A History of Sanskrit Literature c10.34

c10.34

A considerable time elapsed before the *Atharva-veda*, owing to the general character of its contents, attained to the rank of a canonical book. There is no evidence that even at the latest period of the *Rigveda* the charms constituting the *Atharva-veda* were formally recognised as a separate literary category. For the Purusha hymn, while mentioning the three sacrificial Vedas by the names of *Rik*, *Sāman*, and *Yajus*, makes no reference to the spells of the *Atharva-veda*. Yet the *Rigveda*, though it is mainly concerned with praises of the gods in connection with the sacrifice, contains hymns showing that sorcery was bound up with domestic practices from the earliest times in India. The only reference to the spells of the *Atharva-veda* as a class in the *Yajurvedas* is found in the *Taittirīya Saṃhitā*, where they are alluded to under the name of *aṅgirasas* by the side of *Rik*, *Sāman*, and *Yajus*, which it elsewhere mentions alone. Yet the formulas of the *Yajur-veda* are often pervaded by the spirit of the *Atharva-veda*, and are sometimes Atharvan even in their wording. In fact, the difference between the *Rigveda* and *Yajurveda* on the one hand, and the *Atharva* on the other, as regards sorcery, lies solely in the degree of its applicability and prominence.