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RIDDLE NO. 3
THE TESTIMONY OF OTHER SHASTRAS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE VEDAS
I
The search for the origin of the Vedas may well begin with the Vedas themselves.
The Rig-Veda propounds a theory of the origin of the Vedas. It is set out in the famous Purusha Sukta. According to it, there was a mystic sacrifice of the Purusha a mythical being and it is out of this sacrifice that the three Vedas namely, Rig, Sama, Yajus came into being.
The Sama-Veda and Yajur-Veda have nothing to say about the origin of the Vedas.
The only other Veda that refers to this question is the AtharvaVeda. It has many explanations regarding the origin of the Vedas. One explanation [1] reads as follows:
“From Time the Rig verses sprang; the Yajus sprang from Time.”
There are also two other views propounded in the Atharva-Veda on this subject. The first of these is not very intelligent and may be given in its own language which runs as follows [2] :
“Declare who that Skamba (supporting principle) is in whom the primeval rishis, the rick, saman, and yajush, the earth and the one rishi, are sustained. . . .
“Declare who is that Skamba from whom they cut off the rick verses, from whom they scrapped off the yajush, of whom the saman verses are the hairs and the verses of Atharvan and Angiras the mouth.”
Obviously this statement is a challenge to some one who had proclaimed that the Rig, Sama and Yajur Veda were born out of a Skamba.
The second explanation given in the Atharva-Veda is that the Vedas sprang from Indra. [3]
1 Atharva-Veda XIX 54. 3. Quoted in Muir S. I. III. p. 4.
2 Atharva-Veda X 7.14 quoted in Muir S. I. III. p. 3.
3 Muir S. T. III. p. 4.