ater

nies of the soma sacrifice. Removed from their context in the Rigveda, they are strung together without internal connection, their significance depending solely on their relation to particular rites. In form these stanzas appear in the text of the Sāmaveda as if they were to be spoken or recited, differing from those of the Rigveda only in the way of marking the accent. The Sāmaveda is, therefore, only the book of words employed by the special class of Ugāt?i priests at the soma sacrifice. Its stanzas assume thei

e second book contains nine lessons, each of which is divided into two, and sometimes three sections. It consists throughout of small groups of stanzas, which, generally three in number, are closely connected, the first in the group being usually found in the first book also. That the second book is both later in date and secondary in character is indicated by its repeating stanzas from the first book as well as by its deviating much less from the text of the Rigveda. It is also a significant fact in this connect

ain verses, used also as Sāman chants, in a form which shows the variations of the Sāmaveda in contrast with the Rigveda. This is all the more striking as the Vājasaneyi text has an undoubted tendency to adhere to the readings of the Rigveda. On the other hand, the view expressed by Professor Weber that numerous variants in verses of the Sāmaveda contain archaic forms as com

rought out by a missionary named Stevenson in 1842, was entirely superseded by the valuable work of Benfey, which, containing a German translation and glossary besides the text, came out in 1848. The Sāmaveda was thus the first of the Vedas to be edited in its entirety. The text of this Veda, according to the recension of the same school, together with the commentary of Sāya?a, was subsequently edite

umna, beginning with the tract bounded by the two small rivers D?ishadvatī and Sarasvatī, and extending south-eastwards to the Jumna. It corresponds to the modern district of Sirhind. Closely connected with, and eastward of this region, was situated the land of the Panchālas, which, running south-east from the Meerut district to Allahabad, embraces the territory between the Jumna and the Ganges called the Doab ("Two Waters"). Kurukshetra was the country in which the Brahmanic religious and social system was developed, and from which it spread over the rest of India. It claims a further historical interest as being in later times the scene of

an a hundred miles, as far as Nāasik, and northwards beyond the modern city of Baroda. There are now only a few remnants of this school to the north of the Narmadā in Gujarat, chiefly at Ahmedabad, and farther west at Morvi. Before the beginning of our era these two ancient schools must have been very widely diffused in India. For the grammarian Patanjali speaks of the Ka?has and Kālāpas as the universally known schools of the Yajurveda, whose doctrines were proclaimed in every village. From the Rāmāya?a, moreover, we learn that these two schools were highly honoured in Ayo

many forms in common which are not found elsewhere. Of the Kapish?hala-Ka?ha Sam?hitā only somewhat corrupt fragments have hitherto come to light, and it is very doubtful whether sufficient manuscript material will ever be discovered to render an edition of this text possible. The Taittirīya Sam?hitā, which comprises seven books, and is subdivided into forty-four lessons, is somewhat later in origin than the above-me

rasted with it, as containing both kinds of matter mixed up in the Sam?hitā. The text of the Vājasaneyins has been preserved in two recensions, that of the Mādhyam?dinas and of the Kā?vas. These are almost identical in their subject-matter as well as its arrangement. Their divergences hardly go beyond varieties of reading, which, moreover, appear only

ns being a few passages relating to the horse-sacrifice in chapters 22–25. Otherwise the contents of the last twenty-two chapters are found again only in the Brāhma?a and the āra?yaka belonging to the Taittirīya Sam?hitā. Moreover, it is only the mantras of the first eighteen chapters of the Vājasaneyi Sam?hitā which are q

to the Manes. Lastly, the 40th chapter must be a late addition, for it stands in no direct relation to the ritual and bears the character of an Upanishad. Different parts of the Sam?hitā, moreover, furnish some data pointing to different periods of religious and social development. In the 16th chapter the god Rudra is described by a large number of epithets which are subsequently peculiar to ?iva. Two, however, which are particu

sacrificial ceremonial. The development of the ritual led to the compilation of the next fourteen chapters, which are concerned with ceremonies already treated (26–29) or entirely new (30–39). The last chapter apparently dates

r the systematic and orderly distribution of matter by which the mantras are collected in the Sam?hitā, while their dogmatic explan

loyed in the fire-altar ritual. These books follow the same order as, and in fact furnish a parallel recension of, the corresponding parts of the Vājasaneyi Sam?hitā. On the other hand, the Taittirīya Sam?hitā contains within itself, but in a different part, the two corresponding Brāhma?as, which, on the whole, are free from admixture with mantras. The fifth book is the Brāhma?a of the fire ritual, and the sixth is that of the soma sacrifice; but the dogmatic explanation of the new and full moon sacrifice is altogether omitted here, being found in the third book of the Taittirīya Brāhma?a. In the Maitrāya?ī Sam?hitā the distribution of the corresponding material is similar. The first three lessons of the first book contain the mantras only for the fortnightly

he Rigveda, the Yajurveda, though borrowing many of its verses from the same source, is largely an original production. Thus somewhat more than one-fourth only of the Vājasaneyi Sam?hitā is derived from the Rigveda, One half of this collection consists of verses (?ich) most of which (upwards of 700) are found in the Rigveda; the other half is made up of prose formulas (yajus). The

