Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/149

Rh together to form a collection. There appears to be no definite reason to suppose that the text ever contained less than the books i.-xviii. It is easy to conjecture a collection including books i.-xiv. and book xviii., leaving out the two prose paryāya-books xv. and xvi. and the odd little book xvii. with the queer refrain running nearly through it; but there is no sound reason for suspecting the genuineness of these prose books more than of the prose hymns scattered (see below, p. 1011) through nearly all the preceding books; and in the Pāippalāda recension it is Vulgate book xviii. that is wanting altogether, books xv.-xvii. ⌊or rather, books xv.-xviii.: cf. p. 1015⌋ being not unrepresented.

'''Books xix. and xx. are later additions.'''—That these are later additions is in the first place strongly suggested by their character and composition. As for book xx., that is in the main a pure mass of excerpts from the Rig-Veda; it stands in no conceivable relation to the rest of the Atharva-Veda; and when and why it was added thereto is a matter for conjecture. As for book xix., that has distinctly the aspect of being an after-gleaning; if its hymns had been an accepted part of the main collection when that was formed, we should have expected them to be distributed among the other books; and the text is prevailingly of a degree of badness that sets it quite apart from the rest; while its pada-text must be a most modern production. ⌊For the cumulative evidence in detail respecting book xix., see my introduction, pages 895-8.⌋

Other evidences of the former existence of an Atharva-Veda which was limited to books i.-xviii. are not rare. That the prapāṭhaka-division is not extended beyond book xviii. may be of some consequence, but probably not much. The Old Anukramaṇī stops at the same point. More significant is it that the Kāuçika-sūtra ⌊does not, by its citations, imply recognition of the text of book xix. as an integral part of the saṁhitā, and that it⌋ ignores book xx. completely. It is yet more important that the Prātiçākhya and its commentary limit themselves to books i.-xviii.

In the Pāippalāda text, the material of book xix. appears in great part, as we are bound to note, and quite on an equality with the rest. Of book xx., nothing ⌊or practically nothing: see p. 1009⌋ so appears. It is also noteworthy that Pāipp. (as mentioned above) omits book xviii.; but from this need be drawn no suspicion as to the appurtenance of xviii. to the original AV.—The question of the possible extension of individual hymns anywhere does not concern us here, ⌊but is discussed on page cliii.⌋