| Atharvaveda | |
|---|---|
 Four Vedas | |
| Information | |
| Religion | Historical Vedic religion Hinduism |
| Language | Vedic Sanskrit |
| Period | Vedic period (c. 1200–900 BCE)[1] |
| Chapters | 20 kāṇḍas |
| Verses | 5,977 mantras[2] |
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| Hindu scriptures and texts |
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The Atharvaveda or Atharva Veda (Sanskrit: अथर्ववेद, IAST: Atharvaveda, from अथर्वन्, "priest" and वेद, "knowledge") or Atharvana Veda (Sanskrit: अथर्वणवेद, IAST: Atharvaṇaveda) is the "knowledge storehouse of atharvāṇas, the procedures for everyday life".[3] The text is the fourth Veda, and is a late addition to the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism.[4][5][6]
The language of the Atharvaveda is different from Rigvedic Sanskrit, preserving pre-Vedic Indo-European archaisms.[7][6] It is a collection of 730 hymns with about 6,000 mantras, divided into 20 books.[6] 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.[6] Two different recensions of the text – the Paippalāda and the Śaunakīya – have survived into modern times.[8] Reliable manuscripts of the Paippalada edition were believed to have been lost, but a well-preserved version was discovered among a collection of palm leaf manuscripts in Odisha in 1957.[8]
The Atharvaveda is sometimes called the "Veda of magical formulas",[3] a description considered incorrect by other scholars.[9] 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.[10]
The Atharvaveda was likely compiled as a Veda contemporaneously with Samaveda and Yajurveda, or about 1200 BCE – 1000 BCE.[11][12] Along with the Samhita layer of text, the Atharvaveda includes a Brahmana text, and a final layer of the text 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.[13][14]
- ^ Flood 1996, p. 37; Witzel 2001.
- ^ "Construction of the Vedas". VedicGranth.Org. Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ a b Laurie Patton (2004), Veda and Upanishad, in The Hindu World (Editors: Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby), Routledge, ISBN 0-415215277, page 38
- ^ Carl Olson (2007), The Many Colors of Hinduism, Rutgers University Press, ISBN 978-0813540689, pages 13–14
- ^ Laurie Patton (1994), Authority, Anxiety, and Canon: ys in Vedic Interpretation, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791419380, page 57
- ^ a b c d Maurice Bloomfield, The Atharvaveda, Harvard University Press, pages 1-2
- ^ Parpola 2015, p. 131.
- ^ a b Frits Staal (2009), Discovering the Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights, Penguin, ISBN 978-0143099864, pages 136-137
- ^ Jan Gonda (1975), Vedic Literature: Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas, Vol 1, Fasc. 1, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, ISBN 978-3447016032, pages 277–280, Quote: "It would be incorrect to describe the Atharvaveda Samhita as a collection of magical formulas".
- ^ Parpola, Asko (2015), "The Atharvaveda and the Vrātyas", The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization, Oxford University Press, Chapter 12, ISBN 978-0-19-022692-3
- ^ Witzel 2001, pp. 5–6.
- ^ M. S. Valiathan. The Legacy of Caraka. Orient Blackswan. p. 22.
- ^ Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120814691, pages 605–609
- ^ Max Muller, The Upanishads, Part 2, Prasna Upanishad, Oxford University Press, pages xlii–xliii