Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/44

 xl HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.

impure, that the practice entails promiscuous, unaristocratic minghng with men : 'men run to the physician' (MS. IV, 6, 2, p. 80, 1. 1)^. And we may trust that the canons of social standing and literary appreciation of a people that had produced the best that is to be found in Vedic litera- ture could not fail altogether, when in the proper mood, to estimate at its right value the wretched hocus-pocus of the bhesha^ani themselves, though these were the best that the Vedic period had produced for the relief of bodily ailment. Yet the Veda without witchcraft would not be the Veda, and the i-rauta-texts are not in the position to throw stones against the Athai-van. Moreover it must not be forgotten that the Atharvan contains in its cosmo- gonic and theosophic sections more material that undertakes to present the highest brahmavidya than any other Vedic Sawhita (cf. below, p. Ixvi) ; by whatever literary evo- lution this was associated with this sphere of literature and incorporated into the redaction, it doubtless contributed to the floating of the more compact body of sorcery-charms, and its higher valuation among the more enlightened of the people. At any rate, a sober survey of the position of the Atharvan in the traividya yields the result that this Veda, while not within the proper sphere of the greater concerns of Vedic religious life, is considered within its own sphere as a Veda in perfectly good standing ; the question of its relative importance, its authority, and its canonicity is not discussed, nor even suggested.

The position of the Atharvan in the Upanishads does not

appear to differ from that in the svut'i in general. Aside

The AV in ^^'^^'^ the Atharvan Upanishads, which are

the Upani- naturally somewhat freer in their reference

c r| o rl c

to the AV., and in the mention of more or less apocryphal Atharvan teachers, it is introduced but rarely, and usually in the manner prevalent elsewhere in the jrauta-literature, i. e. preceded by the trayi, and

' Cf. the contempt for the pugsLyag/nya/i, ye pugan )'a_^'-.iyanti, ' those who sacrifice for a crowd,' Manu HI, 151 ; Mahabh. I, 2883, and the gramayaoin, Manu IV, 205, and gramay%aka, Mahabh. Ill, 13355. See also Vishwu LXXXII, 12; Gaut. XV, 16.

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