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The Atharvaveda (Sanskrit: अथर्ववेद, ' from ' and veda meaning "knowledge") is the "knowledge storehouse of ''atharvāṇas'', the procedures for everyday life".〔Laurie Patton (2004), Veda and Upanishad, in ''The Hindu World'' (Editors: Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby), Routledge, ISBN 0–415215277, page 38〕 The text is the fourth Veda, but has been a late addition to the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism.〔Carl Olson (2007), The Many Colors of Hinduism, Rutgers University Press, ISBN 978-0813540689, pages 13-14〕〔Laurie Patton (1994), Authority, Anxiety, and Canon: Essays in Vedic Interpretation, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791419380, page 57〕 The Atharvaveda is composed in Vedic Sanskrit, and it is a collection of 730 hymns with about 6,000 mantras, divided into 20 books.〔Maurice Bloomfield, (The Atharvaveda ), Harvard University Press, pages 1-2〕 About a sixth of the Atharvaveda text adapts verses from the Rigveda, and except for Books 15 and 16, the text is in poem form deploying a diversity of Vedic meters.〔 Two different recensions of the text – the and the – have survived into modern times.〔Frits Staal (2009), Discovering the Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights, Penguin, ISBN 978-0143099864, pages 136-137〕 Reliable manuscripts of the Paippalada edition were believed to have been lost, but a well preserved version was discovered among a collection of palm leaf manuscripts in Odisha in 1957.〔 The Atharvaveda is sometimes called the "Veda of magical formulas",〔 an epithet declared to be incorrect by other scholars.〔Jan Gonda (1975), Vedic Literature: Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas, Vol 1, Fasc. 1, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, ISBN 978-3447016032, pages 277-280, Quote: "It would be incorrect to describe the Atharvaveda Samhita as a collection of magical formulas".〕 The Samhita layer of the text likely represents a developing 2nd millennium BCE tradition of magico-religious rites to address superstitious anxiety, spells to remove maladies believed to be caused by demons, and herbs- and nature-derived potions as medicine.〔Kenneth Zysk (2012), Understanding Mantras (Editor: Harvey Alper), Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120807464, pages 123-129〕 Many books of the Atharvaveda Samhita are dedicated to rituals without magic and to theosophy.〔 The text, states Kenneth Zysk, is one of oldest surviving record of the evolutionary practices in religious medicine and reveals the "earliest forms of folk healing of Indo-European antiquity".〔Kenneth Zysk (1993), Religious Medicine: The History and Evolution of Indian Medicine, Routledge, ISBN 978-1560000761, pages x-xii〕 It was likely compiled as a Veda contemporaneously with Samaveda and Yajurveda, or about 1200 BC - 1000 BC.〔 Along with the Samhita layer of text, the Atharvaveda includes a Brahmana text, and a final layer of the text that covers philosophical speculations. The latter layer of Atharvaveda text includes three primary Upanishads, influential to various schools of Hindu philosophy. These include the Mundaka Upanishad, the Mandukya Upanishad and the Prashna Upanishad.〔Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120814691, pages 605-609〕〔Max Muller, The Upanishads, Part 2, Prasna Upanishad, Oxford University Press, pages xlii-xliii〕 ==Etymology and nomenclature== The Veda may be named, states Monier Williams, after the mythical priest named ''Atharvan'' who was first to develop prayers to fire, offer Soma, and who composed "formulas and spells intended to counteract diseases and calamities".〔Monier Monier Williams, Sanskrit English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Entry for Atharvan, page 17〕 Monier Williams notes that the now obselete term for fire used to be ''Athar''.〔 The name Atharvaveda, states Laurie Patton, is for the text being "Veda of the Atharvāṇas".〔 The oldest name of the text, according to its own verse 10.7.20, was ''Atharvangirasah'', a compound of "Atharvan" and "Angiras", both Vedic scholars.〔 Each school called the text after itself, such as ''Saunakiya Samhita'', meaning the "compiled text of Saunakiya".〔 The "Atharvan" and "Angiras" names, states Maurice Bloomfield,〔 imply different things, the former was considered auspicious while the latter implied hostile sorcery practices. Over time, the positive auspicious side came to be celebrated and the name Atharva Veda became widespread.〔Maurice Bloomfield, (The Atharvaveda ), Harvard University Press, pages 7-10〕 The Atharvaveda is also occasionally referred to as ''Bhrgvangirasah'' and ''Brahmaveda'', after Bhrigu and Brahma respectively.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Atharvaveda」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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