Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/163

Rh right at the very beginning of the text, or removed therefrom only by the prefixion of the auspicious çaṁ no devīr abhiṣṭaye (p. cxvi). It is noteworthy that books ii., iv., v., and vii. begin each with a "Mystic" hymn; that the five kindred hymns "Against enemies" are grouped together at ii. 19-23, as are the seven Mṛgāra-hymns at iv. 23-29. Hymns iii. 26-27 are grouped in place and by name, as digyukte; and so are the "two Brahman-cow" hymns, v. 18 and 19, and the vāiçvānarīya couple, vi. 35 and 36. The hymns "To fury" make a group in the AV. (iv. 31-32) as they do in the RV., from which they are taken.⌋

⌊Second grand division (books viii.-xii.): long hymns of miscellaneous subjects.—As was said of the first division (p. cxlvii), there are other things besides length and subject which mark this division as a minor collection apart from the other two: the verse-norms do not serve here, as in division I., to help determine the arrangement, the norms assumed by the Pañcapaṭalikā (p. cxxxix) being for another purpose and of small significance; and the reader may be reminded of the fact (p. cxxxii) that the grouping of verses into decads runs through this grand division. It is a noteworthy fact, moreover, that the material of division II. appears distinctly to form a collection by itself in the Pāippalāda recension, being massed in books xvi. and xvii. The Vulgate books viii.-xi. are mostly in Pāipp. xvi. and the Vulgate book xii. is mostly in Pāipp. xvii. This is readily seen from the table on p. 1022.⌋

⌊Their hieratic character: mingled prose passages.—More important differential features are the following. In the first place, if it be admitted that the first division is in very large measure of popular origin (p. cxlvii), the second, as contrasted therewith, is palpably of hieratic origin: witness the hymns that accompany, with tedious prolixity, the offering of a goat and five rice-dishes (ix. 5) or of a cow and a hundred rice-dishes (x. 9); the extollation of the virā́j (viii. 9), of the cow (x. 10), of the rice-dish and the prāṇá and the Vedic student (xi. 3-5) and the úcchiṣṭa (xi. 7); the hymn about the cow as belonging exclusively to the Brahmans (xii. 4); the prevalence of "mystic" hymns (cf. viii. 9; ix. 9-10; x. 7-8; xi. 8); the priestly riddles or brahmodyas (cf. x. 2, especially verses 20-25); and the taking over of long continuous passages from the Rig-Veda, as at ix. 9—10. In no less striking contrast with division I., in the second place, is the presence, in every book of division II., of an extensive passage of prose (viii. 10; ix. 6, 7; x. 5; xi. 3; xii. 5). This prose is in style and content much like that of the Brāhmaṇas, and is made up of what are called (save in the case of x. 5) 'periods' or paryāyas: see pages cxxxiii and 472. It is evident that we are here in a sphere of thought decidedly different from that of division I.⌋