Re: Trayee vidyaa

Namaste,

It is not proper to sat that Atharva Veda has a lower status. In fact Lord Rama had told Hanuman that if one has
to read only one Upanishad then that must be the Mandukya Upanishad, which belongs to the Atharva Veda.
Mundak Upanishad has told of the Brahman positivelty and I think anybody must read the Mundaka Upanishad.
I feel that in no way the Atharva Veda can be considered to be below the other three Vedas..

Regards,

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

--- On Sun, 8/2/09, Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani@...> wrote:

From: Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani@...>
Subject: [Advaita-l] Trayee vidyaa
To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l@...ta.org>
Date: Sunday, August 2, 2009, 10:46 PM

sarvebhyo namah!

I used to wonder about the usage ''trayee vidyaa" (knowledge of the three, if at all this phrase requires a
translation on this forum) which refers to Vedas, while the Vedas are well known to be four in number. Where
this term is not used, others like ''rigyajussaamapaaragah'' (master of the rik, yajus and saaman, used
in the 13th sloka of Aditya Hridayam, itself a part of the Yuddha Kanda, Ramayana to described the Sun god)
seem to convey a similar meaning. All this seemed to make the fourth veda, the Atharvan, slightly
inferior, or like an appendage. (*Foortnote 1*)

Yesterday, I attended a sabha on the topic "Vedagangatarnaginee" at The Sanskrit Academy, Hyderabad,
where Br. Sri. Kuppa Srinivasa Sastryavadhani (a kramaantasvaadhyaayin and teacher at the Keesara Veda
Pathashala), speaking on the influence of Vedas on literature dropped a hint suggesting that Veda
mantras are of three types - rik, saaman, yajus; and that each of the three vedas Rigveda, Samaveda and
Yajurveda are a mixture of all the three types of mantras but with a preponderance of a particular type. The
Atharvanaveda cannot be characterised by a preponderance of any such types of mantras. 

By rights, such an explanation should close the matter, but the Atharvanaveda does have a preponderance of
riks, or rik-like hymns, that is songs of praise. I wonder if the learned members of this forum could throw
more light on the subject.

budhajanavidheyah
Senani

Footnote 1: Two Upanishads from the Atharvanaveda - Mundaka and Prasna - are included in the list of Ten
Upanishads commentated by Sri Sankaracharya. So, in the tradition of Advaita, the Atharvanaveda is on
the same footing as the other three.

      
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