Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/414

xviii. 4- only a small part, to wit 12 verses out of 89, are so found. However much or little weight is to be laid on the fact that these 89 verses are called a "hymn," the hymn is, at any rate, the longest in the AV. In general, the collection looks as if it were made of after-gleanings from the stock material of tradition (cf. Weber, Sb. 1896, p. 278); although indeed some parts of it appear to be the reflex of what we may well regard as very ancient elements in the ritual: such are the giving of the viaticum to the dead (vss. 16 ff.) and the invocation of the ancestors (vss. 75-77) and so on. The relation of the order of occurrence in the AV. text to the order of use in the ritual is obscure and in part indeterminable. But a reason for the arrangement is sometimes to be found: thus the practices that go with vss. 51 and 52 are separated in the ritual; but the vss. are set together in the text because of several notable surface-resemblances between them.—The RV. verses are as follows:

The verses that recur in the sixth prapāṭhaka of the TA. (if we count those in TA. vi. 8 as five: see note to vs. 16) also number about a dozen: to wit, 16 ff., 28, 30, 34, 35, 51, 55, 57.⌋

⌊For the purpose of the following discussion, the hymn may be divided into Parts; of which only some, not all, are of critical significance.

Part I., verses 1-15.—Refers in general to the ignis rogalis and its belongings and is treated as a ritual unit by Kāuç. 81.45.

Part II., verses 16-27, and 28.—Offering of the viaticum for the dead: cakes, with milk, etc. etc.; then sesame.—The unity of vss. 16-24 is sufficiently marked by their external form alone. Verse 28 seems to me to belong to this part, and to be appended for use as an expiation in case of any spilling of the liquids of the foregoing libations: cf. TA. comm., vikṣarantam abhimantrayate etc.

Part III., verses 29-44.—This seems to me to be in general essentially a continuation of Part II., but with certain disturbing elements. The water poured on the bones (29-30, but also 36), the garment (31), the black sesame (32-34, but also 43), and the vānyā̀ cow's milk (35) may well be taken as parts of the dead man's viaticum. If vs. 42 be part of the dhuvana (Caland), it is not far in time from the viaticum ceremony, I suppose. But the ritual use of 44 (corpse on cart) certainly precedes the cremation; while that of vss. 38-41, if rightly reckoned to the piṇḍa ceremony (so comm.), may well follow it by a long interval. As for vs. 37, see under the verse.

Part IV., verses 45-47.—To Sarasvatī with the Fathers, RV. x. 17. 7-9, recurring as Part VII. of hymn 1. The tṛca is a ritual unit, used (so comm.) immediately after the cremation.

Part V., verses 48-70.—Verse 48 and the group 58-60 and vs. 67 and vs. 70 find no use in Kāuç. The comm. assigns a use to 48, but only by a blunder; and the group he perhaps considers as a part of the pitṛmedha ritual; and in reporting the use of 66, he groups with it 67.—Vss. 49 and 50 stand side by side in Kāuç.: with 49 the liturge takes the two bullocks that drew the hearse, and with 50 he accepts his fee. Vs. 51 goes with the strewing of darbha on the pyre: and 52 would seem (see under 52) to belong with it, but is put to a use quite different and later in