Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/56

 HI HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.

The main proof of the high regard for the Atharvan and its unchallenged position in the canon, are the quasi- cosmogonic passages in which the four Vedas figure in the primordial transactions of the creation of the world, and its affinity with the personified creator. Thus, at V, 108, 10 = 3770 Brahman is said to have first sung the four Vedas; Brahman himself is called A'aturveda, III, 203, 15 = 13560, as similarly Vish/m at XIX, 238, 9 (Bhav.) = 12884; at III, 189, 14=12963; VI, 67, 6 = 3019 Vish/^u himself declares that the four Vedas (atharva^a the fourth) have sprung from him. According to XIX, 14, 15 (Bhav.) = 11516, Brahman created first the tristich called Gayatri, the mother of the Vedas, and afterwards the four Vedas ; according to XIX, 53, 41 (Bhav.)= 13210 he carries upon each of his four heads one of the Vedas, or, according to II, II, 32 = 449, the four Vedas dwell bodily in his palace. At XII, 347, 27 = 13476 malicious demons steal the four Vedas from Brahman, and Vish;m restores them. Accord- ingly the Brahman priest and the kings, both of whom owe it to themselves to be vedavid, are more specifically described as knowing and reciting the four Vedas, at I, 70, 37 = 2880 K ; VII, 9, 29 = 289 ; XIX, 142, i (Vish.)=7993, where a Brahma/za is designated as /^aturveda//, just as the divinity Brahman, above. Other instances of the mention of the four Vedas, with or without other literary composi- tions, are I, i, 21 ; 1,1,264; 11,11,32 = 450; 111,43,41 = 1661 (akhyanapa/^/^amair vedai/z) ; III, 58, 9 = 2247 (/^aturo vedan sarvan akhyanapa/}/('aman) ; III, 64, 17 = 2417 (/"at- varo vedaZ: sangopaiiga/^) ; III, 189, 14=12963; V, 44, 28 = 1711 ; VII, 59, 15 = 2238; VII, 149, 22 = 6470; XII, 236, 1 = 8613; XII, 335, 28 = 12723; XII, 339, 8=12872; XII, 341, 8=13136 (rzgvede . . . ya^urvede tathai^va^tharva- samasu, pura?/e sopanishade) ; XII, 342,97 = 13256 ff.; XII, 347, 28=13476; XIII, 17, 91 = 1205 fif. (where the Athar- van appears first, atharva^irsha/z samasya rz'ksahasramite- kshawa/z, ya^u/zpadabhu^o guhya/z) ; XIII, 11 1, 46 = 5443; XIII, 168, 31=7736; XIX, 109, 5 (Vish.) = 949i (/i-atvaro sakhila veda/i sarahasya/z savistara//) ; XIX, 14, 15 (Bhav.) = 11665. Cf. Holtzmann, I.e., p. 6.

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