The Hymns of the Atharva Veda

The Atharva Veda

translated by Ralph Griffith

The Atharvaveda is a sacred text of Hinduism and one of the four Vedas, often called the "fourth Veda". According to tradition, the Atharvaveda was mainly composed by two groups of rishis known as the Atharvanas and the Angirasa. In the Late Vedic Gopatha Brahmana, it is attributed to the Bhrigu and Angirasa. The Atharvaveda, while undoubtedly belonging to the core Vedic corpus, in some ways represents an independent parallel tradition to that of the Rig-Veda and Yajurveda. It incorporates much of the early traditions of healing and magic that are paralleled in other Indo-European literatures.