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Atharvaveda
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The Atharvaveda (Sanskrit: ????????, , a tatpurusha compound of , an ancient Rishi, and meaning "knowledge") is a sacred text of Hinduism, and one of the four Vedas, often called the "fourth Veda".
According to tradition, the Atharvaveda was mainly composed by two groups of rishis known as the Atharvanas and the Angirasa, hence its oldest name is . In the Late Vedic Gopatha Brahmana, it is attributed to the Bhrigu and Angirasa.
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The Atharvaveda (Sanskrit: ????????, , a tatpurusha compound of , an ancient Rishi, and meaning "knowledge") is a sacred text of Hinduism, and one of the four Vedas, often called the "fourth Veda".
According to tradition, the Atharvaveda was mainly composed by two groups of rishis known as the Atharvanas and the Angirasa, hence its oldest name is . In the Late Vedic Gopatha Brahmana, it is attributed to the Bhrigu and Angirasa. Additionally, tradition ascribes parts to other rishis, such as , and . There are two surviving recensions (s), known as (AVS) and (AVP).
Status
The Atharvaveda, while undoubtedly belonging to the core Vedic corpus, in some ways represents an independent parallel tradition to that of the Rigveda and Yajurveda. It incorporates much of early traditions of healing and magic that are paralleled in other Indo-European literatures. There are striking parallels with Hittite and Germanic sorcery stanzas.
The Atharva Veda is less predominant than other Vedas as it is little used in solemn (Shrauta) ritual. The largely silent Brahmán priest observes the procedures of the ritual and 'heals' it with two mantras and pouring of ghee when a mistake occurs. Though an early text, its status has been ambiguous, due to its magical character. It was not found in South India during the Middle Ages, and until very recently.
The Gayatri mantra used in Atharva Veda is different from other three Vedas. A special initiation of the Gayatri is required to learn the Atharva Veda. The Atharvaveda Parishishtas (appendices) state that priests of the and schools of the Atharvaveda should be avoided, or strict discipline should be followed as per the rules and regulations set by the Atharva Veda. It is even stated that women associated with may suffer from abortions if pregnant women remain while the chants for warfare are pronounced.
The Atharvaveda is considered by many to be as dark and secret knowledge, pertaining to the spirits and the afterlife. In the Mahabharata, when the Pandavas are exiled to the forests for thirteen years, Bhima, being frustrated, suggests to Yudhisthira that they consult the Atharvaveda, and "shrink time, and hereby compress thirteen years to thirteen days..."
Recensions
The (attributed to Shaunaka) lists nine shakhas, or schools, of the Atharvaveda:
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Of these, only the (AVS) and the (AVP) recensions have survived. Both have some later additions, but the core text is considered earlier than the . Often in corresponding hymns, the two recensions have different verse orders, or each has additional verses not in the other.
, and are some of the five kalpa texts adduced to the tradition and not separate schools of their own.
Two main post-Samhita texts associated with the AV are the and the . The Vaitanasutra deals with the participation of the Atharvaveda priest in the Shrauta ritual while the Kausikasutra contains many applications of Atharvaveda mantras in healing and magic. This serves the same purpose as the of the Rigveda and is of great value in studying the application of the AV text in Vedic times.
Several Upanishads also are associated with the AV, but appear to be relatively late additions to the tradition. The most important of these are the and the Upanishads. The former contains an important reference to , the founder of the Shaunakiya shakha, while the latter is associated with the shakha.
Dating
It is clear that the core text of the Atharvaveda is not particularly recent in the Vedic tradition, and falls within the classical Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit at the end of 2nd millennium BC - roughly contemporary with the Yajurveda mantras, the Rigvedic Khilani, and the .
The Atharvaveda is also the first Indic text to mention Iron (as , literally "black metal"), so that scholarly consensus dates the bulk of the Atharvaveda hymns to the early Indian Iron Age, corresponding to the 12th to 10th centuries BC or the early Kuru kingdom.
During its oral tradition, however, the text has been corrupted considerably more than some other Vedas, and it is only from comparative philology of the two surviving recensions that we may hope to arrive at an approximation of the original reading.
Tradition suggests that , one of the early collators, and , one of the late contributors associated with the Atharvanic text, lived during the reign of prince Hiranyanabha of the dynasty.
Divisions and issues of note
- The Shaunakiya text is clearly divided into four parts: 1-7 deal with healing and general black and white magic that is to be applied in all situations of life, from the first tooth of a baby to regaining kingship. Kandas 8-12 constitute early speculation on the nature of the universe and of humans as well as on ritual, and are thus predecessors of the Upanishads. They continue the speculative tradition of some Rigvedic poets. Kandas 13-18 deal with issues of a householder's life, such as marriage, death and female rivalry, as well as with the ambiguous Vratyas on the fringes of society and with the Rohita sun as an embodiment of royal power. Kandas 19 is an addition and Kanda 20 is a very late addition containing Rgvedic hymns for the use of the Atharvanic Brahmanacchamsin priest as well as for the enigmatic Kuntapa ritual of the Kuru kingdom of Parikshit. The Paippalada text has a similar arrangement into four parts (Kandas 1-15, 16-17, 18, 19-20) with roughly the same contents.
