Myths about atharva-veda

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Dear bhAgavatas,

While growing up, I encountered various myths about atharva-veda and

for a long time, I thought they were fanciful stories. Later, I

stumbled onto facts, which I think, upon exageration gave rise to

those myths.

 

1. The muslims took away the atharva-veda.

 

>From Max Mueller's introduction to upanishads:

"The Upanishads were translated from Sanskrit into Persian by, or, it

may be, for Dârâ Shukoh, the eldest son of Shâh Jehân, an enlightened

prince, who openly professed the liberal religious tenets of the

great Emperor Akbar, and even wrote a book intended to reconcile the

religious doctrines of Hindus and Mohammedans. He seems first to have

heard of the Upanishads during his stay in Kashmir in 1640. He

afterwards invited several Pandits from Benares to Delhi, who were to

assist him in the work of translation. The translation was finished

in 1657. Three years after the accomplishment of this work, in 1659,

the prince was put to death by his brother Aurangzib 1, in reality,

no doubt, because he was the eldest son and legitimate successor of

Shâh Jehân, but under the pretext that he was an infidel, and

dangerous to the established religion of the empire."

 

2. The Germans took away the upanishads:

It might be due to the enormous interest shown by western Indologists

like Muller, Roth, Whitney, Bloomfield in collecting vedic

manuscripts, critically editing it and publishing it. If I am right,

the vaitana sutra of Atharva veda was published by Caland from the

manuscript he obtained from Germany!

 

3. Atharvaveda contains engineering & technology insights. Germans

made use of it.

Old wife's tale

 

4. Atharvaveda contains nothing but black-magic:

Not entirely true. The Kaushika sutra & AV parishishTas classify the

AV mantras into lists (or gaNas) depending on viniyogas. Here is a

sample:

 

shanti karmAni: rites like graha shanti, nakshatra shanti, shanti for

certain omens etc.

 

bhaishajya karmANi: rites to cure diseases like takman, yakshman,

kshEtriya, rapas etc, charms against snakebites, incantations against

krimis (worms).

 

strI karmANi: rites for women - safe delivery of baby and others.

 

rAja karmANI: royal rites - whole set of rites for kings, to be

performed by his atharvan purohita

 

abhichAra karmANi: black magic & sorcery, counter-black magic etc.

 

and many many more, ( a discussion of the list is beyond the scope of

this post ).

A corollary for this myth - other vedas do not contain "such impure

matters" is not entirely true. The shadvimsha brAhmaNa of sAmaveda

contains topics on sorcery. So does the first two chapters of

chAndOgya brAhmaNa (the rest forming the famous chAndOgya upanishad).

 

Then there is Rigvidhana (the authon makes a passing comment that

similar rites are prescribed in atharvan tradition). Taittriya

AraNyakam contains curses against enemies.

 

Another name of AV is brahma-veda, as it is supposed to contain

upanishadic topics & brahman. Actually there is a study that traces

various upanishadic concepts directly to atharva samhita.

 

For example, "pUrNAt purNamudachati pUrNam purNena sivyate" in

atharva veda immediately reminds one, the line from vAjasaneyi

samhitopanishad (IsAvAsya) "pUrNamada: pUrNamidam pUrNAt

pUrNamudacyate".

 

Regards,

Kasturi