The Rigveda, the verse 3.12.9.1 of Taittiriya Brahmana, the verse 5.32-33 of Aitareya Brahmana and other Vedic era texts mention only three Vedas.

The ancient Indian tradition initially recognized only three Vedas. 900 BCE, while Michael Witzel gives a dating at, or slightly after, c. The Atharvaveda is also occasionally referred to as Bhrgvangirasah and Brahmaveda, after Bhrigu and Brahma respectively. Michael Witzel states the etymology of Atharvan is Proto Indo-Iranian *atharwan ' priest, sorcerer', and it is cognate to Avestan ДЃОёrauuan 'priest' and possibly related to Tocharian *athr, 'superior force'. The latter name Angiras which is linked to Agni and priests in the Vedas, states George Brown, may also be related to Indo-European AngirГґs found in an Aramaic text from Nippur. Over time, the positive auspicious side came to be celebrated and the name Atharva Veda became widespread. The 'Atharvan' and 'Angiras' names, states Maurice Bloomfield, imply different things, with the former considered auspicious while the latter implying hostile sorcery practices. Each school called the text after itself, such as Saunakiya Samhita, meaning the 'compiled text of Saunakiya'. The oldest name of the text, according to its own verse 10.7.20, was Atharvangirasah, a compound of ' Atharvan' and ' Angiras', both Vedic scholars. The name Atharvaveda, states Laurie Patton, is for the text being 'Veda of the AtharvДЃб№‡as'. The Veda may be named, states Monier Williams, after the mythical priest named Atharvan who was first to develop prayers to fire, offer Soma, and who composed 'formulas and spells intended to counteract diseases and calamities'. 4.1.5 Speculations on the nature of man, life, good and evil.4.1.4 Spells and prayers to gain a lover, wife.4.1.2 Charms against fever, jaundice and diseases.These include the Mundaka Upanishad, the Mandukya Upanishad and the Prashna Upanishad.

The latter layer of Atharvaveda text includes three primary Upanishads, influential to various schools of Hindu philosophy. Along with the Samhita layer of text, the Atharvaveda includes a Brahmana text, and a final layer of the text that covers philosophical speculations. The Atharvaveda was likely compiled as a Veda contemporaneously with Samaveda and Yajurveda, or about 1200 BCE вЂ“ 1000 BCE. Royal rituals and the duties of the court priests are also included in the Atharvaveda. In contrast to the 'hieratic religion' of the other three Vedas, the Atharvaveda is said to represent a 'popular religion', incorporating not only formulas for magic, but also the daily rituals for initiation into learning ( upanayana), marriage and funerals. The Atharvaveda is sometimes called the 'Veda of magical formulas', a description considered incorrect by other scholars. Reliable manuscripts of the Paippalada edition were believed to have been lost, but a well-preserved version was discovered among a collection of palm leaf manuscripts in Odisha in 1957. Two different recensions of the text вЂ“ the PaippalДЃda and the ЕљaunakД«ya вЂ“ have survived into modern times. About a sixth of the Atharvaveda texts adapts verses from the Rigveda, and except for Books 15 and 16, the text is mainly in verse deploying a diversity of Vedic meters. It is a collection of 730 hymns with about 6,000 mantras, divided into 20 books.

The language of the Atharvaveda is different from Vedic Sanskrit, preserving pre-Vedic Indo-European archaisms. The text is the fourth Veda, but has been a late addition to the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism. The Atharva Veda ( Sanskrit: а¤…а¤Ґа¤°аҐЌа¤µа¤µаҐ‡а¤¦а¤ѓ, AtharvavedaбёҐ from atharvДЃб№‡as and veda, meaning 'knowledge') is the 'knowledge storehouse of atharvДЃб№‡as, the procedures for everyday life'.

Atharva veda spells