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INTRODUCTION.
bheshagani and the charms against poison (see p. 25 ff.). The knowledge of sorcery, dreaded in women (see the prohibitions in the dharma, p. 1 above), is alluded to in proverbial form at 5260= Mahâbh. III, 233, 13= 14660; and 6407= Mahâbh. XIII, 39, 6=2237.
In the Dasakumara-karita the Atharvan is employed twice, once in an obvious sorcery practice, atharvanikena vidhinâ (chapter iii, p. 108, 13), where priests perform sacrifices preliminary to transforming a person from one shape to another. Another time (chapter ii, p. 94) a marriage is celebrated with Atharvanic ceremonies (àtharvanena vidhina). Cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. I, 297 ; Ind. Streifen, I, 328.
In the Kirâtârgunîya X, 10 (cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. I, 289; Muir, Orig. Sanskrit Texts 1%, p. 395) there is a passage which shows that the potency of the Atharvan had not then waned : anupamasamadiptitâgarîyân kritapadapanktir atharvanena vedah, 'he (Arguna), being through unparalleled composure and fervour exceedingly powerful, as the Veda arranged by Atharvan 1.'.
The Purânas always speak of the fourfold Veda”, and present the Atharvan in the advanced position of the ritualistic literature of the AV. itself; cf. below, p. lvii ff. The Vishnu-purâna, p. 276, assigns the four Vedas to the four priests of the srauta-ritual, the AV. to the Brahman. Similarly at Prasthâna-bheda, p. 16, 1. 10, there is the statement, paurohityam sântipaushtikani ragñâm atharvavedena kårayed brahmatvam ka; cf. Max Müller, Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 476. The Bhagavata-puråna I, 4, 19. 20 speaks of the fourfold Veda designed for the execu
"Mallinâtha comments upon the passage, and cites an agama, to wit: samah sântir abhyudayakande diptita ugratâ abhikârakande atharvand vasishthena kritâ rakita padanam panktir anupūrvo yasya sa vedas katurthavedah, atharvanas tu mantroddharo vasishthena krita ity agamah. The passage has a twofold interest : it reflects the ancient Atharvanic (abhyudaya) and Angirasic (abhikâra) components of the Veda, and it ascribes its redaction to Vasishtha ; cf. above, p. xviii, and below, p. lxv.
. CF. Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, vol. I, p. 10. See, e.g. Vishnu. purana I, 5 (Wilson's translation, vol. I, p. 85), where the Atharvan is said to be the northern mouth of Brahman.
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