ATHARV VED

It is widely believed that the originally there were only three veds and that the Atharv Ved was added later. The Atharv Ved is distinctly different from the other three. While the Rig, Yajur and Sam veds derive their names from the nature of their contents, the Atharv ved gets its name from a man called Atharvn.

In the Rig Ved there are references to Atharvn. He is said to be the first man to have found Agni or fire when he rubbed two sticks together. Meanwhile, there were two ancient families called Angiras and Bhrigu. It's said that the Atharv Ved was first revealed by the gods to Atharvn, Angiras and Bhrigu. This ved's role during a sacrifice or a yagna is to chant mantras to invoke fire to drive away evil forces. The Atharv Ved is also called the Brahma Ved. This is because was chanted by the fourth layer of priests who were called Brahmans.

While the other three veds are chiefly fervent chants, the Atharv Ved seemed too interactive. It contains charms and spells which could make an immediate difference in the physical world.

The Atharv ved contains some 750 hymns and 6000 verses. There are twenty books in this ved. The first thirteen contain a haphazard mixture of prayers, charms, spells and invocations. The fourteenth book is about marriages. The fifteenth is about wandering beggars. The sixteenth and the seventeenth are about magic and conjuring. The eighteenth is about funeral rites. The nineteenth is a mixture of songs with no perceivable categorization. The twentieth book contains chants to lord Indira, taken almost entirely from the Rig Ved.

Here is a typical hymn from the Atharv Ved. It's a spell and invokes the spiritual forces to bring about destruction to the enemies.

May the enemies who try to pierce us with their weapons not be able to reach us. May the enemies who try to attack us from the four directions not be able to reach us. O Indra, may the shower of arrows not be able to reach us. May arrows which have already been shot not be able to reach us. May arrows which have not yet been shot but will be, not be able to reach us. These are the divine words which will destroy our enemies.

It can be said that, to a great extend, the Atharv Ved is man's own device. He uses his spiritual knowledge to make his own world a better place to live.