Hinduism / by Monier Williams.

  • Monier Monier-Williams
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hinduism / by Monier Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    which may have been sung by our Aryan forefathers before they settled in India. The Atharva-veda, on the other hand, is generally held to be the most recent, and is, perhaps, the most interesting collection. Though some of its hymns are mere repetitions of those in the Rig-veda, it deserves to be called a separate original collection. It had its origin in the growth of a superstitious belief in the power of evil demons, and its verses, including those introduced from the Rig-veda, are used in the present day as magical spells and incantations for imprecating or averting evils. The two so-called Samhitas or collections of the Yajur-veda or Sacrificial Veda (viz. the Taittiriya and Vajasaneyin or Black and White Yajus), borrow largely from the Rig-veda, and are merely hymns and texts arranged for use at sacrifices, the necessity for which arose after the complicated sacrificial system had been elaborated. The Sama-veda again is merely a reproduction of parts of the Rig-veda, transposed and arranged for the Soma ceremonies performed by priests called Udgatris, as the Yajur-veda was for the sacrifices performed by Adhvaryu priests.1 The greatest num- ber of its verses are taken from the ninth Mandala of the Rig-veda, which is in praise of the Soma plant. 1 Manu, iv. 123, says : “The Rig-veda has the gods for its deities ; the Yajur-veda has men for its objects ; the Sama-veda has the Pitris or spirits of departed ancestors, therefore its sound is impure.” This semblance of impurity is said to be the result of its association with deceased persons, and its repetition at a time of mourning.
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