INTRODUCTION, XXVll
��125, 2.) The term also occurs in Vait. Su. i, 5 ; Gop. Br. I, I, 39 ; 2, 18 (end); 3, 1. 2. 4, and it is common in the Parij-ish/as (see Weber, Omina und Portenta, p. 346 ff. ; Verzeichniss der Sanskrit und Prakrit Handschriften, II, 89 ff.), and the Anukrama/n. No valid reason appears why the term bhr/gu has succeeded in encroaching so far upon the term atharvan. The following may, however, be remarked. The three words atharvan, angiras, and bhrzgu are in general equivalent, or closely related mythic names in connection with the production or the service of fire. Occasionally in the mantras (RV. X, 14, 6) they are found all together \ or bhrzgu is found in company with atharvan (RV. X, 92, 10), or with angiras (RV.VIII, 43, 13). This interrelation of the three names continues in the Ya^us and Brahma;/a-texts, but in such a way that the juxtaposition of bhr/gu and angiras becomes exceedingly frequent", broaching in fact on complete synonymy. The latter is reached in Sat. Br. IV, i, 5, i, where the sage /vyavana is designated either as a Bhargava or as an Ahgirasa^. It is conceivable that the frequency of this collocation sug- gested to the Atharvavedins a mode of freshening up the more trite combination atharvahgirasa/z ; of any reason for a conscious preference of the word bhr/gu the texts show no trace "*.
The term brahma-veda whose origin is discussed below (p. Ixv) likewise belongs to the sphere of the Atharvan ritual. Outside of the Atharvan there is to be noted only a single, but indubitable occurrence, 5ahkh. Gr/li. I, 16, 3.
��^ Cf. Weber, Verzeichniss, 11, 46.
^ E. g. Tait. S. I, I, 7, 2 ; Maitr.S. I, i, 8 ; Va?-. S. I, iS ; Tait. Br. I, i, 4, 8 ; III, 2, 7,6; ^at. Br. I, 2,1, 13; Katy. .S-r.II, 4,38; A past. .ST. I, 12, 3 ; 23,6; Yaska's Nigh.V, 5 ; Nir. XI, 18. The juxtaposition of bh;7gu and atharvan is decidedly rarer in this class of texts (e.g. Apast. ^r. IV, 12, 10); that of bh;7gu and angiras continues in the Mahabharata, and later ; see Pet. Lex. s.v. (col. 364, top).
2 Cf. similarly Dadhya;>/(' Atharvawa, Tait. S. V, i, 4, 4, with Dadhya;//& Angirasa, TaTik. Br. XII, 8, 6.
- A statement like that of the late Aulika Upanishad 10, that the Bh?7gu are
foremost among the Atharvans (atharvawo bhr/guttama/i), if it is taken seriously at all, reflects rather the result than the cause of the substitution of the name bh^v'gii for atharvan.
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