A History of Sanskrit Literature c5.4

c5.4

The fourth collection, the *Atharva-veda*, attained to this position only after a long struggle. Judged both by its language and by that portion of its matter which is analogous to the contents of the *Rigveda*, the *Atharva-veda* came into existence considerably later than that Veda. In form it is similar to the *Rigveda*, consisting for the most part of metrical hymns, many of which are taken from the last book of the older collection. In spirit, however, it is not only entirely different from the *Rigveda*, but represents a much more primitive stage of thought. While the *Rigveda* deals almost exclusively with the higher gods as conceived by a comparatively advanced and refined sacerdotal class, the *Atharva-veda* is, in the main, a book of spells and incantations appealing to the demon world, and teems with notions about witchcraft current among the lower grades of the population, and derived from an immemorial antiquity. These two, thus complementary to each other in contents, are obviously the most important of the four Vedas. As representing religious ideas at an earlier stage than any other literary monuments of the ancient world, they are of inestimable value to those who study the evolution of religious beliefs.