Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/58

 Hv HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.

XIII, 90, 13 = 4282, physicians are declared to be impure (cf. above, p. 1). Practices undertaken by bad women with charms and roots (mantramulapara stri . . . mula- pra/^ara) are inveighed against : the man that has a wife addicted to them would be afraid of her, as of a snake that had got into the house, III, 233, 13=14660 ff. ; cf the identical prohibition of the dharma-texts above, p. 1) ^ Women are said at XIII, 39, 6 = 2237 ff. (cf. Bohtlingk's Indische Spriiche^ 6407) to be skilled in the sorceries of the evil demons Namu/^i, 5"ambara, and Kumbhinasi. Magic or sorcery is in general regarded as good. Thus kr/tya is regarded as the divinity of witchcraft (abhi/^aradevata) by the commentator on VII, 92, 54 = 3314, and kritya, abhi- kkva., and maya are in general allowable, but yet it is possible in the view of the Epic to bewitch right to make it wrong, to be a dharmabhi/^arin, XII, 140, 42 = 52<S8, on- to use foul maya, VII, 30, 15=1316 ff. (see above, p. xxix, and cf. Hopkins, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XIII, 312 ff.).

In the Ramayawa the Vedas in general are mentioned very frequently ; special Vedic names appear to be rare, the Sama-veda (samagaZ-) being mentioned at IV, 27, 10, the Taittiriya [aksLryas taittiriya;/am) at II, 32, 7 (cf. Ind. Stud. I, 297). The Atharvan (mantr^j- /^a ^ tharva;;a//) occurs at II, 26, 21.

In the proverb-literature the Atharvan is scarcely men- tioned (cf Mahabh. V, 37, 58= 1391 in Bohtlingk's Indische Spriiche-, 4216), but the mantras of the Athar-

the later Van are in the minds of the poets, though

literature they usually speak of mantras in general in general. ^ ... ^^,

without specification. Thus a comparison of proverbs 1497-8 with 4216 seems to call up the atmo- sphere of the Atharvan practices in their mention of ausha- dhani and mantrawi ; still more clearly rogaviyogamantra- mahima at 2538 refers to the bhesha^ani of the AV., and sakyaJH varayitum. . . vyadhir bhesha^asawgrahaii- ka. vividhamantraprayogair visham, proverb 6348, both to the

��1 The sentiment has become proverbial ; see 6aihg. Paddh., niti 76 b (Bohtlingk's Indische Spriiche', 5260). <•

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