The Religions of India Part 18

x.x.xiii. 631 ff.]

[Footnote 25: i. 89. 10: "Aditi is all the G.o.ds and men; Aditi is whatever has been born; Aditi is whatever will be born."]

[Footnote 26: _Henotheism in the Rig Veda_ (Drisler Memorial).]

[Footnote 27: Ex. xv. 11; xviii. 11.]

[Footnote 28: RV. x. 114. 5; i. 164. 46; AV. iv. 16. 3.]

[Footnote 29: Bloomfield, JAOS. xv. 184.]

[Footnote 30: "Desire, the primal seed of mind," x. 129. 4.]

[Footnote 31: x. 72 (contains also the origin of the G.o.ds from Aditi).]

[Footnote 32: x. 90, Here _chand[=a][.m]si_, carmina, is probably the Atharvan.]

[Footnote 33: Rudras, Vasus, and [=A]dityas, the three famous groups of G.o.ds. The Vasus are in Indra's train, the 'shining,' or, perhaps, 'good' G.o.ds.]

[Footnote 34: ii. 33. 13; x. 100. 5, etc. If the idea of ma.n.u.s=bonus be rejected, the Latin _manes_ may be referred to _m[=a]navas_, the children of Manu.]

[Footnote 35: Or: "in an earthly place, in the atmosphere, or," etc.]

[Footnote 36: That is where the Fathers live. This is the only place where the Fathers are said to be _nap[=a]t_ (descendants) of Vishnu, and here the sense may be "I have discovered _Nap[=a]t_ (fire?)" But in i. 154. 5 Vishnu's worshippers rejoice in his home.]

[Footnote 37: Or: "form as thou wilt this body (of a corpse) to spirit life."]

[Footnote 38: x. 56. 4; otherwise, Gra.s.smann.]

[Footnote 39: vi. 73. 9 refers to ancestors on earth, not in heaven.]

[Footnote 40: Compare Muir, OST. v. 285, where i. 125. 5 is compared with x. 107. 2: "The gift-giver becomes immortal; the gift-giver lives in the sky; he that gives horses lives in the sun." Compare Zimmer, _Altind. Leben_ p. 409; Geiger, _Ostiran. Cultur_, p. 290.]

[Footnote 41: x. 88. 15, word for word: "two paths heard of the Fathers I, of the G.o.ds and of mortals." Cited as a mystery, Brih. [=A]ran. Up. vi. 2. 2.]

[Footnote 42: x. 16. 3: "if thou wilt go to the waters or to the plants," is added after this (in addressing the soul of the dead man). Plant-souls occur again in x. 58. 7.]

[Footnote 43: A V. XVIII.4.64; Muir, Av. _loc. cit._ p. 298.

A pa.s.sage of the Atharvan suggests that the dead may have been exposed as in Iran, but there is no trace of this in the Rig Veda (Zimmer, _loc. cit._ p. 402).]

[Footnote 44: Barth, _Vedic Religions_, p. 23; _ib._, the narrow 'house of clay,' RV. VII. 89. 1.]

[Footnote 45: I. 24. 1; I. 125.6; VII. 56.24; cited by Muller, _Chips_, I. p. 45.]

[Footnote 46: IX. 113. 7 ff.]

[Footnote 47: _Avar[=o]dhana[.m] divas_, 'enclosure of the sky.']

[Footnote 48: Literally, 'where custom' (obtains), _i.e._, where the old usages still hold.]

[Footnote 49: The last words are to be understood as of sensual pleasures (Muir, _loc. cit._ p. 307, notes 462, 463).]

[Footnote 50: RV. II. 29. 6; VII. 104. 3, 17; IV. 5. 5; IX.

73. 8. Compare Mulr, _loc. cit_. pp. 311-312; and Zimmer, _loc. cit._ pp. 408, 418. Yama's 'hero-holding abode' is not a h.e.l.l, as Ludwig thinks, but, as usual, the top vault of heaven.]

[Footnote 51: _loc. cit._ p. 123.]

[Footnote 52: X. 154. 2; 107. 2. Compare the mad ascetic, _muni_, VIII. 17. 14.]

[Footnote 53: X. 117. This is clearly seen in the seventh verse, where is praised the 'Brahman who talks,' _i.e._, can speak in behalf of the giver to the G.o.ds (compare verse three).]

[Footnote 54: X. 71. 6.]

[Footnote 55: Compare X. 145; 159. In X. 184 there is a prayer addressed to the G.o.ddesses Sin[=i]v[=a]l[=i] and Sarasvat[=i] (in conjunction with Vishnu, Tvashtar, the Creator, Praj[=a]pati, and the Hors.e.m.e.n) to make a woman fruitful.]

[Footnote 56: II. 15. 2; X. 6. 7 (Barth, _loc. cit._ p. 36).

The sacrifice of animals, cattle, horses, goats, is customary; that of man, legendary; but it is implied in X.

18.8 (Hillebrandt, ZDMG. Xl p. 708), and is ritualized in the next period (below).]

[Footnote 57: Phallic worship may be alluded to in that of the 'tail-G.o.ds,' as Garbe thinks, but it is deprecated. One verse, however, which seems to have crept in by mistake, is apparently due to phallic influence (VIII. 1. 34), though such a cult was not openly acknowledged till civa-worship began, and is no part of Brahmanism.]

