Vedic Mythology c3.s2.3

c3.s2.3

The more popular material of the Atharvaveda deals mainly with domestic and magical rites. In the latter portion it is, along with the ritual text of the Kauśika sūtra, a mine of information in regard to the spirit and demon world. On this lower side of religion the Atharvaveda deals with notions of greater antiquity than those of the Rigveda. But on the higher side of religion it represents a more advanced stage. Individual gods exhibit a later phase of development and some new abstractions are deified, while the general character of the religion is pantheistic¹. Hymns in praise of individual gods are comparatively rare, while the simultaneous invocation of a number of deities, in which their essential nature is hardly touched upon, is characteristic. The deeds of the gods are extolled in the same stereotyped manner as in the RV.; and the AV. can hardly be said to supply any important mythological trait which is not to be found in the older collection.