OR SACRED WRITINaS OF THE HINDUS. 4^9 



On the At'harva-ve'da, 



Tlie Sanhitd, or collection of prayers and invo- 

 cations, belonging to the A'thcn^van'a, is com- 

 prised in twenty books (ccinda), subdivided into 

 sections (anuvaca), hymns (sucta), and verses 

 (r^ich). Another mode of division by chapters 

 (prapataca) is also indicated. The number of 

 versus is stated at 6015; the sections exceed a 

 hundred ; and the h^^mns amount to more than 

 seven hundred and sixty. The number of chapters 

 is forty nearly. 



A passage from this Veda was quoted by Sir 

 W. Jones in his essay on the literature of the 

 Hindus* ; and a version of it was given, as a spe- 

 cimen of the language and style of the A'fhar' 

 vana. That passage comprises the whole of the 

 forty-third hymn of the nineteenth book |. In 

 the beginning of the same book, I find a hymn 

 (numbered as the sixth) which is almost word for 

 word the same with that, which has been before 

 cited from the thirty-first chapter of the white 

 Yqjushf^. Some of the verses are indeed trans- 



* Asiatic Researches, Vol. I. p. 347. 



t SirW. Jones cites it, as from the tirst book ; I suspect, that, 

 in Colonel Polter's copy, the nineteenth book might stand first ia 

 the volume. It does so, in General Martin's transcript, though 

 the colophon be correct. I have another, and very complete, 

 copy of this Veda. General Martin's, which I also possess, i^ 

 defective: containing only the ten first and the two last books. An 

 ancient fragment, also in my possession, does not extend beyond 

 the sixth. 



I Asiatic Researches, Vol. VII. p. 251. 

 Hh3 



