ORIENTAL SERIES.

350
VEDA.
historical interest, but its Brahmaftas and the other literature
belonging to it are full and important.
There were different sets of priests for each of the thiee
Yedas. Those whose duty it was to recite the jftig-veda were
called Hotns or Bahvnchas, and they were required to know the
whole Yeda. The priests
of the Yajur, who muttered its formu-
las in a peculiar manner at sacrifices, were called Adhwaryus, and
the chaunters of the verses of the Sam an were called Udgatn's.
The Atharva-veda, the fourth Yeda, is of later origin than the
others. This is acknowledged by the Brahmans, and is proved
by the internal evidence of the book itself. It is supposed to
date from about the same period as the tenth Mamfala of the
jf&g-veda, and as Manu speaks of only " the three Yedas," the
Atharva could hardly have been acknowledged in his time.
Professor Whitney thinks its contents may be later than even
the tenth Marzc?ala of the Rig, although these two " stand nearly
connected in import and origin." There are reasons for supposing
it to have had its origin among the Raindhavas on the banks
of the Indus. One-sixth, of the whole work is not metrical,
"
and about one-sixth (of the hymns) is also found among the
hymns of the jfrig-veda, and mostly
in the tenth book of the
latter ; the rest is peculiar to the Atharva." The number of the
hymns is about 760, and of the verses about 6000. Professor
of it thus : to
Whitney, the editor of the Atharva, speaks "As
the internal character of the Atharva hymns, it may
be said
of them, as of the tenth book of the jR'ig, that they are pro-
ductions of another and a later period, and the expressions of a
different
spirit from that of the earlier hymns in the other
Yedas. In the latter, the gods are approached with reverential
awe indeed, but with love and confidence also; a worship is
paid them that exalts the offerer of it ; the demons embraced
under the general name Eakshasa are objects of horror whom
the gods ward off and destroy ;
the divinities of the Atharva are
regarded rather with a kind of cringing fear, as powers whose
wrath is to be deprecated and whose favour curried, for it knows
a whole host of imps and hobgoblins, in ranks and classes, and
addresses itself to them directly, offering them homage to induce
them to abstain from doing harm. The Mantra prayer, which
in the older Yeda is the instrument of devotion, is here rather
the tool of superstition ; it wrings from the unwilling hands