Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/48

 xliv HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.

identical with; or variants of those contained in the Atharva- sawhita. But even the Grzhya-rites, popular, nay vulgar, as they must have been in their untrammelled beginnings, were, so to speak, Rishified, and passed through in due time a process of school-treatment which estranged them as far as possible from the specifically Atharvanic connec- tions, and assimilated them, as far as possible, to the Rig- veda,. Sama-veda, and Ya^ur-veda, as the case may be. Thus the battle-charm, Asv. III. 12, instead of drawing upon the very abundant mantras of this kind, contained in the AV. (see p. 117 ff.). is decked out with the scattering material of this sort that may be extracted from the RV. (see the notes to Stenzler's and Oldenberg's translations). In general the preference for mantras of the particular school is nearly if not quite as great as in the 6"rauta- sutras. The anticipation of a marked degree of literary relationship with the Atharvan is not materialised. The GrzTiya-sutras of the Sama-veda (Gobhila and Khadira), and Apastamba \_ do not seem to mention the Atharvan at all; Aj-valayana (III, 3, 1-3), on the occasion of the svadhyaya. the daily recitation of the Veda, recommends the Atharvan, but the mention of this text is that which we have found to be the normal one in the 5rauta-litera- ture, i.e. preceded by nk, ya^u//, and saman ; followed by brahma;/a, kalpa, gatha, naraj-awsi, itihasa, and pura?/a ^. Similarly Hira;^yakei-in (II, 19, 6), in connection with a long list of deities, mentions in order ;7'gveda^ ya^urveda, samaveda, and itihasapura;/a ; in 5ankhayana I, 24, 8 the Atharvan is even omitted in a similar list, which catalogues

��Apast. Vn, 18 (cf. p. I ff.) ; the sawmanasyaiii, 'charms to secure harmony,' Par. Ill, 7; Apast. HI, 9, 4 ff. ; VHI, 23, 6. 7; Hir. I, 13, 19 ff. (cf. p. 134 ff.), &c. See in general the list of miscellaneous Gr/hya-rites in Olden- berg's index to the Gr/hya-sutras. Sacred Books, vol. xxx, p. 306 ff.

' This Sutra mentions neither rik, saman, nor atharvan, a probably un- conscious preoccupation with the yagu/i that must not be construed as intentional chauvinism against the other Vedas. The mantra-materials quoted and employed do not differ in their general physiognomy from those of the other Sutras, but they are always referred to as ya^U/^.

- The passage contains in slightly different arrangement the list of Vedic texts presented by the Tait. Ar. H, 9 and 10, above; cf. also Sat Br. XI, 5> 7> c- 6.

�� �