The Atharvaveda or Atharvarna Veda (, , from अथर्वन्, "priest" and वेद, "knowledge") is the "knowledge storehouse of atharvans, the procedures for everyday life".Laurie Patton (2004), "Veda and Upanishad," in The Hindu World (Editors: Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby), Routledge, , page 38 The text is the fourth Veda, and is a late addition to the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism.Carl Olson (2007), The Many Colors of Hinduism, Rutgers University Press, , pages 13–14Laurie Patton (1994), Authority, Anxiety, and Canon: Essays in Vedic Interpretation, State University of New York Press, , page 57
The language of the Atharvaveda is different from Rigvedic Sanskrit, preserving pre-Vedic Indo-European archaisms. It is a collection of 730 hymns with about 6,000 mantras, divided into 20 books.Maurice Bloomfield, The Atharvaveda, Harvard University Press, pages 1-2 About a sixth of the Atharvaveda texts adapt verses from the Rigveda, and except for Books 15 and 16, the text is mainly in verse, deploying a diversity of Vedic meters. Two different recensions of the text – the and the – have survived into modern times.Frits Staal (2009), Discovering the Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights, Penguin, , pages 136-137 Reliable manuscripts of the Paippalada edition were believed to be lost, but a well-preserved version was discovered among a collection of palm-leaf manuscripts in Odisha in 1957.
The Atharvaveda is sometimes called the "Veda of magical formulas", a description other scholars consider incorrect.Jan Gonda (1975), Vedic Literature: Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas, Vol 1, Fasc. 1, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, , pages 277–280, Quote: "It would be incorrect to describe the Atharvaveda Samhita as a collection of magical formulas". In contrast to the 'hieratic religion' of the other three Vedas, the Atharvaveda is said to represent a 'popular religion', incorporating not only formulas for magic, but also the daily rituals for initiation into learning (upanayana), marriage and funerals. Royal rituals and the duties of the court priests are also included in the Atharvaveda.
The Atharvaveda was likely compiled as a Veda contemporaneously with Samaveda and Yajurveda, or about 1200 BCE – 1000 BCE. Along with the Samhita layer of text, the Atharvaveda includes a Brahmana text, and a final layer that covers philosophical speculations. The latter layer of Atharvaveda text includes three primary Upanishads, influential to various schools of Hindu philosophy. These include the Mundaka Upanishad, the Mandukya Upanishad and the Prashna Upanishad.Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 605–609Max Muller, The Upanishads, Part 2, "Prasna Upanishad," Oxford University Press, pages xlii–xliii
Etymology and nomenclature The Veda may be named, states Monier Williams, after the mythical priest named Atharvan who was first to develop prayers to fire, offer Soma, and who composed "formulas and spells intended to counteract diseases and calamities".Monier Monier Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Entry for Atharvan, page 17 The name Atharvaveda, states Laurie Patton, is for the text being "Veda of the Atharvāṇas".
The oldest name of the text, according to its own verse 10.7.20, was Atharvangirasah, a compound of "Atharvan" and "Angiras", both Vedic scholars. Each scholar called the text after itself, such as Saunakiya Samhita, meaning the "compiled text of Saunakiya". The "Atharvan" and "Angiras" names, states Maurice Bloomfield, imply different things, with the former considered auspicious while the latter implying hostile sorcery practices. Over time, the positive auspicious side came to be celebrated and the name Atharvaveda became widespread.Maurice Bloomfield, The Atharvaveda, Harvard University Press, pages 7–10 The latter name Angiras which is linked to Agni and priests in the Vedas, states George Brown, may also be related to Indo-European Angirôs found in an Aramaic text from Nippur.; For the text Brown refers to, see: , pages 196, 195–200
Michael Witzel states the etymology of Atharvan is Proto Indo-Iranian *atharwan "[ancient] priest, sorcerer", and it is cognate to Avestan āθrauuan "priest" and possibly related to Tocharian *athr, "superior force".Michael Witzel (2003), "Linguistic Evidence for Cultural Exchange in Prehistoric Western Central Asia" Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 129, page 38
The Atharvaveda is also occasionally referred to as Bhrgvangirasah and Brahmaveda, after Bhrigu and Brahma, respectively.
Dating and historical context The Atharvaveda is dated by Flood at ca. 900 BCE, while Michael Witzel gives a dating at, or slightly after, c. 1200/1000 BCE.
The ancient Indian tradition initially recognized only three Vedas.Carl Olson (2007), The Many Colors of Hinduism, Rutgers University Press, , page 13 The Rigveda, the verse 3.12.9.1 of Taittiriya Brahmana, the verse 5.32-33 of Aitareya Brahmana and other Vedic era texts mention only three Vedas. The acceptance of the Atharvanas hymns and traditional folk practices was slow, and it was accepted as another Veda much later than the first three, by both orthodox and heterodox traditions of Indian philosophies. The early Buddhist Nikaya texts, for example, do not recognize Atharvaveda as the fourth Veda, and make references to only three Vedas.Frits Staal (2009), Discovering the Vedas: Origin, Mantras, Rituals, Insights, Penguin, , page 135Alex Wayman (1997), Untying the Knots in Buddhism, Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 52-53 Olson states that the ultimate acceptance of Atharvaveda as the fourth Veda probably came in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BCE. However, notes Max Muller, the hymns of Atharvaveda existed by the time Chandogya Upanishad was completed (~700 BCE), but were then referred to as "hymns of Atharvangirasah".Max Muller, "Chandogya Upanishad" 3.4.1 Oxford University Press, page 39
Frits Staal states that the text may be a compilation of poetry and knowledge that developed in two different regions of ancient India, the Kuru region in northern India and the Pancalas region of eastern India. The former was home to Paippalāda, whose name was derived from the sacred fig tree named Pippala (Sanskrit: पिप्पल). This school's compositions were in the Rigvedic style. The Pancalas region contributions came from composer-priests Angirasas and Bhargavas, whose style was unlike the metric Rigvedic composition, and their content included forms of medical sorcery. The Atharvaveda editions now known are a combination of their compositions.
