Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/30

 his purohita) as Atharvanic by distinction. Recently Professor Weber has emphasised the marked relation of the Atharvan to the royal caste.

The text of the Samhitâ abounds in râgakarmâna, 'royal practices,' and Weber thinks that the name of Kausika, the author of the great Atharvan Sûtra, points to a Kshatriya connection, since Kusika is identical with Visvâmitra, and the latter, as is well known, stands forth among the ancient Vedic heroes as the representative of royalty. None of these points can be regarded as more than possibilities.

Two other designations of the AV. differ from all the preceding in that they are the product of a later Atharvanic literary age, neither of them being found in the Samhitâ, and both being almost wholly restricted to the ritual text of the Atharvan itself. They are the terms bhrigvangirasah and brahma-veda.

The term bhrigvanigirasah is, as far as the evidence of the accessible literature goes, found only in Atharvan texts. Though bhrigu takes in this compound the place of atharvan, the terms bhrigavah or bhriguveda do not occur. The term bhrigvarigirasah, however, is the favourite designation of the Veda in the Atharvan ritual texts : it makes a show, in fact, of crowding out the other designations. Thus the Kausiika does not directly mention the Atharvan compositions by any other name (see 63, 3; 94, 2-4; cf. 137, 25; 139, 6), although vaguer allusions to this Veda and its adherents are made with the stem atharvan (59, 25; 73, 12;