resenting a later stage, yet on the whole agrees with that of the Rigveda,

r on the scene as ?iva, being several times mentioned by that name as well as by other epithets later peculiar to ?iva, such as ?ankara and Mahādeva. Vish?u now occupies a somewhat more prominent position than in the Rigveda. A new feature is his constant identification with the sacrifice. The demons, now regularly called Asuras, perpetually appear as a group of evil beings opposed to the good go

presses on the Yajurveda the stamp of a new epoch is the character of the worship which it represents. The relative importance of the gods and of the sacrifice in the older religion has now become inverted. In the Rigveda the object of devotion was the gods, for the power of bestowing benefits on mankind was believed to lie in their hands alone, while the sacrifice was only a means of inf

the truly religious spirit of the Rigveda could not possibly survive. Adoration of the power and beneficence of the gods, as well as the consciousness of guilt, is entirely lacking, every prayer being coupled with some particular rite and aiming solely at securing material advantages. As a natural result, the formulas of the Yajurveda are full of

m down. Hence the formulas are regarded as having a kind of magical effect by exercising compulsion. Similar miraculous powers later came to be attached to penance and asceticism among the Brahmans, and to holiness among the Buddhists. The formulas of the Yajurveda have not, as a rule, the form of prayers addressed to the gods, but on the whole and characteristically consist of statements about the result of employing particular rites and mantras. Together with the corresponding ritual they furni

more than two thousand five hundred years. Not only do we find the four castes firmly established as the main divisions of Indian society in the Yajurveda, but, as one of the later books of the Vājasaneyi Sam?hitā shows, most of the mi

is, with few exceptions, that with which the G?ihya Sūtras deal, being domestic rites such as those of birth, marriage, and death, or the political rites relating to the inauguration of kings. Taken as a whole, it is a heterogeneous collection of spells. Its most salient teaching is sorcery, for it is mainly directed against hostile agencies, such as diseases, noxious animals, d

reathes in it is that of a prehistoric age. A few of its actual charms probably date with little modification from the Indo-European period; for, as Adalbert Kuhn has shown, some of its spells for curing bodily ailments agree in purpose and content, as well as to some extent even in form, with certain old German, Lettic, and Ru

It was discovered by Professor Bühler in Kashmir, and has been described by Professor Roth in his tract Der Atharvaveda in Kaschmir (1875). It will probably soon be accessible to scholars in the form of a

the whole of Sāya?a's commentary to the Atharva-veda has been edited in India. Its chief interest lies i

m the established text of the Rigveda without any change. The matter borrowed from the Rigveda in the other books shows considerable varieties of reading, but these, as in the other Sam?hitās, are of inferior value compared with the text of the Rigveda. As is the case in the Yajurveda, a considera

according to the number of stanzas contained in the hymns. In Book I. they have on the average four stanzas, in II. five, in III. six, in IV. seven, in V. eight to eighteen, in VI. t

the name of Vrātya, while XVI. and XVII. contain certain conjurations. The whole of XV. and nearly the whole of XVI., moreover, are composed in prose of the type found in the Brāhma?as. Both XVI. and XVII. are very short, the former containing nine hymns occupying four printed pages,

adings of which show considerable divergences from those of the older Veda. There is, however, more convincing proof of the lateness of this book. Its matter relates to the Soma ritual, and is entirely foreign to the spirit of the Atharva-veda. It was undoubtedly added to establish the claim of the Atharva to the position of a fourth Veda, by bringing it into connection with the recognised sacrificial ceremonial of the three old Vedas. This book, again, a

rāhma?a, and the Chhāndogya Upanishad were composed, is proved by the references to it in those works. In Patanjali's Mahābhāshya the Atharva

s derivatives, though representing only its benevolent side, would thus have come to designate the fourth Veda as a whole. In its plural form (atharvā?ah?) the word in this sense is found several times in the Brāhma?as, but in the singular it seems first to occur in an Upanishad. The adjective ātharva?a, first found as a neuter plural with the sense of "Atharvan hymns" in the Atharva-veda itself (Book XIX.), is common from that time onwards. The name atharva-veda first appears

es no reference to the spells of the Atharva-veda. Yet the Rigveda, though it is mainly concerned with praises of the gods in connection with the sacrifice, contains hymns showing that sorcery was bound up with domestic practices from the earliest times in India. The only reference to the spells of the Atharva-veda as a class in the Yajurvedas is found in the Taittirīya Sam?hitā, where they are alluded to under the

r "auspicious spells"), by the side of the other three Vedas, while the latter in a considerable number of passages are referred t

as trayī vidyā, "the threefold knowledge." In several passages they are also mentioned along with other literary types, such as itihāsa (story), purā?a (ancient legend), gāthā (song), sūtra, and upanishad. In these enumerations the Atharva-veda regularly occupies the fourth place, coming immediately after the three Vedas, while the rest follow in varying order. The Upanishads in general treat

of witchcraft. Thus the ?atapatha Brāhma?a, though characterising yātu or sorcery as devilish-doubtless because it may be dangerous to those who practise it-places yātuvidah? or sorcerers by the side of bahv?ichas or men skilled in Rigvedic verses. Just as the Rigveda contains very few hymns directly connected with the practice of sorcery, so the Atharva originally included only matters incidental and subsidiary to the sacrificial ritual. Thus it contains a series of formulas (vi. 47–48) which have no meaning except in connection with the three daily pressings (savana) of soma.

