Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/160

clii ⌊'''Book vii. a book of after-gleanings supplementing books i.-vi.'—It is very easy to imagine group A, or books i-vi., as constituting the original nucleus of the saṁhitā'' (p. cxlviii, top), and group B, or book vii., as being an ancient supplement to that nucleus, just as book xix. is unquestionably a later supplement to the larger collection of the three grand divisions (cf. p. 895). This view does not imply that the verses of book vii. are one whit less ancient or less genuinely popular than those of books i.-vi., but merely that, as they appear in their collected form, they have the aspect of being after-gleanings, relatively to books i.-vi. This view accords well with the exceptional character of book vii. as otherwise established and as just set forth (p. cli).⌋

⌊Arrangement of books with reference to amount of text.—If these considerations may be deemed a sufficient answer to the first two questions so far as they relate to book vii., there remains only that part of the second question which relates to book vi. One does not readily see why the saṁhitā might not have opened with book vi., the book of the varied and interesting three-versed hymns, so that the norms would have run in the order 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (1); and, since this is not the case, it may be that some other principle is to be sought as a co-determinant of the order of arrangement.⌋

⌊If we consult the table on p. cxliii, we see that, in division I., the scale of numbers of printed pages of text in each book (13, 16, 20, 27, 28, 40, 27) is a continuously ascending one for each book except the last (book vii.). The like is true if we base our comparison on the more precise scale of verse-totals for each book (153, 207, 230, 324, 376, 454, 286), as given at the foot of table 1, p. cxliv.⌋

⌊These facts, in the first place, strongly corroborate our view as to the exceptional character of book vii. By the principle of norms, it should stand at the beginning of the division; by the principle of amount (judged by verse-totals), it should stand between books iii. and iv. That it does neither is hard to explain save on the assumption of its posteriority as a collection. In the second place, these facts suggest at the same time the reason for the position of book vi. in the division, namely, that it is placed after books i.-v. because it is longer than any of those books.⌋

⌊Résumé of conclusions as to the arrangement of books i.-vii.—Book vii., as a supplement of after-gleanings, is placed at the end of the grand division, without regard to amount of text or to verse-norm. Books i.-vi. are arranged primarily according to the amount of text, in an ascending scale. For them the element of verse-norms, also in an ascending scale,