The Great Epic of India: Its Character and Origin c8.62

c8.62

Whether the fact that only the pseudo-epic puts the Atharva-Veda first in the list of Vedas be worthy of consideration or not, it has an interesting parallel in the fact that only the pseudo-epic places the Atharvan priest before the others. In early works the Ācārya, who taught gratis all the Vedas, is declared to be worth ten Upādhyāyas, Vas. xiii, 48; iii, 21–22; Manu, ii, 140–145. This Upādhyāya is the direct etymological ancestor of the modern ojha, wizard. In ancient times he was a sub-teacher, who taught for a livelihood one part of the Veda and Vedāṅga, and he is identified in the epic with the Purohita, who, as Professor Weber has shown, is essentially an Atharva-Veda priest,¹ or magic-monger, whom seers regard as contemptible.² The pseudo-epic inverts the ancient ratio and makes the Upādhyāya worth ten Ācāryas, xiii, 105, 14–45.