Part of a series on
Hindu scriptures
Vedas
Rigveda · Samaveda Yajurveda · Atharvaveda Divisions Samhita · Brahmana Aranyaka · Upanishads
Vedangas
Shiksha · Chandas Vyakarana · Nirukta Kalpa · Jyotisha
Upanishads
Rig vedic Aitareya Yajur vedic Brihadaranyaka · Isha Taittiriya · Katha Shvetashvatara Sama vedic Chandogya · Kena Atharva vedic Mundaka · Mandukya Prashna
Puranas
Brahma puranas Brahma · Brahmānda Brahmavaivarta Markandeya · Bhavishya Vaishnava puranas Vishnu · Bhagavata Naradeya · Garuda · Padma · Agni Shaiva puranas Shiva · Linga Skanda · Vayu
Itihasa
Ramayana Mahabharata (Bhagavad Gita)
Other scriptures
Manu Smriti Artha Shastra · Agama Tantra · Sūtra · Stotra Dharmashastra Divya Prabandha Tevaram Ramcharitmanas Yoga Vasistha
Scripture classification
Śruti · Smriti
Timeline
Hindu texts
v t e

The Atharvaveda (Sanskrit: अथर्ववेदः, atharvaveda, a tatpurusha compound of atharvan, an ancient Rishi, and veda, meaning "knowledge") is a sacred text of Hinduism and one of the four Vedas, often called the "fourth Veda". According to tradition, the Atharvaveda was mainly composed by two groups of rishis known as the Atharvanas and the Angirasa, hence its oldest name is Ātharvāṅgirasa. In the Late Vedic Gopatha Brahmana, it is attributed to the Bhrigu and Angirasa. Additionally, tradition ascribes parts to other rishis, such as Kauśika, Vasiṣṭha and Kaśyapa. There are two surviving recensions (śākhās), known as Śaunakīya (AVS) and Paippalāda (AVP).

Status[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

The Atharvaveda, while undoubtedly belonging to the core Vedic corpus, in some ways represents an independent parallel tradition to that of the Rigveda and Yajurveda. It incorporates much of the early traditions of healing and magic that are paralleled in other Indo-European literatures^{[citation needed]}.

The Atharvaveda is less predominant than other Vedas, as it is little used in solemn (Shrauta) ritual. The largely silent Brahmin priest observes the procedures of the ritual and "heals" it with two mantras and pouring of ghee when a mistake occurs. An early text^{[citation needed]}, its status has been ambiguous due to its magical character.

Recensions[link]

The Caraṇavyuha (attributed to Shaunaka) lists nine shakhas, or schools, of the Atharvaveda:^[1]

1. paippalāda, regions south of the Narmada River
2. stauda
3. mauda
4. śaunakīya, regions north of the Narmada River
5. jājala
6. jalada
7. kuntap
8. brahmavada
9. devadarśa
10. cāraṇavaidyā

Of these, only the Śaunakīya (AVS), present in Gujarat, and the Paippalāda (AVP) recension in coastal Orissa have survived. Both have some later additions, but the core Paippalāda text is considered earlier than most of the Śaunakīya. Often in corresponding hymns, the two recensions have different verse orders, or each has additional verses not in the other.

Saṃhitāvidhi, Śāntikalpa and Nakṣatrakalpa are some of the five kalpa texts adduced to the Śaunakīya tradition and not separate schools of their own.

Two main post-Samhita texts associated with the AV are the Vaitāna Sūtra and the Kauśika Sūtra. The Vaitanasutra deals with the participation of the Atharvaveda priest (brahmán) in the Shrauta ritual, while the Kauśikasūtra contains many applications of Atharvaveda mantras in healing and magic. This serves the same purpose as the vidhāna of the Rigveda and is of great value in studying the application of the AV text in Vedic times. Several Upanishads also are associated with the AV, but appear to be relatively late additions to the tradition. The most important of these are the muṇḍaka and the praśna Upanishads. The former contains an important reference to Śaunaka, the founder of the Shaunakiya shakha, while the latter is associated with the Paippalāda shakha.

Dating[link]

It is conjectured that the core text of the Atharvaveda falls within the classical Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit at the end of the 2nd millennium BCE - roughly contemporary with the Yajurveda mantras, the Rigvedic Khilani, and the Sāmaveda.

