Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/23

 INTRODUCTION. XIX

��catalogued at Kaiu. 8, i6, and there distinctly described as santci/i, ' holy ;' the second list is stated at Vait. Su. 5, 10 itself to be angirasa, in the obscure terms, kapurviparva- rodakavr/kkavatinac/anirdahantibhir arigirasibhi//. These names are in general unknown, the text is not quite certain, but the designation of the last, nirdahanti, shows that the list is designed for unholy sorcery practices (abhi/('arika) '. The adjective aiigirasa is in general in the ritualist texts of the AV. equivalent to abhi/^arika. Thus sa7;/bhara angi- rasa//, Kauj-. 47, 2, means ' utensils for sorcery ^ ; ' daWa angirasa//, Kauj-. 47, 12, means 'staff for sorcery;' agnir angirasa//, Kaui-. 14, 30, means 'sorcery-fire^.' The fifth kalpa of the AV.^ usually known as Aiigirasa-kalpa, bears also the names Abhi/^ara-kalpa, and Vidhana-kalpa, ' text- book of sorcery ; ' see ibid. XI, 376 ff.

It is worth while to follow out this specific use of the term angirasa in non-Atharvan texts, lest it be suspected of being an Atharvanic refinement.

��The term angiras in

��non-Atharvan j^e Rig-vidhana IV, 6, 4, has the following

texts.

j-loka : ' He agamst whom those that are skilled in the Angirasakalpas practice sorcery repels them all with the Pratyahgirasakalpa ^.' The term pratyahgirasa is the exact equivalent of pratyabhi/'ara/za, ' counter-witch- craft^' (AV. II, II, 2), and the k;7tyapratihara//ani, Ath. Parij-. 32, 2 (cf. Kauj-. 39, 7, note). The texts of the sort called atharva;/apratyangirakalpam (! see Ind. Stud. I, 469) deal with the same theme, as does the Ya^ur-vidhana (Agni-pura//a, 259, 10) in the expression pratyaiigireshu (sc. karmasu). Cf. also the titles of works, pratyangiratatva, pratyangirapa;//('anga, and pratyahgirasukta, mentioned in Bohtlingk's Lexicon, as probably dealing with the same theme. We may connect with this pejorative use of the

1 Cf. AV. Ill, 2, 5 ; VII, 108, 2 ; IX, 2, 4; 5, 31 ; XIV, 2, 48.


 * Darila, ghoradravyawi.

' Kejava, angiraso^gni// ka-iidklsignUi.

tan pratibadhate. Cf. also the following jlokas, and IV, 8, 3 ; Ath. Tans. 3, I ; and see Rudolf Meyer's preface to his edition of the Rig-vidhana, p. xxxi.
 * yam ahgirasakalpais tu tadvido^bhi/f'aranti sa pratyahgirasakalpena sarvaws

^ Saya«a, nivaryate parakr/tabhi^ara^anita kritya, anena iti pratyabhi^a- rawa,^.

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