Studies in the Epics and Puranas c8.25

c8.25

In the Atharvaveda we come across some cosmological hymns mostly of the Prajāpati type, in which the highest god and creator is conceived under other forms, and invoked under various names such as Rohita, Anaḍvan, Vaśā, Kāla, Kāma, Mahādeva, Iśāna, etc. The philosophical hymns of the Atharvaveda, no doubt, presuppose a fairly high development of metaphysical thought; but it should be noted that the productive thoughts of the truly philosophical hymns of the Ṛgveda have attained their further development only in the Upaniṣads. The Atharvaveda hymns stand, as Dr. Deussen says, "not so much inside the great course of development, as, rather, by its side."¹²