ears first the
worship of Time, Love, 'Support' (Skambha), and the 'highest _brahma_.
The cult of the holy cow is fully recognized (XII. 4 and 5). The late
ritualistic terms, as well as linguistic evidence, confirm the fact
indicated by the geographical advance. The country is known from
western Balkh to eastern Beh[=a]r, the latter familiarly.[9] In a
word, one may conclude that on its higher side the Atharvan is later
than the Rig Veda, while on its lower side of demonology one may
recognize the religion of the lower classes as compared with that of
the two upper classes--for the latter the Rig Veda, for the
superstitious people at large the Atharvan, a collection
of which the origin agrees with its application. For, if it at first
was devoted to the unholy side of fire-cult, and if the fire-cult is
older than the _soma_-cult, then this is the cult that one would
expect to see most affected by the conservative vulgar, who in India
hold fast to what the cultured have long dropped as superstition, or,
at least, pretended to drop; though the house-ritual keeps some magic
in its fire-cult.

In that case, it may be asked, why not begin the history of Hindu
religion with the Atharvan, rather than with the Rig Veda? Because the
Atharvan, as a whole, in its language, social conditions, geography,
'remnant' worship, etc., shows that this literary collection is
posterior to the Rik collection. As to individual hymns, especially
those imbued with the tone of fetishism and witchcraft, any one of
them, either in its present or original form, may outrank the whole
Rik in antiquity, as do its superstitions the religion of the Rik--if
it is right to make a distinction between superstition and religion,
meaning by the former a lower, and by the latter a more elevated form
of belief in the supernatural.

The difference between the Rik-worshipper and Atharvan-worshipper is
somewhat like that which existed at a later age between the
philosophical Civaite and Durg[=a]ite. The former revered Civa, but
did not deny the power of a host of lesser mights, whom he was ashamed
to worship too much; the latter granted the all-god-head of Civa, but
paid attention almost exclusively to some demoniac divinity.
Superstition, perhaps, always precedes theology; but as surely does
superstition outlive any one form of its protean rival. And the simple
reason is that a theology is the real belief of few, and varies with
their changing intellectual point