A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s3.11

v1.c8.s3.11

On the other hand there are other facts which prove indisputably that our text of the Atharvaveda-Saṁhitā is later than that of the Ṛgveda-Saṁhitā. Firstly, the geographical and cultural conditions show us a later period than that reflected in the Ṛgveda. The Vedic Aryans have now penetrated further to the South-east and are already settled in the Ganges country. The tiger, native to the marshy forests of Bengal, and therefore still unknown in the Ṛgveda, appears in the Atharvaveda already as the mightiest and most feared of all beasts of prey, and the king, at his consecration, steps upon a tiger-skin, the symbol of kingly power. The Atharvaveda knows not only the four castes—Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas and Śūdras,—but in a number of hymns, the highest privileges are already claimed (as later happens more and more frequently) by the priestly caste, and the Brahmans are already often called the "gods"¹ of this earth. The songs of magic in the Atharvaveda, which, according to their main contents, are certainly popular and very ancient, have no longer *even their original form* in the Saṁhitā, but are *brahmanised.* These old charms and formulas, whose authors are equally unknown as the authors of the magic incantations and formulas of other peoples, and which originally were just as much "popular poetry" as the poetry of magic everywhere is, have already in the Atharvaveda-Saṁhitā partly lost their popular character. We see at every step, that the collection was made by priests, and that many of the hymns were also composed by priests. This priestly outlook of the compilers and partly also of the authors of the hymns of the Atharvaveda, reveals itself in occasional comparisons and epithets, as for instance, when, in a charm against field-vermin, it is said that the insects are to leave the corn untouched "as the Brahman does not touch unfinished sacrificial food." A whole class of hymns of the Atharvaveda, with which we shall deal below, is concerned only with the interests of the Brahmans, the feeding of priests, the fees for the sacrifice, and such like, and they are, of course, the work of priests.