āna), we should expect the Atharva to betray a closer connection. This is, indeed, to some extent the case; for many verses quoted in these Sūtras are identical with or variants of those contained in the Atharva, even though the Domestic, like the Sacrificial, Sūtras endeavoured to borrow their verses as far as possible from the partic

nly natural that we should first meet with censures of the practices of the Atharva in the legal literature, because such practices were thought to enable one man to harm another. The verdict of the law treatises on the whole is, that as incantations of various kinds are injurious, the Atharva-veda is inferior and its practices impure. This inferiority is directly expressed in the Dharma Sūtra of āpastamba; and the later legal tre

e gods Brahmā and Vish?u being in several passages described as having created them. The Atharva is here often also referred to alone, and sp

arva the advanced position claimed for it by its own ritual literature. Thus the Vish?u P

th priest (the brahman), who in the Vedic religion was not attached to any of the three Vedas, but being required to have a knowledge of all three and of their sacrificial application, acted as superintendent or director of the sacrificial ceremonial. Ingeniously availing themselves of the fact that he was unconnected with any of the three Vedas, they put forward the claim of the fourth Veda as the special sphere of the fourth priest. That priest, moreover, was the most important as possessing a universal knowledge of religious lore (brahma), the comprehensive esoteric understanding of the nature of the gods and of the mystery of the sacrifice. Hence the Gopatha Brāhma?a exalts the Atharva as the highest religious lore (brahma), and calls it the Brahmaveda. T

f its older portion (v. 22) makes mention of the Gandhāris, Mūjavats, Mahāv?ishas, and Balhikas (in the north-west), and the Magadhas and Angas (in the e

nth book. The names here given deviate considerably from those mentioned in the Taittirīya Sam?hitā,

gveda, but earlier than that of the Brāhma?as. In vocabulary it is chiefly remarkable for the large n

ugh some of them must be very old, were not edited t

e them. There are spells to cure fever (takman), leprosy, jaundice, dropsy, scrofula, cough, ophthalmia, baldness, lack of vital power; fractures and wounds; the bite of snakes or injurious in

ecimen of a charm aga

soul with

distance

ou, O coug

ul's quick-d

arrow, sha

distance

ou, O coug

road expans

sun-god's

a distanc

ou, O coug

ocean's su

ure of leprosy by means o

night art

ed, sable,

d, tinge t

its spots of gr

demons, sorcerers, and enemies. The following two st

and pass us

burning fi

him down tha

tning smites the

in the ea

right lustre

f women a

rength I take a

e oppressors of Brahmans and those who withhold from them their rightful re

hich they ba

which they w

igned thee a

he Brahman pri

ve with the aid of various potent herbs. Some of them are of a hostile character,

s heaven and

day, encir

o around

thou shalt

turn away from

th longing, ba

formed of f

is arrow le

e thee to the he

there are many prayers for long life and he

m declines or

y brink of de

from the lap

live a hundred au

ce, O man, and s

rom thy feet, dep

this earth be n

of Agni and the sun

d calamities, or for prosperity in the house or field, in cattle, trad

mes the ligh

resistibl

s with the

tibly to-day

play that p

hat yield a

to a strea

g the bow is bo

llay anger, strife, and discord, or to procure ascendency in the

y, we kno

ruly by nam

o meet and

ech at one with

perfect sacrifices and marrying before an elder brother, or contain charms for

, if asle

sin, to si

s been and

om a wooden po

ng for the remission of sins,

our righteous fri

f diseases fro

ree and not def

e our parents a

tion or consecration, for the restoration of an exiled king, for the attainment of lustre and glory, and in par

rm, ye spec

by meteor

, spirits o

, pursue the fo

v. 21, 6) to the battle-drum m

ack affrighted a

they tremble at

, shout out aga

n terror and conf

ne of sixty-three stanzas addressed to the earth (xii. 1). I tra

n whom, with

e mortal si

fight in ba

l drive away fr

ake us free fro

es holding tre

iches give, and g

h lavishly, th

abundantly b

uise of a Brahman disciple (brahmachārin). In others Prā?a or Breath (xi. 4), Kāma or Love (ix. 2), and Kāla or Time (xix. 53–54), are personified as primordial powers. There is o

t two stanzas are ordinary Atharvan spells for binding enemies with the fetters of that deity, in its remaining verses ex

all King Var

ky whose boundar

Varu?a are th

rop of water

flee afar bey

ape King Varu

hither, from th

housand eyes the

iscerns all t

th and sky, and

men's eyes by

e, so he lays do

ly-house (sabhā) being a place of socia