CHAPTER VII.

THE RELIGION OF THE ATHARVA VEDA.

The hymns of the Rig Veda inextricably confused; the deities of an earlier era confounded, and again merged together in a pantheism now complete; the introduction of strange G.o.ds; recognition of a h.e.l.l of torture; instead of many divinities the One that represents all the G.o.ds, and nature as well; incantations for evil purposes and charms for a worthy purpose; formulae of malediction to be directed against 'those whom I hate and who hate me'; magical verses to obtain children, to prolong life, to dispel 'evil magic,' to guard against poison and other ills; the paralyzing extreme of ritualistic reverence indicated by the exaltation to G.o.dhead of the 'remnant' of sacrifice; hymns to snakes, to diseases, to sleep, time, and the stars; curses on the 'priest-plaguer'--such, in general outline, is the impression produced by a perusal of the Atharvan after that of the Rig Veda. How much of this is new?

The Rig Veda is not lacking in incantations, in witchcraft practices, in hymns to inanimate things, in indications of pantheism. But the general impression is produced, both by the tone of such hymns as these and by their place in the collection, that they are an addition to the original work. On the other hand, in reading the Atharvan hymns the collective impression is decidedly this, that what to the Rig is advent.i.tious is essential to the Atharvan.

It has often been pointed out, however, that not only the practices involved, but the hymns themselves, in the Atharvan, may have existed long before they were collected, and that, while the Atharvan collection, as a whole, takes historical place after the Rig Veda, there yet may be comprised in the former much which is as old as any part of the latter work. It is also customary to a.s.sume that such hymns as betoken a lower worship (incantations, magical formulae, etc.) were omitted purposely from the Rig Veda to be collected in the Atharvan. That which eventually can neither be proved nor disproved is, perhaps, best left undiscussed, and it is vain to seek scientific proof where only historic probabilities are obtainable. Yet, if a closer approach to truth be attractive, even a greater probability will be a gain, and it becomes worth while to consider the problem a little with only this hope in view.

Those portions of the Rig Veda which seem to be Atharvan-like are, in general, to be found in the later books (or places) of the collection.

But it would be presumptuous to conclude that a work, although almost entirely given up to what in the Rig Veda appears to be late, should itself be late in origin. By a.n.a.logy, in a nature-religion such as was that of India, the practice of demonology, witchcraft, etc., must have been an early factor. But, while this is true, it is clearly impossible to postulate therefrom that the hymns recording all this array of cursing, deviltry, and witchcraft are themselves early. The further forward one advances into the labyrinth of Hindu religions the more superst.i.tions, the more devils, demons, magic, witchcraft, and uncanny things generally, does he find. Hence, while any one superst.i.tious practice may be antique, there is small probability for a.s.suming a contemporaneous origin of the hymns of the two collections.

The many verses cited, apparently pell-mell, from the Rig Veda, might, it is true, revert to a version older than that in which they are found in the Rig Veda, but there is nothing to show that they were not taken from the Rig Veda, and re-dressed in a form that rendered them in many cases more intelligible; so that often what is respectfully spoken of as a 'better varied reading' of the Atharvan may be better, as we have said in the introductory chapter, only in lucidity; and the lucidity be due to tampering with a text old and unintelligible.

Cla.s.sical examples abound in ill.u.s.trations.

Nevertheless, although an antiquity equal to that of the whole Rig Veda can by no means be claimed for the Atharvan collection (which, at least in its tone, belongs to the Brahmanic period), yet is the ma.s.s represented by the latter, if not contemporaneous, at any rate so venerable, that it safely may be a.s.signed to a period as old as that in which were composed the later hymns of the Rik itself. But in distinction from the hymns themselves the weird religion they represent is doubtless as old, if not older, than that of the Rig Veda. For, while the Rig Vedic _soma-_cult is Indo-Iranian, the original Atharvan (fire) cult is even more primitive, and the basis of the work, from this point of view, may have preceded the composition of Rik hymns. This Atharvan religion--if it may be called so--is, therefore, of exceeding importance. It opens wide the door which the Rik puts ajar, and shows a world of religious and mystical ideas which without it could scarcely have been suspected. Here magic eclipses Soma and reigns supreme. The wizard is greater than the G.o.ds; his herbs and amulets are sovereign remedies. Religion is seen on its lowest side. It is true that there is 'bad magic' and 'good magic'

(the existence of the former is substantiated by the maledictions against it), but what has been received into the collection is apparently the best. To heal the sick and procure desirable things is the object of most of the charms and incantations--but some of the desirable things are disease and death of one's foes. On the higher side of religion, from a metaphysical point of view, the Atharvan is pantheistic. It knows also the importance of the 'breaths,'[1] the vital forces; it puts side by side the different G.o.ds and says that each 'is lord.' It does not lack philosophical speculation which, although most of it is puerile, sometimes raises questions of wider scope, as when the sage inquires who made the body with its wonderful parts--implying, but not stating the argument, from design, in its oldest form.[2]

Of magical verses there are many, but the content is seldom more than "do thou, O plant, preserve from harm," etc. Harmless enough, if somewhat weak, are also many other hymns calculated to procure blessings:

Blessings blow to us the wind, Blessings glow to us the sun, Blessings be to us the day, Blest to us the night appear, Blest to us the dawn shall shine,