Atharvaveda

The Atharvaveda (Sanskrit: अथर्ववेद, , a tatpurusha compound of , a type of priest, 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 Bhrigus and the Angirasas. Additionally, traditions ascribes parts to other rishis, such as , and . There are two surviving recensions (s), known as (AVS) and (AVP). The fixation of the samhita texts of these recensions likely dates to roughly 600 BCE (the "Mantra" period of Vedic Sanskrit, and the following codification in Vedic shakhas).

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.

The Jaina and Buddha texts are considerably more hostile to the AV (they call it or Veda) than they are to the other Hindu texts. They even call it a non-Aryan Veda concocted by for human sacrifices. The Hindu texts too have taken a less than charitable view and have on occasions omitted the reference to the "" text in the context of Vedic literature, though some attribute this to the fact that the Atharvaveda was a later addition chronologically. The Atharvan (appendices) themselves state that specific priests of the and schools should be avoided. It is even stated that women associated with may suffer from abortions.

Recensions

The (attributed to Shaunaka) lists nine shakhas or Schools of the Atharvaveda:

Of these, only the (AVS) and the (AVP) recensions have survived. The core text is considered earlier than the , but both also contain later additions and corruptions. In places where the and the agree, it is likely the original version. Often, the two recensions in corresponding hymns have a different verse order, or either has additional verses missing from the other.

Additionally, from the and Puranas (older Hindu texts on the gods, goddesses and their histories) it may be possible to glean a few more ancient schools that were not listed in the .

These are:

At least some of these may have evolved into the other schools mentioned in the list. , and are the five kalpa texts adduced to the tradition and not separate schools of their own.

From the Puranic text we may propose the following evolutionary history of the AV recensions:

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Vyasas: Highest Gurus in India.

Parasara: Vedic Rishi, narrator of Vishnu Purana.

There are two main circum-vedic texts associated with the AV, the and the . These serve the same purpose as the of the Rigveda and are of greater value in studying the Puranic-Vedic link than the AV text itself. There are several Upanishads that are associated with the AV, but appear to be relatively late additions to the tradition. The most important amongst these are the and the Upanishads . The former contains an important reference to , the founder of the Shaunakiya shakha, the latter one is associated with the shakha.

Issues of note

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 and the . The seek to kill them with a variety of drugs in order to counter the disease(see XIX.34.9). This approach to disease is surprisingly advanced compared to the trihumoral theory developed in the era. Remnants of the original thought did persist in the era as can be seen in medical treatise ( - 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 AV . 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 can stake the claim for being one of the earliest texts to record uses of the antibiotic agents.

The AV also informs us about warfare. A variety of devices such as the an arrow with a duct for poison () and castor bean poison, poisoned net and hook traps, use of disease spreading bugs and smoke screens find a place in the AV (eg. hymns IX .9, IX.10, the and ). These references to military practices and associated rites were what gave the AV its formidable reputation. In the Mahabharata era that shortly followed after the end of the period there is a frequent comparison between weapons and the mantras of the heroes. Probably, this comparison was initially supposed to mean the application of deadly weapons as mentioned in the tradition.

Several regular and special rituals of the Aryans are a major concern of the AV, 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 of the most important of these rites is the , performed to invoke the and with the mantras of the XVIIth . The rituals were performed by individuals who took on a nomadic ascetic way of living and were generally sent into neighboring states by the ruler of a particular state. They appear to have served a role in reconnaissance and negotiations with neighboring states (compare with Arjuna's -like journey into the Yadu principality to woo Subhadra). Finally, there are some rituals aimed at the destruction of the enemies ( and rites) particularly using the closing mantras of the XVIth . 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 the vedic as amply attested in the literature (see the tale of in the ). Thus the AV as such began fully within the classic vedic fold, though it was more specific to certain clans of fire priests. The development of the rites to their more 'modern' form was seen only in the literature and in fact began within the Rigvedic tradition in the form of the . 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 and and in some of the (appendices) of the literature. However, these are far removed from the actual hymns themselves suggesting that they represent an encrustation on the atharvanic practice rather than its original form. While in its most extreme form Atharvanic faded away, it did seed the mainstream Hindu culture resulting in the origin of the Puranic form of the fire ritual (yaga-s). It also provided the launching pad for the worship of late evolving popular deities like Kumara and Ganapati to capture the mainstream Hindu ritual.

Philosophical excursions: The AV made the most important contributions to Aryan philosophical thought of all the . One of the most spectacular expressions of this is seen in the hymn XII.I, the Hymn to goddess Earth or the used in the . The foundations of , the highest of the Hindu 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. An early pantheistic thought (somewhat convergent to the latter day ) is seen in the hymn X.7 that describes the common thread running through all manifest and un-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). (Hiranya Garba = " The radiant or golden egg or womb. Esoterically the luminious 'fire mist' or ethereal stuff 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 one theme that repeatedly presents itself in various interpretations that abounded in later Hindu philosophies and can be considered one of the most fundamental expression of Vedic thought.

Dating

From alleged internal astronomical references (AVS XI.7), it has been surmised that the Atharvanic period included the time when the Pleiades occupied the spring equinox (roughly 2200 BC). Further, 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, interpreted to mean that the core AV composition was at least complete by 1500 BC.

While these approaches are not widely accepted as valid, it is clear that the core text of the AV is not particularly recent in the Vedic tradition, and falls within the classical Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit in the late 2nd millennium BC - roughly contemporary with the Yajurveda mantras, the Rigvedic Khilani, and the redaction of 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 by later additions considerably more than the other Vedas, and it is only from comparative philology of the two surviving recensions that the original reading may hoped to be approximated.

Editions

The Shaunakiya text was edited 1960–62 by Vishva Bandhu, Hoshiarpur.

The bulk of the text was edited by Leray Carr Barret from 1905 to 1940 (book 6 by Edgerton, 1915) from a single Kashmirian manuscript (now in Tübingen). This edition is outdated, since various other manuscripts were discovered in Bihar, Bengal and Orissa since. Some manuscripts are in the Orissa State Museum, but many manuscripts are in private possession, and are kept hidden by their owners. Many 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 ..." (see: Zehnder (1999), p.19)

Books 1–15 were edited by Durgamohan Bhattacharya (1997). There is a provisional edition of book 20 by Dipak Bhattacharya.

Book 2 and 5 were edited and translated by Thomas Zehnder (1999) and Alexander Lubotsky (2002), respectively.

References

Maurice Bloomfield, Hymns of the Atharva-veda, Sacred Books of the East, v. 42 (1897, at sacred-texts.com)
Alexander Lubotsky, Atharvaveda-Paippalada, Kanda Five Harvard College, (2002)
Thomas Zehnder, Atharvaveda-Paippalada, Buch 2 Idstein, (1999)