Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/59

 INTRODUCTION. Iv

��bhesha^ani and the charms against poison (see p. 25 ff.). The knowledge of sorcery, dreaded in women (see the prohibitions in the dharma, p. 1 above), is alluded to in proverbial form at 526o=Mahabh. Ill, 233, 13=14660; and 6407 = Mahabh. XIII, 39, 6 = 2237.

In the Dajakumara-yl'arita the Atharvan is employed twice, once in an obvious sorcery practice, ^tharva;/ikena vidhina (chapter iii, p. 108, 13), where priests perform sacri- fices preliminary to transforming a person from one shape to another. Another time (chapter ii, p. 94) a marriage is celebrated with Atharvanic ceremonies (atharva;/ena vidhina). Cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. I, 297 ; Ind. Streifen,

I, 32H.

In the Kiratar^uniya X, 10 (cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. I, 2H9 ; Muir, Orig. Sanskrit Texts P, p. 395) there is a passage which shows that the potency of the Atharvan had not then waned : anupama.yamadiptitagariyan krz'tapadapanktir atharvawena veda//, ' he (Ar^una), being through unparal- leled composure and fervour exceedingly powerful, as the Veda arranged by Atharvan ^.'

The Purawas always speak of the fourfold Veda -, and present the Atharvan in the advanced position of the ritual- istic literature of the AV. itself; cf. below, p. Ivii ff. The Vish;/u-pura//a, p. 276, assigns the four Vedas to the four priests of the j-rauta-ritual, the AV. to the Brahman. Similarly at Prasthana-bheda, p. 16, 1. 10, there is the statement, paurohityaw .yantipaush^'ikani ra^^wam atharva- vedena karayed brahmatva;;/ /^a ; cf. Max Miiller, Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 476. The Bhagavata-pura;/a I, 4, 19. 20 speaks of the fourfold Veda designed for the execu-

��1 Mallinatha comnienls upon the passage, and cites an agama, to wit : sama/i iantir ahhyudayakandc diptita ugrala abhi/6araka;/fl'e atharva;/a vasish///ena kr/ta ra/§ita padanaw pahktir anupurvo yasya sa vedaj -iaturthaveda/^, atharva«as tu mantroddharo vasishZ/^ena kr/la ity agama/^. The passage has a twofold interest : it reflects the ancient Atharvanic (abhyudaya) and Angirasic (abhi- Hra) components of the Veda, and it ascribes its redaction to VasishMa ; cf. above, p. xviii, and below, p. Ixv.

2 Cf. Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, vol. i, p. lo. See, e.g. "\'ish«u- pura;/a I, 5 (Wilson's translation, vol. i, p. 85), where the Atharvan is said to be the northern mouth of Brahman.

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