The Atharvaveda is also the first Indic text to mention iron (as krsna ayas, literally "black metal"), so that scholarly consensus dates the bulk of the Atharvaveda hymns to the early Indian Iron Age, corresponding to the 12th to 10th centuries BC, or the early Kuru kingdom.

Tradition suggests that Paippalāda, one of the early collators, and Vaidharbhī, one of the late contributors associated with the Atharvanic text, lived during the reign of prince Hiranyanabha of the Ikshvāku dynasty.

Divisions and issues of note[link]

• The Shaunakiya text is clearly divided into four parts: Kāṇḍas 1-7 deal with healing and general black and white magic that is to be applied in all situations of life, from the first tooth of a baby to regaining kingship. Kandas 8-12 constitute early speculation on the nature of the universe and of humans as well as on ritual and are thus predecessors of the Upanishads. They continue the speculative tradition of some Rigvedic poets. Kandas 13-18 deal with issues of a householder's life, such as marriage, death and female rivalry, as well as with the ambiguous Vratyas on the fringes of society and with the Rohita sun as an embodiment of royal power. Kanda 19 is an addition, and Kanda 20 is a very late addition containing Rigvedic hymns for the use of the Atharvanic Brahmanacchamsin priest as well as for the enigmatic Kuntapa ritual of the Kuru kingdom of Parikshit. The Paippalada text has a similar arrangement into four parts (Kandas 1-15, 16-17, 18, 19-20) with roughly the same contents.

• The Paippalada text begins with shan no devir abhistaye, the most common brahmayajna mantra. The Shaunakiya text begins with ye trishapt, which is in the second sukta in the Paippalada Samhita.[1]

• The popular Gopala Tapini Upanishad, among Nimbarka Sampradaya and Gaudiya Vaishnavism, belongs to Paippalada Samhita.[2]

• Jain and Buddhist texts are considerably more hostile to the Atharvaveda (they call it Aggvāna or Ahavāna Veda) than they are to the other Hindu texts.^{[citation needed]}
• The AV is the first Indic^{[disambiguation needed ]} text dealing with medicine. It identifies the causes of disease as living causative agents such as the yatudhāna, the kimīdin, the krimi or kṛmi and the durṇāma. The Atharvans seek to kill them with a variety of incantations or plant-based drugs in order to counter the disease (see XIX.34.9). This approach to disease is quite different compared to the trihumoral theory of Ayurveda. Remnants of the original Atharvanic thought did persist, as can be seen in Suśruta's medical treatise and in (Garuḍa Purāṇa, karma kāṃḍa - chapter: 164). Here, following the Atharvan theory, the Purāṇic text suggests germs as a cause for leprosy. In the same chapter, Suśruta also expands on the role of helminths in disease. These two can be directly traced back to the Atharvaveda saṃhitā. The hymn AV I.23-24 describes the disease leprosy and recommends the rajani auṣadhi for its treatment. From the description of the auṣadhi as a black, branching entity with dusky patches, it is very likely that it is a lichen with antibiotic properties. Thus the AV may be one of the earliest texts to record uses of the antibiotic agents.

• The Atharvaveda also informs about warfare. A variety of devices, such as an arrow with a duct for poison (apāskambha) and castor bean poison, poisoned net and hook traps, use of disease-spreading insects and smoke screens^{[citation needed]} find a place in the Atharvaveda saṃhita (e.g., hymns IX.9 and IX.10, the trisaṃdi and nyārbudi hymns). These references to military practices and associated Kṣatriya rites were what gave the Atharvaveda its reputation. In the Mahabharata, there is a frequent comparison between weapons and the mantras of the heroes.

