Book VIII.
⌊The second grand division of the Atharvan collection comprehends books viii.-xii. It consists wholly of hymns of more than twenty verses, and contains all the hymns of that length except such as for especial reasons were placed in the later books. Leaving out of account the later books, there are forty-five such hymns; and these have been divided into five books, of which the first four, books viii., ix., x., and xi., have ten hymns each, while the remaining five hymns make up the twelfth book. Disregarding ix. 6 and xi. 3 (paryāya-hymns), it may be noted that books viii.-xi. contain all the hymns of from twenty to fifty verses to be found in the first two grand divisions, and that book xii. contains all of more than that number in the same divisions. "Of any other principle of arrangement dependent on the length of the different hymns, no trace is to be observed," says Whitney. For the divisions of book viii., see below. The whole book has been translated by Victor Henry, Les livres VIII et IX de l'Atharva-véda traduits et commentés, Paris, 1894. The commentary ("of Sāyaṇa") breaks off at the end of hymn 6 and we have no more of it till the beginning of book xi. But in lieu of the missing introductions, Shankar Pandurang Pandit gives introductions of his own, modelled on those of the bhāṣya, and drawn from the same sources, the Kāuçika, the Keçavī, etc.⌋
⌊The Major Anukramaṇī, at the beginning of §2 of its treatment of book viii., says that, 'up to the end of book xi., the artha-sūktas constitute the norm and the paryāyas, beginning with virāḍ vā (viii. 10. 1), the exception': yāvad ekādaçakāṇḍāntam arthasūkta-prakṛtis, tāvad vihāya paryāyān virāḍvā-prabhṛtīn iti. And in fact, all through books viii.-xii., and even to the end of book xviii., every arthasūkta is by one ms. or another designated as an arthasūkta (xviii. 2 is an exception, solitary and doubtless casual).—In this place it may be well to enumerate the paryāya-hymns (including those also of the next division) and to print an account of the way in which the mss. present them. The account (barring slight changes) is by Mr. Whitney, and is Written on a loose slip of paper found in his Collation-book at viii. 10. 1.⌋
⌊The paryāya-hymns are eight in number and are scattered over seven different books. Specifically, and with the number of paryāyas in each, they are as follows: viii. 10 (with 6 paryāyas); ix. 6 (with 6); ix. 7 (with 1); xi. 3 (with 3); xii. 5 (with 7); xiii. 4 (with 6); book xv. (18 paryāyas); book xvi. (9 paryāyas).⌋
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