmam, kāmāt; the god is not to be moved to counter-liberality by the mere desire of his worshiper, but challenges the latter's claim on him. Jātavedas, lit. 'having for possession whatever is produced (or born) ,' 'all-possessor.' B.P.M. accent átharvan in c; one might emend to átharvā: 'in virtue of what poetic merit art thou Atharvan?' The verse belongs of course to Varuṇa. ”

“ It seems probable that the hymns of the Atharva, though some of them must be very old, were not edited till after the Brāhmaṇas of the Rigveda were composed.
On examining the contents of the Atharva-veda more in detail, we find that the hostile charms it contains are directed largely against various diseases or the demons which are supposed to cause them. There are spells to cure fever (takman) , leprosy, jaundice, dropsy, scrofula, cough, ophthalmia, baldness, lack of vital power ”

“ As for the joint edition of the Atharva-Veda, it is a most noteworthy fact that it has held its own now for thirty-eight years as an unsurpassed model of what a Vedic text-edition ought to be. His "Index Verborum to the Atharva-Veda," a work of wonderful completeness and accuracy, is much more than its name implies, and may not pass without brief mention, inasmuch as its material formed the basis of his contributions to the Sanskrit-German lexicon published by the Imperial Academy of Russia. ”

“ As to the Atharva, then, we are free to suppose, if we like, that the dark magic, the evil spirits, the incantations, are old parts of Indian, as of all other popular beliefs, though they come later into literature than the poetry about Ushas and the morality of Varuna. ”

“ The Rigveda also refers to tanners and the skins of animals prepared by them. Women, it appears, were acquainted with sewing and with the plaiting of mats from grass or reeds. An art much more frequently alluded to in metaphors and similes is that of weaving, but the references are so brief that we obtain no insight into the process. The Atharva-veda, however, gives some details in a passage which describes how Night and Day, personified as two sisters, weave the web of the year alternately with threads that never break or come to an end. ”

“ A son was born to the king, and his name was Kuru.
There are many other uncatalogued Celestial beings like Tapati in Indian fairyland. In the Atharva-veda there are numerous named and nameless spirits of good and evil, and throughout the Epics references are made to semi-divine beings who haunt streams, lakes, forests, and plains. A Rigveda hymn is addressed to the forest nymph Aranyani. She echoes the voices of man and beast and creates illusions ”

“ But with regard to the higher religious ideas relating to the gods, it represents a more recent and advanced stage than the Rigveda. It contains, indeed, more theosophic matter than any of the other Saṃhitās. For the history of civilisation it is on the whole more interesting and important than the Rigveda itself.
The Atharva-veda is extant in the recensions of two different schools. ”

“ Used by Kāuç. first (23. 2) in a rite for good fortune on building a house, with offering a second oblation; then (50. 13) for success in traffic, with vi. 3-7, 59, 93, 107, 128, and ⌊xi. 2—so comm. and Keçava⌋ with offering thirteen different articles; and again (59. 25) , in a rite for universal dominion (comm.) , worshiping Atharvan; further (note to 42. 11) , a schol. adds it to vii. 20. 6, to win wealth by Vedic knowledge. Vāit. has it in the agniṣṭoma (17. 2) , repeated by the adhvaryu, as he looks at the udgātar. None of the Kāuç. uses seems at all characteristic. ”

“ Max Müller [28] says that "even the earliest hymns have sentiments worthy of the most advanced ceremonialists."
The first and oldest source of our knowledge of Indo-Aryan myths is the Rig-Veda, whose nature and character have been described. The second source is the Atharva-Veda with the Brahmanas. The peculiarity of the Atharva is its collection of magical incantations, spells, and fragments of folk-lore. These are often, doubtless, of the highest antiquity. Sorcery and the arts of medicine-men are earlier in the course of evolution than priesthood. ”

“ In the Atharva-veda, which may be looked upon as the parent of the Ayurveda, we naturally come across ample evidences of an ingrained belief in the causation of diseases by the disturbance of the humors. Thus we have such terms as "Vátíkrita," i.e. a disease brought on by the derangement of the humor "Váta" (wind or air) , "Vátagulmin," &c. [31]
Pre-Budhistic in origin.Early Buddhist literature also furnishes us with abundant proofs of this nature. On going through the chapter on "Medicaments" in the Mahávagga, we are often reminded of the contents of the Susruta. ”

