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 533

Ixvi
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
became the Brahma-veda. The fact that there was no systematic sharply-defined provision for the Atharvanists in the scheme of the hieratic religion must have been galling at first, until this arrangement was completed to their own satisfaction. They may have, though we do not know that they did, gathered courage for this tour de force by the frequent mention in the AV. itself of the word brahma in the sense of charm, prayer, e.g. I, 10, 1; 14, 44; 23, 4, &c. If this was done it was a proceeding both arbitrary and superficial: the word has in the AV. the meaning of charm only in so far and inasmuch as the hymns of that Veda happen to be charms; the RV. employs the term freely to designate its own saktani (e.g. V, 85, 1; VII, 28, 1; 36, 1; X, 13, 1; 61, 1). One misses, too, the plural brahmâni as the true Vedic type of designation for a special class of composition, on a level with rikah, sâmâni, yagûmshi, atharvangirasah, or atharvånah (bhesha gâni) and angirasah (abhikarikâni). We may also remember that the Atharvan of all Samhitas contains the largest collection of theosophic hymns which deal explicitly (X, 2), or implicitly (X, 7), with Brahman and the brahmal. This may, of course, have helped to suggest that the Atharvavedin was the truly superior theologian. In the Upanishads the knowledge of just such theosophic relations is styled the brahmavidya. Sayana in the Introduction to the AV., p. 4, argues that the AV. is known as Brahma-veda because it was revealed to Brahman who is called Atharvans. His authority, however, is Gop. Br. I, 4 ff., a text that elsewhere identifies the AV. with that bhūyishtham brahma which was produced by the tapas (cf. AV. VIII, 10, 25), pressing to an unwarranted degree the relationship of the Atharvan texts with the sphere of the Upanishads 3 ; cf. above, p. lix.
It may be safe to assume that all these and other notions
Cf. also the superabundant Upanishads, composed in Atharvanic schools. atharvakhyena brahmanâ drishtat våt tannâmnâ ayam vedo vyapadisyate.
Similarly the Vishnu-purâna VI, 5 (Wilson's translation, vol. v, p. 210): "The AV. also states that there are two kinds of knowledge. By the one which is the supreme, God (akshara) is obtained; the other is that which consists of Rik and other Vedas.'
Digitized by Google