The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c7.5

c7.5

The Atharvaveda. About the same time arose the Atharvaveda which was, only long afterwards, recognised as a regular fourth Veda. Its spells and incantations, sometimes grotesque in character, were once held by modern scholars to be primarily non-Âryan in origin and the whole Veda was looked upon as an uncouth mixture of Âryan and “Drâvidian” practices and superstitions. Recently, however, the opinion has been gaining ground that the Âryans had magic and witchcraft of their own and that the Atharvaveda is, like the other Vedas, Âryan in origin and spirit. Only it represents a phase of belief and practice different from what is mirrored elsewhere. About the time that The earlier Brâhmaṇas. the last three Vedas were put into shape or only slightly later, Vedic ceremonial was elaborated and Vedic ideas explained or obscured in the earlier Brâhmaṇas. Of these the Pañcaviṁśa Brâhmaṇa, pertaining to the Sâmaveda, is the oldest. Next comes the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa of which the first five books are probably earlier than the rest. Then comes the Kauṣitakî or Śâṅkhâyana Brâhmaṇa. Both belong to the Ṛigveda.¹ The ideas and institutions reflected in the tenth Maṇḍala of the Ṛigveda, the three other Vedas and the earlier Brâhmaṇas belong to the same order and, with specification of their sources, can be reviewed in the same strain.