• Several regular and special rituals of the Aryans ārya are a major concern of the Atharvaveda, just as in the three other Vedas. The major rituals covered by the AV are marriage in kāṃḍa - XIV and the funeral in kāṃḍa - XVIII. There are also hymns that are specific to rituals of the bhṛgu-aṅgirasas, vrātyas and kṣatriyas. One peculiar rite is the Viṣāsahi Vrata, performed with the mantras of the XVII kāṃḍa in a spell against female rivals. The Vrātya rituals were performed by individuals who took on a semi-nomadic way of living and were generally roaming about in neighboring tribal territories to gain wealth in cattle by putting pressure on householders grihastha. Finally, there are some rituals aimed at the destruction of the enemies (Abhicārika hymns and rites), particularly found in chapters 1-7. While these support traditional negative views on the AV, in content, they are mirrored by several other hymns from the Rig as well as the Yajuṣes. Moreover, Abhicārika rites were an integral part of Vedic culture, as is amply attested in the brāhmaṇa literature. Thus, the Atharvaveda is fully within the classic Vedic fold, though it was more specific to certain Brahmán clans of priests. The development of the Abhichārika rites to their more "modern" form is clearly seen in the vidhāna literature. The author of the ṛgvidhāna provides passing reference to the development of similar rites in the AV tradition (the references to the Āṅgirasa Krityās). These rites reached their culmination in the Kauśika Sutra and in some of the Pariśiṣṭas (appendices) of the Atharvan literature.

• Philosophical excursions are found in books 8-12. One of the most spectacular expressions of philosophical thought is seen in the hymn XII.I, the Hymn to goddess Earth or the Pṛthivī Sūkta used in the Āgrayana rite. The foundations of Vaiṣeśika Darśana is expressed in the mantra XII.1.26 in which the atoms (Pāṃsu) are described forming the stone, the stones agglutinating to form the rocks and the rocks held together to form the earth. Early pantheistic thought is seen in the hymn X.7 that describes the common thread running through all manifest and non-manifest existence as the skaṃbha. This skaṃbha is described as what poured out of the Hiraṇyagarbha that was the precursor of the complex world in a very simple form (X.7.28). (Hiraṇyagarba = "The golden womb from which the Universe was formed.") This Skambha is Indra, and Indra is the Skambha which describes all existence. The hymn also describes a pantheistic nature of the Vedic gods (X.7.38): skaṃbha is the heat (tapaḥ) that spreads through the universe (Bhuvana) as waves of water; the units of this spreading entity are the gods even as branches of one tree. This theme is repeatedly presented in various interpretations in later Hindu philosophies.

Editions[link]

The Shaunakiya text was edited by Rudolf Roth and William Dwight Whitney (Berlin, 1856), Shankar Pandurang Pandit in the 1890s (Bombay) and by Vishva Bandhu (Hoshiarpur, 1960–62). Translations into English were made by Ralph Griffith (2 vols., Benares 1897), D. Whitney (revised by Lanman, 2 vols, Cambridge, Mass. 1905), and M. Bloomfield (SBE Vol XLII); also see Bloomfield, "The Atharvaveda" in "Grundriss der Indoarischen Philologie", II (Strasburg, 1899).

The bulk of the Paippalāda text was edited by Leroy Carr Barret from 1905 to 1940 (book 6 by F. Edgerton, 1915) from a single Kashmirian Śāradā manuscript (now in Tübingen). This edition is outdated, since various other manuscripts were subsequently discovered in Orissa. Some manuscripts are in the Orissa State Museum, but many manuscripts are in private possession and are kept hidden by their owners.

In 1959 Durgamohan Bhattacharyya Professor at Sanskrit College, Calcutta could collect many manuscripts of the Paippalāda-Saṃhitā and its ancillary literature like the Āṅgirasakalpa after painstaking search over years in Orissa and South-West Bengal. Durgamohan Bhattacharyya’s discovery of a living tradition of the Paippalāda-Saṃhitā, unknown till then, was hailed in the Indological world as epoch making. Ludwig Alsdorf went so far as to say that it was the greatest event in Indology. Bhattacharyya died in 1965 living his edition of the text incomplete. This task was completed by Dipak Bhattacharya whose critical edition of the first 18 kāṇḍas published by the Asiatic Society, Calcutta came out in three volumes in 1997, 2008 and 2011.

Work till now done on the new manuscripts.

1. Books 1–4 were first edited by Durgamohan Bhattacharyya and published by the Sanskrit College, Calcutta in 1964 and 1970 with a ‘precious store of material… being spread out before our eyes’ (Karl Hoffmann).

2. There was a provisional (unpublished) edition of books 6-9 and 20 by Dipak Bhattacharya at Leiden in 1982.

Works done on the new edition

1. Book 2 was translated into German by Thomas Zehnder (1999).

2. Book 5 into English by Alexander Lubotsky (2002).

3. Books 6-7 by Arlo Griffiths (2009).

4. Books 13-14 by Carlos A. Lopez (2011).

They suggested many emendations. See Dipak Bhattacharya’s Introduction to the second and third volumes (AS, 2008, 2011) for an appraisal. A huge literature has come up on the Paippalāda-Saṃhitā in the last five decades, particularly since 1984.

