The Atharvaveda and its Paippalādaśākhā

While no thematic volumes of papers exist, to my knowledge, on the traditions of the other three Vedas, the traditions of the Atharvaveda do seem to be a favored topic. A volume of Historical and Critical Studies in the Atharvaveda was published in 1981 by Suryakant BALI (Delhi: Nag Publishers), presenting papers from a seminar that took place at Delhi University in 1980. More recently, Abhijit GHOSH has brought out Ātharvan. á, a collection of essays on the Atharvaveda with special reference to its Paippalāda tradition (Kolkata: Sanskrit Book Depot, 2002), mainly comprising papers presented at a seminar that took place at Jadavpur University in 2001. Another volume, in commemoration of the Oriya Sanskritist K. C. Acharya, was published by Acharya’s pupil Prafulla K. MISHRA in 2003: New Dimensions in the Atharvaveda (Delhi: Pratibha Prakashan). The clear difference between those volumes and the present one lies in the direct connection with primary material, in manuscript form, that is maintained in almost all papers collected here: that primary material, which is quite rich, has to a large extent not been made known yet or studied at all. Several of the most pertinent questions concerning the history of the Atharvavedic, and specifically the Paippalāda tradition, moreover, remain unsolved even after publication of three volumes dedicated to this field of study. Bringing out yet another thematic volume dealing with the Atharvaveda and its Paippalāda- ´Sākhā, one that focuses specifically on the unpublished material and on the historical problems surrounding the Paippalāda tradition, does not, therefore, seem to require any further justification.