Satapatha Bramhana Part 03

SR No.: 007679
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2382
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 493

xxvi
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
his purohita) as Atharvanic by distinction. Recently Professor Weber has emphasised the marked relation of the Atharvan to the royal caste.
The text of the Samhitâ abounds in râgakarmâni, ' royal practices,' and Weber thinks that the name of Kausika, the author of the great Atharvan Sûtra, points to a Kshatriya connection, since Kusika is identical with Visvamitra, and the latter, as is well known, stands forth among the ancient Vedic heroes as the representative of royalty. None of these points can be regarded as more than possibilities 2.
Two other designations of the AV. differ from all the preceding in that they are the product of a later Atharvanic literary age, neither of them being found in the Samhitâ, and both being almost wholly restricted to the ritual text of the Atharvan itself. They are the terms bhrigvangirasah and brahma-veda.
The term bhrigvangirasah is, as far as the evidence of the accessible literature goes, found only in Atharvan texts. Though bhrigu takes in this compound the place of atharvan, the terms bhrigavah or bhriguveda do not occur. The term bhrigvangirasah, however, is the favourite designation of the Veda in the Atharvan ritual texts: it makes a show, in fact, of crowding out the other designations. Thus the Kausika does not directly mention the Atharvan compositions by any other name (see 63, 3; 94, 2-4; cf. 137, 25; 139, 6), although vaguer allusions to this Veda and its adherents are made with the stem atharvan (59, 25; 73, 12;
1
Episches im vedischen Ritual, Proc. of the Royal Academy at Berlin, July 23, 1891; nr. xxxviii, p. 785 ff. (especially 787, top); Râgasûya, pp. 4, 23, note.
We may note also the prominence allowed in the AV. to the kind of performance called sava. These are elaborate and rather pompous bestowals of dakshina, rising as high as the presentation of a house (sâlâsava, IX, 3); or a goat with five messes of porridge, five cows, five pieces of gold, and five garments (agaudana, IX, 4). There are twenty-two kinds of these sava, and the eighth book of the Kausika is devoted to their exposition (Kesava 64-66 presents a brief catalogue of them). Revenues of this kind are not likely to have been derived from lesser personages than rich Kshatriyas, or kings.
3 In the Sambitâ the stem bhrigvangiras is never employed as the name of the Atharvan writings; in AV. V, 19, 1. 2 the terms bhrigu and ângirasa occur as the names of typical Brahman priests.
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