Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1890
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 1491

xlviii
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
Vas. XXI, 6–8; XXV, 13; Vishnu LV, 9. Certain vows called Siras, Baudh. II, 8, 14, 2; Vas. XXVI, 12, also emanate from the sphere of Atharvanic practices; so Govinda at Baudh. loc. cit. More pointedly, and without the company of the traividya, the sacred texts of the Atharvan and Angiras (srutîr atharvângirasîh) are recommended as the true weapons with which the Brahmana may slay his enemies, Manu XI, 33 ; the king must choose for his chaplain (purohita) one who is skilled in the Atharvan and Angiras (atharvângirase), Yâgñav. I, 3121; and the same recommendation is implied at Gaut. XI, 15. 17, where the king is enjoined to take heed of that which astrologers and interpreters of omens tell him, and to cause the purohita to perform in his house-fire among other expiatory rites (sânti), rites for prosperity (mangala), and witchcraft practices (abhikara) against enemies?. Such a purohita is eo ipso an Atharvan priest. In the Atri-samhità (Givananda's collection, vol. I, p. 45) gyotirvido ... atharvânal,
Atharyan priests skilled in astrology' are recommended for the performance of sraddhas and sacrifices (cf. Vishnu III, 75; Yagñav. I, 332). The snataka must not live in a country without physicians, Vishnu LXXI, 66, and the king should consult his physicians in the morning, Yagñav. I, 332. At Vishnu III, 87, the king himself is urged to be conversant with incantations dispelling the effects of poison and sickness, and at Manu VII, 217, the food of the king is rendered salubrious by sacred texts that destroy poison : these passages evidently refer to Atharvanic bhaishagyani (cf. p. 25 ff.), and Atharvan priests skilled in their use. At Baudh. II, 8, 15,4; Vishnu LXXIII, 11; LXXXI, 4, the demons called yâtudhâna are driven out by means of sesame, in perfect accord with AV. I, 7, 2.
Thus far then the dharma-literature expresses regard for the Atharvan, and distinct dependence upon its literature and its practices. But the ever dubious quality of the fourth Veda sounds from notes pitched in a different key. In the
1 The king himself is urged (ib. I, 310) to devote himself to the trayi.
. This is the stereotyped summary of the functions of the AV., sântapushti. kabhikârika; see p. xxix.
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