Atharva Veda · 490 of 724

HYMN XIII

HYMN XIII 1. He in whose house the Vrātya who possesses this knowledge abides one night secures for himself thereby the holy realms that are on earth. 2. A second night . . . . the holy realms that are in the firma- ment (the rest as in verse 1). 3. A third night . . . the holy realms that are in heaven. 4. A fourth night . . . . the holy realms of the Holy. 5. Unlimited nights . . . . unlimited holy realms. 6. Now he to whose house a non-Vrātya, calling himself a Vrātya, and one in name only, comes as a guest. 7. Should punish him and not punish him. 8. He should serve him with food saying to himself, To this Deity I offer water: I lodge this Deity; I wait upon this, this Deity. 9. To that Deity the sacrifice of him who has this knowledge is acceptable.

Insight

Hymn XIV is the climax of the Vrātya-identifications: at each region he goes to, he becomes a god (Maruts, Indra, Varuṇa, Soma, Vishnu, Rudra, Yama, Agni, Brihaspati, Iśāna, Prajāpati, Parameshthin) and makes a specific power his food-eater. The list is an early form of the equivalence-tables that the Brāhmaṇas will systematize and the Upanishads will philosophize. The Vrātya is being read here as the moving point at which the whole pantheon is locally instantiated. He is one figure whose identity is plural and exchangeable across the gods. Reading this hymn one starts to see why later Shaivite theology would find the Vrātya so usable: the god who is all the gods is exactly the doctrine the Pāśupata and Kashmiri Shaiva traditions would later build.Wave RR anchor — Vrātya as omni-deity / Brāhmaṇa equivalence-table seed