A Concise History of Science in India c5.s2.t2: The Atharvaveda

A Concise History of Science in India c5.s2.t2

Language: English

The Atharvaveda

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The *Atharvaveda* comprises 731 hymns and about 6,000 verses grouped under 20 books of which the first eighteen form the *Atharvaveda* proper and the last two supplementary additions of comparatively recent date. Its borrowings from the *Ṛgveda* are considerable, as much as one-seventh deriving without variation from the *ṛcas* belonging to books X, I and VIII. But quite a large number of the verses are original and bear marks of great antiquity. At the time of its taking shape, the Vedic Indians had already penetrated to the south-east and settled down in the Gangetic plains, as evidenced by the mention of a tiger-skin as symbol of royal power.b Society also became differentiated into four castes with the Brāhmaṇas claiming the highest privileges.

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The oldest name of this fourth *Veda* was probably *Atharvāṅgirasaḥ*. The frequent separation of this compound word and the mention of the *Veda* by each name show ‘that the compound is not a congealed formula, but that the texts are conscious of the fact that each has a distinct individuality, a right to separate existence.’c Originally, both the words ‘*atharvan*’ and ‘*aṅgiras*’ meant fire-priest, the fire-cult playing an important role in the daily life of the Indian people in much the same way as it did in the case of the ancient Persians. The two terms further signified two different species of magic formulas; the *atharvan* referred to holy magic bringing about happiness and the *aṅgiras* to hostile sorcery or black magic.

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The Atharvan songs and spells concerning healing of diseases throw important light on the oldest system of Indian medical science. Through these charms and spells the symptoms of a large number of diseases are described with great clarity. Winternitz notices a remarkable similarity between the magic incantations of the Indians and those of old Germans in the fact that while the *Atharvaveda* mentions 55, 77, or 99 diseases, German incantations often refer to 77 or 99 diseases.d Another peculiarity of the *Atharvaveda* consists in its recognition of worms as the causes of many diseases. Descriptions given of these worms are also of considerable zoological interest. The *Atharvaveda* is also very rich in anatomical nomenclature as will be clear from a glance at Filliozat’s list mentioned previously.

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b Winternitz, I, pt. I, p. 108.

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Opinion is divided on the question of origin of the theory of *tridoṣa* or *tridhātu* in the *Atharvaveda*. But the physiological role of air or *prāṇa* as an organic and cosmic force is well attested in the *Saṃhitās*, including the *Atharvaveda*. This point is important from the point of view of the evolution of the pneumatic theory, its maturity in later Āyurvedic texts and the parallelism noticed in some Greek texts such as one treatise on this subject by Hippocrates and Plato's *Timaeus*.

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a *AV.*, XVIII. 3.5; *Vāj. S.*, XVII. 6; *Kāṭh. S.*, XVII. 17.

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c Bloomfield, p. xviii.

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d Winternitz, I, pt. I, p. 115.

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The *Atharvaveda* offers little assistance towards our understanding of the nature and extent of the Vedic astronomy. Nevertheless, it does contain stray passages of astronomical consequence, such as the solar eclipse, the mention of *rāhu* for the first time, intercalation with a thirteenth month and similar titbits. Its late nineteenth book reproduces the list of 28 *nakṣatras* including *Abhijit*.

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Finally, its cosmogonic and philosophical hymns belonging doubtless to the latest parts of this *Veda* are of no less importance to the history of Indian science. In 63 hymns addressed to goddess earth, a specimen of good ancient poetry, Mother Earth is described with all her physical geographical peculiarities as the supporter and preserver of life. Likewise, time (*kāla*) is recognized as the first cause of all existence. Time is ageless, begot the yonder heaven and the earth, then the waters, the *brahma*, the *tapas* and the regions of space and so on.

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*The Brāhmaṇas*

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The *Brāhmaṇas*, the second great division of the Vedic literature, have been styled by Winternitz as the ‘Science of Sacrifice’. Eggeling, in his introduction to the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, has traced the genesis of this class of literature to the gradual dispersal of the Brāhmaṇa communities from the Panjab to the eastern and southern parts of the country and to the necessity of dividing sacrificial duties among different classes of priests, namely the Hotār, the Udgātar, the Adhvaryu (the performer of the actual sacrificial acts) and the Brāhmaṇa or high priest.

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The beginnings of such theological elucidations may be seen in the *Saṁhitās* of the *Black Yajurveda* where the *mantras* as a rule are either followed by, or intermingled with, their dogmatic explanations to constitute the *Brāhmaṇa* portion which thus developed into a convenient textbook for the Adhvaryu priest. This might have stimulated concurrently the compilation of *Brāhmaṇa* texts for the Hotār and the Udgātar priests. The Vājasaneyins who came later obviously profited by the experience of the older schools and from the beginning separated the *Brāhmaṇa* from the carefully selected *mantras* and arranged the whole literature in a highly systematic manner. The principal *Brāhmaṇas* which thus came to be attached to the different *Saṁhitās* are enumerated below:

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If the *Brāhmaṇas*, in the course of their theological disputations, sought to throw a great deal of light on the earliest metaphysical and linguistic speculations and indulged in many mythological fabrications around the substance of the hymns and verses of their respective *saṃhitās*, they did not fail to do so with respect to matters scientific. In this way many astronomical, anatomical, pathological, physiological ideas and concepts, and information regarding plant and animal life assumed clearer perspective through Brāhmaṇic interpretations.

