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Hymns of the Atharva Veda
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Extracts from the ritual books and the commentaries translated by Maurice
Bloomfield. Sacred Books of the East, volume 42 [1897]
[Editor's Note: this, the 42nd volume of the Sacred Books of the East, is
an anthology of representative texts from the Atharva-veda, the fourth Veda.
Since the order is not that of the original, I have inserted a five-digit
number in wavy brackets in front of each hymn, where the first two digits
indicate the book and the remaining three digits the hymn number. For
instance, {07044} designates the 44th hymn of the 7th book. This is to assist
in searching if you know which hymn you are looking for. Due to time
considerations, I have omitted most of the introduction and the annotations.]
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Excerpt from the Introduction
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The present volume of translations comprises about one third of the entire
material of the Atharva-veda in the text of the Saunaka-school. Yet it
represents the contents and spirit of the fourth Veda in a far greater measure
than is indicated by this numerical statement. The twentieth book of the
Samhita, with the exception of the so-called kuntapasuktini (hymns 127-136),
appears to be a verbatim repetition of mantras contained in the Rig-veda,
being employed in the Vaitana-sutra at the sastras and stotras of the
soma-sacrifice: it is altogether foreign to the spirit of the original
Atharvan. The nineteenth book is a late addendum, generally very corrupt; its
omission (with the exception of hymns 26, 34, 35, 38, 39, 53, and 54) does
not detract greatly from the general impression left by the body of the
collection. The seventeenth book consists of a single hymn of inferior
interest. Again, books XV and XVI, the former entirely Brahmanical prose, the
latter almost entirely so, are of doubtful quality and chronology. Finally,
books XIV and XVIII contain respectively the wedding and funeral stanzas of
the Atharvan, and coincide largely with corresponding mantras of the tenth
book of the Rig-veda: they are, granted their intrinsic interest, not
specifically Atharvanic. Of the remainder of the Atharvan (books I-XIII)
there is presented here about one half, naturally that half which seemed to
the translator the most interesting and characteristic. Since not a little of
the collection rises scarcely above the level of mere verbiage, the process
of exclusion has not called for any great degree of abstemiousness.
These successive acts of exclusion have made it possible to present a fairly
complete history of each of the hymns translated. The employment of the hymns
in the Atharvanic practices stands in closer touch with the original purpose
of the composition or compilation of the hymns than is true in the case of
the other collections of Vedic hymns. Often, though by no means always, the
practices connected with a given hymn provide the key to the correct
interpretation of the hymn itself. In any case, it is instructive to see what
the Atharvan priests did with the hymns of their own school, even if we must
judge their performances to be secondary.
I do not consider any translation of the AV. at this time to be final. The
most difficult problem, hardly yet ripe for final solution, is the original
function of many mantras, after they have been stripped of certain adaptive
modifications imparted to them to meet the immediate purpose of the
Atharvavedin. Not infrequently a stanza must be rendered in some measure of
harmony with its context, when, in fact, a more original meaning, not at all
applicable to its present environment, is but scantily covered over by the
secondary modifications of the text. This garbled tradition of the ancient
texts partakes of the character of popular etymology in the course of the
transmission of words. New meaning is read into the mantras, and any slight
stubbornness on their part is met with modifications of their wording. The
critic encounters here a very difficult situation: a searching investigation
of the remaining Vedic collections is necessary before a bridge can be built
from the more original meaning to the meaning implied and required by the
situation in a given Atharvan hymn. Needless to say, the only correct and
useful way to translate a mantra in the Atharvan is to reproduce it with the
bent which it has received in the Atharvan. The other Vedic collections are
by no means free from the same taint. The entire Vedic tradition, the
Rig-veda not excepted, presents rather the conclusion than the beginning of a
long period of literary activity. Conventionality of subject-matter, style,
and form (metre), &c., betrays itself at every step: the 'earliest' books of
the RV. are not exempt from the same processes of secondary grouping and
adaptation of their mantras, though these are less frequent and less obvious
than is the case in the Atharva-veda.
Obligations to previous translators: Weber, Muir, Ludwig, Zimmer, Grill,
Henry, &c., are acknowledged in the introduction to each hymn. I regret that
the work was in the hands of the printer prior to the appearance of Professor
Henry's excellent version of books X-XII. The late lamented Professor Whitney
kindly furnished me with the advance sheets of the late Shankar Pandurang
Pandit's scholarly edition of the AV. with Sayana's commentary, as also with
many of the readings of the Cashmir text (the so-called Paippalada-sakha) of
the AV. Neither the Paippalada nor Sayana sensibly relieves the task of its
difficulty and responsibility.
MAURICE BLOOMFIELD.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY,
BALTIMORE: April, 1896.
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