Śruti / The four Vedas / Atharvaveda · 9 of 10

9. Life in the world

Atharvaveda (अथर्ववेद)

The Atharvaveda (अथर्ववेद) is the Veda that stays in the house. Healing, herbs, a peaceful assembly, a peaceful dwelling, love, long life, and the fear of enemies are its subjects, and so are speculative hymns that ask what the world rests on. Two recensions are the ones to name. The Śaunaka (शौनक) is the text usually printed. The Paippalāda (पैप्पलाद) is the other, and its numbering is not the Śaunaka numbering. When this portal cites a hymn number, it is the Śaunaka number, and the other recension is allowed to differ.

A tradition of counting sometimes spoke of three Vedas and brought this one in late. The tradition that counts four includes it as the Veda of the house and of the rites that are not the great public fire. Both remarks are traditional remarks. This page does not turn them into a verdict on the date of every hymn.

The healing hymns name herbs and ask for well-being. This page names that theme. It does not give a remedy, a dose, or a preparation. Later Āyurveda (आयुर्वेद), the medicine of Caraka and Suśruta, traces a root to this Veda's care for life, herbs, and a body that can be asked to mend. Those saṃhitās are later books. They are not the Atharvaveda, and this page does not become them. The hymns of concord, sāṃmanasya (सांमनस्य), ask that an assembly be of one heart, and that a house not tear itself. The words of that hymn are not sat here. The wish is: let the people sit together, let their minds meet, let the quarrel fall quiet.

Some hymns are hostile charms. They ask that an enemy fail. The book contains them. This page does not turn them into instructions, and it does not quote them into a usable form. A reader who wants the Atharvaveda's philosophical voice, rather than its household fears, goes to the next sitting, the pillar on which everything is asked to rest, and then to the Praśna, the Muṇḍaka, and the Māṇḍūkya among the twelve.

नेपालीमा

अथर्ववेद घरको वेद हो। यसमा उपचार, जडीबुटी, सभाको एकमन र घरको शान्तिको कुरा छ, अनि संसार केमा अडिएको छ भन्ने प्रश्न पनि छ। छापिने पाठ शौनक हो। पैप्पलादको अङ्क फरक छ।

उपचारको विषय नाम लिइन्छ। औषधि बनाउने विधि दिइँदैन। पछिको आयुर्वेदले जीवन र जडीबुटीको यो चासोलाई जरा मान्छ। चरक र सुश्रुत पछिका संहिता हुन्। यो पृष्ठ तिनीहरू होइन। सभा एक हृदयको होस् भन्ने इच्छा छ। शत्रुलाई हानि पुर्‍याउने मन्त्र पुस्तकमा छन्। यो पृष्ठले तिनलाई प्रयोगको विधि बनाउँदैन।

Where it sits

The cosmic pillar, Śaunaka 10.7 and 10.8, is the last sitting of this book. The twelve Upaniṣads begin after it.