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*The Āraṇyakas-Upaniṣads*

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The third division of the Vedic literature comprises the *Āraṇyakas* (forest texts) and the *Upaniṣads* (secret doctrines), which arose out of the *Saṃhitās* and the *Brāhmaṇas* of the different Vedic schools. The *Aitareya-Āraṇyaka* which includes the *Aitareya Upaniṣad* is part of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* and likewise the *Kauṣītaki Āraṇyaka-Upaniṣad* represents the concluding portions of the *Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa*. The *Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa* ends in the *Chāndogya Upaniṣad*, of which the first section is an *āraṇyaka*. The *Jaiminīya* and the *Kena Upaniṣads* belong to the Jaiminīya or Talavakāra schools of the *Sāmaveda*. The Upaniṣads of the *Black Yajurveda* schools include the *Taittirīya Āraṇyaka-Upaniṣad*, a continuation of the *Brāhmaṇa* bearing the same name and the *Mahānārāyaṇa*, the *Kaṭha* or *Kāṭhaka*, the *Śvetāśvatara*, the *Maitrāyaṇī Upanisads*. The greatest and the most important of all Upaniṣads is the *Bṛhadāraṇyaka* which belongs to the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* of the *White Yajurveda*. The *Iṣā Upaniṣad* forming the last section of the *Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā* is short but valuable. The *Muṇḍaka* and the *Praśna Upaniṣads* are offshoots of the *Atharvaveda*.

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The six of the above-mentioned Upaniṣads, viz. the *Aitareya*, the *Bṛhadāraṇyaka*, the *Chāndogya*, the *Taittirīya*, the *Kauṣītaki* and the *Kena*, which, in language and style, resemble the *Brāhmaṇas*, represent the earliest stage of development of this type of literature whose antiquity cannot be far different from that of the *Brāhmaṇas*.a The *Kaṭha*, the *Śvetāśvatara*, the *Mahānārāyaṇa*, the *Iṣā*, the *Muṇḍaka* and the *Praśna* which also contain the Vedānta doctrine are in all probability pre-Buddhistic. The *Maitrāyaṇī Upaniṣad* in which the Vedic prose is no longer traceable is of a much later date and possibly post-Buddhistic.

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Besides the *Upaniṣads* mentioned above, some 200 texts bearing the title of this class and attributed to one or the other of the Vedic schools have come down to us. Most of them having no connection with the *Veda* are akin to the *Purāṇas* and the *Tantras* and belong to a much later date.a Of these several non-Vedic *Upaniṣads*, mention may be made of the *Subala Upaniṣad*, frequently referred to by Rāmānuja and the *Garbha Upaniṣad*; the former deals with metaphysics, cosmology, physiology and other matters, whereas the latter, as the title implies, is an embryological text having some importance in the history of medicine.

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a Winternitz, I, pt. I, p. 206.

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Written in the form of dialogues often reminding us of Plato, the *Upaniṣads* are primarily important as repositories of physical concepts concerning both the organic and the inorganic world. A sharp distinction is made between these two worlds—a distinction which, in the view of Deussen, dominates the Indian view of nature also.b Organic bodies such as gods, men, animals and plants are in essence the *ātman* itself and are regarded as wandering souls. Inorganic bodies called *mahābhūtāni*, although controlled by *Brahman*, are not wandering souls, but only the stage, the material substratum enabling the souls to play their part. Embedded in this concept of *mahābhūtāni* is the idea of five elements whose gradual evolution from water as the only primordial element into earth, water, fire, wind and ether as the five *mahābhūtāni* is traceable in the *Upaniṣads*.

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The *Upaniṣads* tacitly assume that, like the macrocosm, the microcosm represented by the human body is also constituted of the five elements. Some physiological concepts applicable to man, animals and plants as also some elementary principles of classification are met with. Astronomical conceptions are only slightly developed and do not go beyond what we find in the two other preceding divisions of the *Veda*. In the simple cosmography preached by the *Upaniṣads*, the earth is surrounded by water and has oceans, mountains and seven island continents. The heaven and the earth form two halves of the egg of the universe, a recurrent conception throughout the Vedic literature.

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*Chronology of the Vedic Literature*

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The chronology of the Vedic literature has always been, and is even now, a matter of great difficulty and controversy. Considering that the whole of the Vedic literature must be pre-Buddhist and the *Sūtra* works synchronous with the origin and spread of Buddhism, Max Müller suggested the period between 600 and 200 B.C. for the development of the *sūtras*, the period between 800 and 600 B.C. for the development of the prose style of the *Brāhmaṇas* and *Āraṇyakas*-*Upaniṣads* and the period 1000 to 800 B.C. for the compilation of the *Saṃhitās*, of which the poetry part or the *mantras* probably originated in the period between 1200 and 1000 B.C.c In his views, the oldest of the *Vedas*, the *Ṛgveda*, could not have been composed earlier than 1200 B.C. Leopold von Schroedera suggested a much earlier date, 1500 or even 2000 B.C., for the *Ṛgveda*, while Hermann Jacobib and B. G. Tilak,c on astronomical grounds, tried to date the beginning of the Vedic literature in the third millennium B.C. The period around 1400 or 1500 B.C. for the formulation of the earliest Ṛgvedic hymns has found a strong support from the clay tablets discovered in Boghazköi, the capital of the ancient Hittites who had as their deities some of the common Vedic gods such as Mitra, Varuṇa, Indra and Nāsatyau.d From an analysis of different studies on the Vedic chronology Winternitz concluded, and this view is now generally followed, that 'we shall probably have to date the beginning of this development about 2000 or 2500 B.C. and the end of it between 750 and 500 B.C.'e

Cites (4)

Śuklayajurvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit
Kṛṣṇayajurvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit