Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/51

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

INTRODUCTION. xl

��VU

��normal Vcdic manner, i.e. preceded by the traividya, and followed by other literary types, especially the itihasapu- ransLvn. It is worthy of note that in only thi'ce of the five cases (Baudh. II, 5, 9, 14; Ya^;7av. I, 44; Aus. Ill, 44), the older name atharvaiigirasa// appears; the other three have atharvaveda, or atharvan. But it seems altogether impossible to derive from this any chronological indications as to the date of a given legal text, since U^'anas, or even Ya^wavalkya, is certainly later than Baudhayana and Vish//u. At this time the names atharvaveda, atharvan, atharva;/a have established themselves as the equivalent of the older atharvaiigirasa//, but the older name crops out at times in a purely chance way. At Ya^wav. I, 3 the fourth Veda is also implied as one of the fourteen foundations of know- ledge and law, without being mentioned by name ; cf. also Auj-anasa-.smrzti V, 66 (6'ivananda, vol. i, p. 531, bottom). The Atharvan, however, holds also the position of the fourth Veda in cases where no additional literature is men- tioned ; at Baudh. Ill, 9, 4 burnt oblations are offered to the four Vedas and many divinities ; at Baudh. IV, 5, i the Saman, Rik, Ya^us, and Atharva-veda are mentioned in connection with oblations calculated to procure the special wishes of one's heart (kamyesh/aya//). At Vas. XXII, 9 the Sawhitas of all the Vedas (sarva,^7/anda//sa;;/hita//) are counted among the purificatory texts : the Atharvan is probably intended to be included, especially as the Athar- va.s-iras (see below) is explicitly mentioned. In the late Vr/ddhaharita-sa/z/hita III, 45^ the atharva;/ani (sc. suktani) are on a level with the r//('o ya^u;;/shi and samani. In the Auj-anasa-smmi III, (S6 (6'ivananda, vol. i, p- 518) the twice- born is recommended to read either a Veda, two Vedas, the Vedas, or the four Vedas, a distinction between the trayi vidya and the four Vedas, not explicitly stated elsewhere. The Atharva-riras, an Upanishad connected with the AV., is mentioned a number of times, Gaut. XIX, 1 2 ; Vas. XXII, 9 ; XXVIII, 14 ; Au.fanasa-smr/ti IV, 5 ; the same text is mentioned under the name of 5iras at Baudh. IV, i, 28;

��^ See Givanandavidyasagaia's Dharma.fastrasawgraha, vol. i, p. 213.

�� �