Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/25

 INTRODUCTION. XXI

��by the Sat. Br. XIII, 4, 3, 3 ff. : here also atharvan and aiigiras are recognised individually ; the correlation with bhesha^am and ghoram is wanting, but the individuality of the two categories is clearly implied in the behest to recite on the third and fourth days respectively one section each of the Atharvans and the Aiigiras, each of which are distinctly said to be a Veda ^.

Indirect, yet significant testimony that this double character of the AV. was clearly established in Brahman- ical times may be derived from the formation of the names of two apocryphal teachers. One is Bhisha^'- Atharva;/a, Kat/i. S. XVI, 3 (Ind. Stud. Ill, 459); the other is Ghora Arigirasa, Kaush. Br. XXX, 6 ; A.yv. 5r. XII, 13, i ; /v//and. Up. Ill, 17, 6 (cf. Ind. Stud. I, 190, 293). The formation Bhisha^ Atharva;/a is illustrated further by Pauk. Br. XII, 9, 10, bhesha^a;;^ va atharva//ani ; and XVI; lo, 10, bhesha- ga7n vai devanam atharva;/o bhesha^yayai^vaM-ish/yai-; cf. also the expressions sa?uyu atharva//a. personified as a sage, Gop. Br. I. 2, i<S, and atharvabhi// santa/i, Kaus. 125, 2". These names never, as far as is known, occur in inverted order : there is no Bhisha^ Aiigirasa, and no Ghora Atharvawa ; they reflect perfectly the individual character and the individual function of the two members of the compound atharvahgirasa/^.

It seems now, further, that the texts of the Atharva- sawhita mark this same distinction with no

ahghasTn uncertain touch. At AV. XI, 6, 14, four

the Athaiva- Vedic mantra-categodes are indicated by the

expressions, rikali, samani, bhe.sha^a(ni), and

ya^u7«shi. The choice of the word bhesha^a is certainly

eclectic and one-sided. The passage appeals to the auspi-

��^ atharva«o veda;^. . . atharva«am ekaw parva vya/Jaksha«a/i ; afigiraso vedaA. . . angirasam ekaw parva vya/^aksha;;a//. Elsewhere, aside liom the Atharvan texts, the component parts of the dvandva atharvaiigiras are drawn asunder, but without accessory statements; thus Tait. I'.r. Ill, 12, 9, i ; Nr/siwhapurvatapani Up. 5, 9.

2 A converse statement like bhesha^aw va angirasani, is, if we judge the matter aright, a counter-sense, and unheard of anywhere in Hindu literature.

" So also 5anti, as the wife of Atharvan ; see Wilson's translation of the Vish;ni-pura«a, I, 110, 200; Bhagavata-pura,i/a III, 24, 24.

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