Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/22

 XVIU HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.

The name atharvan, with a great variety of derivatives, is employed growingly as the designation of

Meaning of ixri i /.• i-ir-

each of the the Veda; the name angiras by itseh is so terms atharvan ^are as to arrest attention when it is met.

and angiras.

At TS. VII, 5, II, 2 = Ka///aka Aj-vamedha- grantha, V, 2, occurs the formula angirobhya// svaha, pre- ceded by r/gbhya//, &c. svaha : it is, as far as is known, the sohtary occurrence of this designation of the Atharva- veda in a Vedic text ^ Quite frequently, however, the members of the compound atharvahgirasa/z are separated so that each is mentioned by itself, but always in more or less close conjunction with one another. This shows that the compound is not a congealed formula, but that the texts are conscious of the fact that each has a distinct individuality, and a right to separate existence. In other words, the AV. actually consists of atharvan and aiigiras matter, and the question arises what elements in the make- up of this Veda these terms refer to. The answer, I believe, may now be given with a considerable degree of certainty : the term atharvan refers to the auspicious practices of the Veda^ the bhesha^ani (AV. XI, 6, 14), those parts of the Veda which are recognised by the Atharvan ritual and the orthodox Brahmanical writings, as janta, ' holy,' and paush/ika, ' conferring prosperity ; ' the term angiras refers to the hostile sorcery practices of the Veda, the yatu (^at. Br. X, 5, 2, 20), or abhi/^ara^, which is terrible (ghora).

In an article entitled, ' On the position of the Vaitana- sutra in the literature of the Atharva-veda,' Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XI, 387 ff., I pointed out that the above-mentioned distinction is clearly made at Vait. Su. 5, 10, where two lists of plants are differentiated, one as atharva;^ya//, the other as aiigirasya/^. The same distinction is maintained at Gop. Br. I, 2, 18. The former refers to the list of plants

��' In texts not Vedic the term angirasa/i occurs occasionally as an abbreviated form of atharvahgirasa/^. Thus in the first superscription of the AV. Prati- ^akhya, the ^'aunakiya Aaturadhyayika, and in Pawini V, 2, 37. Cf. also Gop. Br. I, I, 8.

'■' For the distinction between janta and abhi/iarika see Kau.f. 3, 19, and note 5 on p. II of our edition.

�� �