The Paippalada-Samhita of the Atharvaveda is next only to the Rgveda in importance and antiquity in Indo-European literature. It was originally the most prominent branch of the Atharvaveda and seems to have been known as such to Yaska, Panini, the author of the Mahabhasya and even later. Its decline in the middle ages is related to the parallel rise of the Saunakiya-Samhita as the main text of the Atharvaveda. A mutilated and hopelessly corrupt Sarada manuscript ...