- Jain and Buddhist texts are considerably more hostile to the Atharvaveda (they call it or Veda) than they are to the other Hindu texts.
- The AV is the first Indic text dealing with medicine. It identifies the causes of disease as living causative agents such as the , the , the or and the . The seek to kill them with a variety of incantations or plant based drugs in order to counter the disease (see XIX.34.9). This approach to disease is quite different compared to the trihumoral theory of Ayurveda. Remnants of the original thought did persist, as can be seen in medical treatise and in ( - chapter: 164). Here following the theory, the text suggests germs as a cause for leprosy. In the same chapter also expands on the role of helminths in disease. These two can be directly traced back to the Atharvaveda . The hymn AV I.23-24 describes the disease leprosy and recommends the for its treatment. From the description of the as black branching entity with dusky patches, it is very likely that is a lichen with antibiotic properties. Thus the AV may be one of the earliest texts to record uses of the antibiotic agents.
- The Atharvaveda also informs about warfare. A variety of devices such as an arrow with a duct for poison and castor bean poison, poisoned net and hook traps, use of disease spreading insects and smoke screens find a place in the Atharvaveda (eg. hymns IX .9, IX.10, the and ). These references to military practices and associated rites were what gave the Atharvaveda its reputation. In the Mahabharata there is a frequent comparison between weapons and the mantras of the heroes.
- Several regular and special rituals of the Aryans are a major concern of the Atharvaveda, just as in the three other Vedas. The major rituals covered by the AV are marriage in - XIV and the funeral in - XVIII. There are also hymns that are specific to rituals of the , and . One peculiar rite is the , performed with the mantras of the XVII in a spell against female rivals. The rituals were performed by individuals who took on a seminomadic way of living and were generally roaming about in neighboring tribal territories to gain wealth in cattle by putting pressure on householders . Finally, there are some rituals aimed at the destruction of the enemies ( and rites), particularly found in chapters 1-7. While these support traditional negative views on the AV, in content they are mirrored by several other hymns from the Rig as well as the . Moreover, rites were an integral part of Vedic culture, as is amply attested in the literature. Thus the Atharvaveda is fully within the classic Vedic fold, though it was more specific to certain clans of priests. The development of the rites to their more "modern" form is clearly seen in the literature. The author of the provides passing reference to the development of similar rites in the AV tradition (the references to the ). These rites reached their culmination in the Sutra and in some of the (appendices) of the literature.
- Philosophical excursions are found in books 8-12. One of the most spectacular expressions of philosophical thought is seen in the hymn XII.I, the Hymn to goddess Earth or the used in the . The foundations of is expressed in the mantra XII.1.26 in which the 'atoms' are described forming the stone, the stones agglutinating to form the rocks and the rocks held together to form the Earth. Early pantheistic thought is seen in the hymn X.7 that describes the common thread running through all manifest and non-manifest existence as the . This is described as what poured out of the , that was the precursor of the complex world in a very simple form (X.7.28). (Hira?yagarba = " The golden embryo, from which the Universe was formed.") This Skambha is Indra and Indra is the Skambha which describes all existence. The hymn also describes a pantheistic nature of the Vedic gods (X.7.38): is the heat that spreads through the universe as waves of water; the units of this spreading entity are the gods even as branches of one tree. This theme is repeatedly presented in various interpretations in later Hindu philosophies.
Editions
The Shaunakiya text was edited by Rudolf Roth and William Dwight Whitney (Berlin, 1856) and by Vishva Bandhu (Hoshiarpur, 1960–62). Translations into English were made by Ralph Griffith (2 vols, Benares 1897), D. Whitney (revised by Lanman, 2 vols, Cambridge, Mass. 1905), and M. Bloomfield (SBE Vol XLII); also see Bloomfield, "The Atharvaveda" in "Grundriss der Indoarischen Philologie", II (Strasburg, 1899).
The bulk of the text was edited by Leroy Carr Barret from 1905 to 1940 (book 6 by F. Edgerton, 1915) from a single Kashmirian manuscript (now in Tübingen). This edition is outdated, since various other manuscripts were subsequently discovered in Orissa. Some manuscripts are in the Orissa State Museum, but many manuscripts are in private possession, and are kept hidden by their owners. A few manuscripts were collected by Prof. Durgamohan Bhattacharya of Bengal by deceiving their owners, as told by his son Dipak Bhattacharya in 1968 (below), who describes the theft as valiant daredevilry:
... The knowledge of the villagers, in whose possession many important manuscripts remain, about their possession is often very hazy [...] Prof. Bhattacharya secured a manuscript from an illiterate Brahmin on promise of return ..."
Books 1–15 were edited by Durgamohan Bhattacharya (1997). There is a provisional (unpublished) edition of book 20 by Dipak Bhattacharya.
Book 2 was edited and translated by Thomas Zehnder (1999) and book 5 by Alexander Lubotsky (2002), and books 6-7 by Arlo Griffiths (2004).
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