The History of Indian Literature c8.437

c8.437

dagger † Members of the family of the Atharvans are now and then mentioned; thus especially Dadhyañch Áth., Kabandha Áth., whom the Vishṇu-Puráṇa designates as a pupil of Sumantu (the latter we met in the Gṛihya-Sútras of the Ṛik, see above, p. 57), and others. [^ddagger]: ‡ It seems that even in later times the claim of the Atharvan to rank as Veda was disputed. Yájnavalkya (i. 101) mentions the two separately, *vedátharva*; though in another passage (i. 44) the "Atharváṅgirasas" occur along with Ṛich, Sáman, and Yajus. In Manu's Code we only once find the *śrutír atharváṅgirasíḥ*, as magic formulas; in the Rámáyaṇa likewise only once ii. 26. 20 (Gorr.) the *mantráś chātharvaṇás* (the latter passage I overlooked in *I. St.*, i. 297). [In Patañjali's Mahábháshya, however, the Atharvan is cited at the head of the Vedas (as in the Ṛig-Gṛihyas, see above, p. 58), occasionally even as their only representative; see *I. St.*, xiii. 431-32.]