Recitation style of the Atharvaveda[link]

The current recitation style of this Veda mostly resembles the Rigvedic one.

The Shaunaka Shakha of the Atharvaveda is recited in western Saurastra, at Benares, Gokarna and, after a recent introduction from Benares, also in South India (Tirupati, Chidambaram, etc.). The Gokarna version follows the northern style, which resembles the way the Maharashtrians recite the Rigveda Samhita. In Varanasi, which derives its style from Gujarat, the way of recitation is little different. Similarly in South India, the Shaunaka Shaka is recited using the Rig Veda as a base, with minute variations in Kampa Svara.

The Paippalada Shakha of the Atharvaveda is recited in Orissa in samhita-patha, however not with typical Vedic svara [3],[4][5], and in south Jharkhand districts by some migrants of Utkala Brahmins,[6] while its Kashmir branch has been extinct for some centuries.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Ralph Griffith, The Hymns of the Atharvaveda 1895-96, full text
• Maurice Bloomfield, Hymns of the Atharva-veda, Sacred Books of the East, v. 42 (1897), selection
• Alexander Lubotsky, Atharvaveda-Paippalada, Kanda Five, Harvard College (2002).
• Thomas Zehnder, Atharvaveda-Paippalada, Buch 2, Idstein (1999).
• Dipak Bhattacharya, Paippalada-Samhita of the Atharvaveda, Volume 2, The Asiatic Society (2007).
• B.R. Modak, The Ancillary Literature of the Atharva-veda, Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratishthan, New Delhi (1993), ISBN 81-215-0607-7.

Morari Bapu (Gujarati: મોરારી બાપુ, Hindi: मुरारी बापू; real name Moraridas Prabhudas Hariyani born on September 25, 1946^[1] in Talgajarda is a popular Hindu kathakaar (preacher), who has been giving 9 day-long sermons (kathaas) in both Gujarati and Hindi all over the world—including in India, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea, and on an airplane travelling the world—since the mid-1970s.

To date, he has conducted over 700 kathaas, most of them based on the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas and other such works about Rama as well as Gopigeet which has the gopis of Vrindavan singing of the glory of Krishna.

Biography[link]

Morari Bapu, complete name Moraridas Prabhudas Hariyani was born on September 25, 1946 on auspicious day of Shivratri in village Talgajarda near Mahuva, Gujarat, to Prabhudas Bapu Hariyani and Savitri Ben Hariyani, in a family of six brothers and two sisters. He is born in a family following religious traditions called Vaishnav Bava Sadhu Nimbarka Parampara (lineage). He became to be called as "Bapu" (meaning Father or elderly person) lovingly by people. .^[2] .^[3] His grandfather, Tribhovandasji was a great Ram Bhakta (devotee of Sri Rama) and used to make young Morari memorize five verses of the Ramcharitamanas each day, on his way to school and back. Further, he at young age was also encouraged via letters from his paternal great grand father, Mahamandleshwar Vishnu Giriji Maharaj, who was head of "Kailas Ashram" at Rishikesh, to be proficient in the Bhagvat Gita and the Vedas.^[4][5]

Morari Bapu has started his career as a primary school teacher in near by village to Talgajarda, he worked for several years, side by side he was doing Ram Kathas.

Media[link]

• Ram Katha by Morari Bapu. (Audio and Video)[1]

Currently available:-

1. Katha No. 668 - Manas Shraddha
2. Katha No. 667 - Manas Mallikarjun
3. Katha No. 648 - Manas Amarnath
4. Katha No. 623 - Manas Sadguru
5. Katha No. 571 - Manas Kak Bhusundi Ramayan

Further reading[link]

• Ramayana: Rāma, Gāthā in Different Versions, by Avadhesh K. Singh. Published by D.K. Printworld, 2007. ISBN 81-246-0416-9.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website of Morari Bapu (IIRamII.net)
• Morari Bapu in Jerusalem

This Indian religion-related biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article about a person notable in Hinduism is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e