The core text of the Atharvaveda falls within the classical Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit, during the 2nd millennium BC - later than the Rigveda, and roughly contemporary with the Yajurveda mantras, the Rigvedic Khilani, and the . There is no absolute dating of any Vedic text including the Atharvaveda. The dating for Atharvaveda is derived from the new metals and items mentioned therein; it, for example, mentions iron (as , literally "black metal"), and such mentions have led Michael Witzel to suggest that the Atharvaveda hymns were compiled in the early Indian Iron Age, at, or slightly after, c. 1200/1000 BCE.Michael Witzel (2003), "Vedas and Upaniṣads", in The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Editor: Gavin Flood), Blackwell, , page 68 corresponding to the early Kuru kingdom.
The priests who practised the Atharvaveda were considered to be the lowest tier of Brahmins, in comparison to the priests who practised the Rigveda, Samaveda, or Yajurveda [considered by whom?]. A stigma held by some against Atharvaveda priests is documented in Odisha well into the modern day.
Text The Atharvaveda is a collection of 20 books, with a total of 730 hymns of about 6,000 stanzas. The text is, state Patrick Olivelle and other scholars, a historical collection of beliefs and rituals addressing practical issues of daily life of the Vedic society, and it is not a liturgical Yajurveda-style collection.Patrick Olivelle (2014), Early Upanishads, Oxford University Press, , page 8 footnote 11William Whitney, "History of the Vedic texts", Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 4, pages 254-255
Recensions The , a later era Sanskrit text, states that the Atharvaveda had nine shakhas, or schools: , , , , , , , and .BR Modak (1993), The Ancillary Literature of the Atharva-Veda, Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratishthan, , pages 15 (footnote 8), 393-394
Of these, only the Shaunakiya recension, and the more recently discovered manuscripts of Paippalāda recension have survived. The Paippalāda edition is more ancient.Jan Gonda (1975), Vedic Literature: Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas, Vol 1, Fasc. 1, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, , pages 273-274 The two recensions differ in how they are organized, as well as content. For example, the Book 10 of Paippalada recension is more detailed and observed carefully not doing a single mistake, more developed and more conspicuous in describing monism, the concept of "oneness of Brahman, all life forms and the world".Jan Gonda (1975), Vedic Literature: Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas, Vol 1, Fasc. 1, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, , pages 296-297
Organization The Atharvaveda Samhita originally was organized into 18 books (), and the last two were added later. These books are arranged neither by subject nor by authors (as is the case with the other Vedas), but by the length of the hymns. Each book generally has hymns of about a similar number of verses, and the surviving manuscripts label the book with the shortest hymns as Book 1, and then in an increasing order (a few manuscripts do the opposite). Most of the hymns are poetic and set to different meters, but about a sixth of the book is prose.
Most of the hymns of Atharvaveda are unique to it, except for the one sixth of its hymns that it borrows from the Rigveda, primarily from its 10th mandala.Max Muller, , Oxford University Press, pages 454-456 The 19th book was a supplement of a similar nature, likely of new compositions and was added later. The 143 hymns of the 20th book of Atharvaveda Samhita is almost entirely borrowed from the Rigveda.Ralph Griffith, The Hymns of the Atharva Veda, Volume 2, 2nd Edition, EJ Lazarus, pages 321-451
The hymns of Atharvaveda cover a motley of topics, across its twenty books. Roughly, the first seven books focus primarily on magical poems for all sorts of healing and sorcery, and Michael Witzel states these are reminiscent of Germanic and Hittite sorcery stanzas, and may likely be the oldest section.Michael Witzel (2003), "Vedas and Upaniṣads", in The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Editor: Gavin Flood), Blackwell, , page 76 Books 8 to 12 are speculations of a variety of topics, while Books 13 to 18 tend to be about life cycle rites of passage rituals.
The Srautasutra texts and the are attached to the Atharvaveda Shaunaka edition, as are a supplement of Atharvan Prayascitthas, two Pratishakhyas, and a collection of Parisisthas.Jan Gonda (1977), "The Ritual Sutras," in A History of Indian Literature: Veda and Upanishads, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, , pages 543-545SS Bahulkar (2003), "Samskararatnamala: An Atharvanic Prayoga," in Pramodasindhu (Editors: Kalyan Kale et al., Professor Pramod Ganesh Lalye’s 75th Birthday Felicitation Volume), Mansanman Prakashan, pages-28–35 For the Paippalada edition of Atharvaveda, corresponding texts were Agastya and Paithinasi Sutras but these are lost or yet to be discovered.Michael Witzel (2003), "Vedas and Upaniṣads", in The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Editor: Gavin Flood), Blackwell, , pages 100-101
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