Book XIV.
⌊Nuptial Hymns.⌋
⌊Nuptial ceremonies.—This fourteenth book is the second of the six books (xiii.-xviii.) that form the third grand division of the Atharvan collection, and shows very clearly that unity of subject which is the distinguishing characteristic of the books of that division. The book has been translated by Weber, Indische Studien, vol. v. (1862), pages 178-217; and the parts peculiar to our text by Ludwig in his Der Rigveda, vol. iii. (Die Mantralitteratur), pages 470-476. The bhāṣya is again lacking.⌋
⌊The subject of the book has been often treated: thus, by that great scholar, Colebrooke, in 1801, in vol. vii. of the Asiatic Researches (the paper is reprinted in Cowell's edition of H. T. Colebrooke's Essays, vol. i., pages 217-238); by E. Haas, in the volume of Weber's Studien, just cited, pages 267-412, Die Heirathsgebräuche der alien Inder, nach den Gṛihyasūtra; and latterly by Dr. M. Winternitz, in the Denkschriften of the Vienna Academy for 1892, vol. xl., Das altindische Hochzeitsrituell nach dem Āpastambīya-gṛihyasūtra etc., with a detailed comparison of the nuptial ceremonies prevailing among the other Indo-European peoples. Then, some five years later (in 1897), in the Anecdota Oxoniensia, Dr. Winternitz published The Mantra-pāṭha or the Prayer Book of the Āpastambins, which contains very many of the mantras cited in the editor's Hochzeitsrituell; and for this reason the citations of those mantras are given below in duplicate, in order that they may be easily found in either work.—Here may be mentioned also the elaborate comments given in my Sanskrit Reader, pages 398-401, upon chapters 5, 7, and 8 of Āçvalāyana's Gṛhyasūtra, book i., which treat of the wedding customs and the wedding-service.⌋
⌊Division into anuvākas.—This book is divided into two anuvākas, the first with 64 verses, and the second with 75. This division is confirmed by the Old Anukr. or Pañcapaṭalikā (as quoted at the end of each anuvāka), which says ādyaḥ sāuryaç catuḥṣaṣṭiḥ and pañcasaptatir uttaraḥ. Here ādyaḥ and uttaraḥ doubtless refer to anuvākaḥ understood. It is also confirmed by AV. xix. 23. 24.⌋
⌊The decad-division is shown in the mss. as usual: thus hymn 1 is divided into 6 "decad"-sūktas (5 tens and 1 "decad" of 14 vss.), and hymn 2 is divided into 8 "decad"-sūktas (7 tens and 1 "decad" of 5 vss.). The sum is 14 "decad"-sūktas.⌋
⌊Division into hymns.—This seems to be a matter more or less questionable. By the Berlin edition, and also by that of SPP., the book is in fact divided into two hymns, each of which coincides with an anuvāka, as is the case with books xii. and xiii. The Old Anukr. seems to offer no evidence either for or against the division into hymns.⌋
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