Atharva-Veda-Samhita (2 Vols.)

by William Dwight Whitney (Translator)

OUT OF STOCK AND AVAILABLE AGAIN IN 2008.

Atharva-Veda means ‘the Veda of the Atharvan' or ‘the knowledge of Magic Formulas'. The great importance of the Atharva-Veda Samhita lies in the very fact that it is an invaluable source of knowledge of the real popular belief as yet uninfluenced by the priestly religion, of the faith in numberless spirits, imps, ghosts, and demons of every kind, and of the witchcraft, so eminently important to ethnology and for the history of religion. This work includes in the first place, critical notes upon the text, giving the various readings of the manuscripts, and not alone of those collated by Whitney in Europe, but also of those of the apparatus used by S.P. Pandit in the great Bombay edition; second, the readings of Paippalada of Kashmere version, furnished by the late Professor Roth; further, notice of the corresponding passages in all the other Vedic texts, with report of the various readings, the date of the Hindu scholiast respecting authorship, divinity, and metre of each verse; also references to the ancillary literature, especially to the well-edited Kausika and Vaitana Sutras, with account of the ritualistic use therein made of hymns or parts of hymns, so far as this appears to cast any light upon their meaning ; also extracts from the printed commentary; and finally, a simple literal translation with introduction and indices.
Finally, a side of "Hinduism" that most westerners are not familiar with,and some wish you continue to be unfamiliar with! This is India, pre-Aryan, with the Mother Tradition, the practical magic, the spontenaity,etc.