Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/54

 1 HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.

up at Manu XI, 33, where the Atharvan is recommended as the natural weapon of the Brahma;/a against his enemies (see above). Narada, V, 108, also betrays his hostile attitude towards sorcery when he remarks that the sage Vasish//^a took an oath, being accused of witchcraft ^ With especial frequency and emphasis the impurity of physicians is insisted upon, Apast. I, 6, 18, 20; 19, 15; Vish;m LI, 10; LXXXII, 9; Gaut. XVII, 17 ; Vas. XIV, a. 19; Manu III, 152. 180; IV, 212. 220; Ya^/^av. I, 162 ; III, 240 : we gathered above (p. xxxix) that the practice of medicine is regarded in the same light in the Brahmawas ; the charge, of course, reflects upon the Atharvan. Astro- logy also, and fortune-telling, are impure occupations, Baudh. II, I, 2, i6; Manu IX, 258; the practice of astro- logy is forbidden to ascetics, Vas. X, 21 ; Manu VI, 50; and the astrologer is excluded from the jraddha, Vish;m LXXXII, 7; Manu III, 162. That these practices were Atharvanic in character we may gather from AV. VI, 128 ; Kauj-. 50, 152. An especially pointed reflection against the AV. is implied in the prohibition of the mulakriya or mulakarma, 'practices with roots ^.•' at Vish;m XXV, 7 wives are especially forbidden to engage in such practice ; at Manu IX, 290 magic rites with roots, practised by per- sons not related to him against whom they are directed, are regarded as sinful^; at Manu XI, 64 practices with roots in general are forbidden. Such practices abound in the AV. and its ritual; see I, 34 ; III, 18 ( = RV. X, 145); V, 31, T2 ; VI, 138. 139 ; VII, 38, &c., and the performances connected with them (cf. p. 99 ff. and the commentary on these hymns). Though they are not wanting elsewhere, especially in the Grzhya-sutras, the brunt of the charge is without doubt directed against the Atharvan. Finally, at Gaut. XV, 16 ; Vish;m LXXXII, 12 ; Manu III, 151 ; IV,

muriya yadi yatudhano asmi, &c., 'may I die to-day if I am a sorcerer.'
 * He has in mind the asseveration of the poet, RV. VII, 104, 15, adySi

^ Cf. ' Seven Hymns of the Atharva-veda,' Amer. Journ. Phil. VII, 4S4 ff. (19 ff. of the reprint) ; the present vohime, pp. 160, 532 ff.

' Cf. the same prohibition in the Maliabharata, below, p. liv.

■* The commentator Narada states that they are permissible, if practised against a husband or relative.

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