Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/32

 XXVlll HYMNS OF THE ATHARVa-VEDA.

Even in the Atharvan Upanishads the term is wanting ^ The earhest occurrences of the word, aside from 5ankh. G/'zli., are Vait. Su. i, j; Gop. Br. I, 2, 16. The word is common in the Parijish/as.

We may note finally the terms pa;7/^akalpa and pa;z/^a- kalpin. They do not refer directly to the Sa/z/hitas of the AV., but are both bahuvrihi-compounds designating ' one who practises with the five kalpas of the AV.,' i.e. Atharvan priests. Thus the words were first explained by the author, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XI, 378 ; Kaui-ika, Introduction, p. Ivii. Cf. also Magoun, The Asuri-kalpa, Amer. Journ. Phil. X, 169. They are very late : they do not occur in the Sutras or Brahma;za of the AV., nor, as far as is known, in the literature proper of that Veda. They appearas the titles of scribes of Atharvan texts, see Kaui-ika, Introduc- tion, p. ix ; Weber, Verzeichniss der Sanskrit und Prakrit Handschriften, II, 96. But they are sufficiently attested outside of the Atharvan, in the expression, pa;7-^akalpam atharva/zam, Mahabh. XII, 342, 99 = 13258, and in the Mahabhashya (Ind. Stud. XIII, 455).

��II. The position of the Atharva-veda in Hindu Literature in general.

In addressing oneself to the task of characterising the

estimate which the Hindus placed upon the Atharvan

Statement tcxts and practices, it is especially needful to

of the take a broad, if possible a universal view, of

em. ^j^^ statements of the Vedic and mediaeval

texts bearing upon the question. The Atharvan is

' The word occurs in certain doubtful variants of the text of the Mu«(/aka Up.; see Ind. Stud. I, 301, note. In Ram I, 65, 22 brahmaveda is contrasted with kshatiaveda, just as at Mahabh. VH, 23, 39 = 988 brahma veda with dhanurveda. In such cases the word brahma is not to be referred pres^nantly to the fourth Veda, but to Brahmanic religion in general represented by the first caste, the science of war being in the hands of the second, or warrior-caste. Cf. below, p. xlii. The word brahmavid, Mahabh III, 2625 (Nala 14, 18, brahmarshi\ however, seems to mean ' skilled in sorcery,' and may contain an allusion to the AV.

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