lxiii
is the case with alchemy. We have already seen how the Atharva-veda deals almost exclusively in charms, sorcery, exorcism of diseases by means of amulets and so on. It is sometimes supposed that the A.V. represents the latest of the Vedas. This is evidently a misimpression.[1] The truth seems to be that human frailty has always fought shy of the tedious and laborious methods of gaining an object. The spiritual hankering as foreshadowed in the prayers of the Rik, and later on so fully developed
- ↑ As Bloomfield remarks:—There is no proof that even the oldest parts of the R. V. or the most ancient Hindu tradition accessible historically, exclude the existence of the class of writings entitled to any of the names given to the Atharvan charms.' Intro. to A. V. X. pXX.
"It is well known that not only Indian life with all its social and political institutions has been at all times under the mighty sway of religion, but that we are also led back to religious belief and worship when we try to account for the origin of research in those departments of knowledge which the Indians have cultivated with such remarkable success. At first sight, few traces of this origin may be visible in the Sástras of the later times, but looking closer we may always discern the connecting thread."—"Journ. As. Soc." (1875) Vol. XLIV. part 1. p. 227.