“ He has also made important contributions of other kinds to its elucidation: most of all, by his incitement to inquiry after an Atharva-Veda in Cash­mere, and the resulting discovery of the so-called Pāippalāda text, now well known to all Vedic scholars as one of the most important finds in Sanskrit literature of the last half-century, and of which the credit belongs in a peculiar manner to him. I have also done something in the same direction, by publishing in the Society's Journal in 1862 (Journal, vol. vii.) the Atharva-Veda Prātiçākhya, text, translation, notes, etc. ”

“ Muir ascribes the verse to Atharvan; Roth, better, to Varuṇa; the god asserts that it is he himself to whom wisdom and possession belong; his worshiper is comparatively nothing. Ppp. begins with satvasaṁ and reads mahitvaṁ in c, and haniṣya at the end. The Prāt. (iv. 96) establishes the long ī of mīmāya as a pada-reading. The Anukr. absurdly calls the verse a pan̄kti, although it is an evident triṣṭubh, not less regular than a great proportion of the verses so called. ⌊The me in c is easier rendered in German than in English.⌋
4. ”

“ The Vedas also recognize a series of creatures superior to man, the gods of the elements and stars; they likewise personify the attributes of the Deity. [62] The three Vedic divinities, Agni, Indra, and Surya, are Minor Vedic doctrine. not to be looked upon as existing independently, for all spirits are comprehended in the Universal Soul. The later Hindu trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, is not recognized by them. They do not authorize the worship of deified men, nor of images, nor of any visible forms. ”

“ The Yajurveda resembles the Sāmaveda in having been compiled for application to sacrificial rites only. But while the Sāmaveda deals solely with one part of the ritual, the soma sacrifice, the Yajurveda supplies the formulas for the whole sacrificial ceremonial. Like the Sāmaveda, it is also connected with the Rigveda; but while the former is practically altogether extracted from the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, though borrowing many of its verses from the same source, is largely an original production. Thus somewhat more than one-fourth only of the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā is derived from the Rigveda. ”

“ If a doubt can exist as to the canonicity of any one of them, it can only apply to the Atharva-Veda; for in certain texts we find mention made of three Vedas only, the Atharva, from its comparatively late origin, having apparently been long denied the privilege of admission to an equal rank with its compeers.
Whatever their antiquity, the sanctity of these works in Indian opinion is of the highest order. Never has the theory of inspiration been pushed to such an extreme. The Veda was the direct creation of Brahma ”

“ The language of the Atharva is, from a grammatical point of view, decidedly later than that of the Rigveda, but earlier than that of the Brāhmaṇas. In vocabulary it is chiefly remarkable for the large number of popular words which it contains, and which from lack of opportunity do not appear elsewhere. ”

“ In combination with the Atharva-veda it supplies an almost complete picture of the ordinary life of the Vedic Indian.
The Gṛihya Sūtras give the rules for the numerous ceremonies applicable to the domestic life of a man and his family from birth to the grave. For the performance of their ritual only the domestic (āvasathya or vaivāhika) fire was required, as contrasted with the three sacrificial fires of the Çrauta Sūtras. They describe forty consecrations or sacraments (saṃskāras) which are performed at various important epochs in the life of the individual. ”

“ This action suggested a favourite figure, which remained familiar throughout Sanskrit literature. Thus one of the poets of the Rigveda invokes Agni with [144] the words, “Take us across all woes and dangers as across the river (sindhu) in a boat;” and in the later literature one who has accomplished his purpose or mastered his subject is very frequently described as “having reached the farther shore” (pāraga) . The Atharva-veda, on the other hand, contains some passages showing that its composers were acquainted with the ocean. ”

“ Each Ashtaka is subdivided into eight Adhyayas, or chapters, containing an arbitrary number of Suktas. The whole number of hymns in the Rig-Veda is about a thousand. Each Sukta has for its reputed author a Rishi, or inspired teacher, by whom, in Brahminical phraseology, it has been originally seen, that is, to whom it was revealed; the Vedas being, according to mythological fictions, the uncreated dictation of Brahma. Each hymn is addressed to some deity or deities.
Who are the gods to whom the prayers and praises are addressed? ”