One of the oldest religion is Hinduism, with their Veda as the holy book. The Atharva Veda is one of the four Vedas, the other three being the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, and the Yajur Veda. The Vedas are the sacred scriptures of Hinduism and are believed to have been composed in India between 1500 BC and the end of the 1st millennium BC.
The Vedas may be considered as knowledge texts , and, generally speaking, there is a strong priestly bias to them, as the Brahmins monopolized the production and the transmission of these texts. The Atharva Veda itself has been translated to mean the ‘Veda of Magic Formulas’, though not all scholars agree with this translation.
Nevertheless, compared to the other three Vedas, the Atharva Veda seems to represent ‘popular religion’, as its charms and incantations are more folkloric in nature. Atharvan is called one of the Saptarishi, or seven seers, and is believed to have instituted the fire sacrifice. Additionally, some have claimed that Atharvan means ‘fire priest’. The Atharva Veda is also known as the Atharvangirasa Veda, which attributes this sacred text to Atharvan and Angira, another Hindu sage.
The Atharva Veda is divided into 20 kandas , which contains a total of 730 suktas . It may be noted, however, that a small number of hymns, estimated to be about a sixth of the entire Atharva Veda, were written in prose. The Atharva Veda has been described as the ‘Veda of varied knowledge’, as it deals with numerous subject matters. These may be divided into three main categories.
The first of these related to the curing of diseases, and the destruction of adverse forces. These include charms against possession by demons of disease, and charms for driving away demons. Furthermore, there are charms meant to protect a person against malicious adversaries, such as sorcerers, and ‘enemies thwarting holy work’. The second category consists of hymns related to everyday life, such as health, wealth, friendship, and marriage.
Examples of hymns that fall in this category include charms for a woman to obtain a husband, a charm to promote virility , and a charm to secure perfect health. The third category of hymns pertain higher matters, such as the nature of the Supreme Being, immortality, and time. About 20 percent of this text is found to overlap with the Rig Veda. Nevertheless, the rest of the verses are unique to this book and provide a representation of the concerns that the common man during the Vedic period had in his day to day life.
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