A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.2042.3

c5.2042.3

farther, the attainment of wealth or power is aimed at, the downfall of enemies, success in love or in play, the removal of petty pests, and so on, even down to the growth of hair on a bald pate. There are hymns, too, in which a single rite or ceremony is taken up and exalted, somewhat in the same strain as the Soma in the Pāvamanya hymns of the Rig. Others of a speculative mystical character are not wanting; yet their number is not so great as might naturally be expected, considering the development which the Hindu religion received in the periods following after that of the primitive Veda. It seems in the main that the Atharva is of popular rather than of priestly origin; that in making the transition from the Vedic to modern times, it forms an intermediate step rather to the gross idolatries and superstitions of the ignorant mass than to the sublimated Pantheism of the Brāhmans." Such is the general character of the fourth Veda, but Max Müller has translated a hymn in his *Ancient Sanskrit Literature*, of which Professor Wilson said in the *Edinburgh Review*, "We know of no passage in Vedic literature which approaches its simple sublimity." This hymn is addressed to Varuna, "the great one who rules over these worlds, and beholds all as if he were close by; who sees all that is within and beyond heaven and earth," &c.