ABSTRACT
The rewards requested from the devas in the Vedic hymns have a decidedly this-worldly character: sons, long life, victory in battle, etc. And the motivation behind the later sacrificial system is the maintenance of the cosmic order, implying the same idea of prosperity on earth. The early section of the Atharva-Veda deals even more with the minutiae of ordinary, daily life. Behind the speculations about the One lies a quest for the one power that controls all others in this world. This emphasis on ‘worldly’ matters may well be due to the very shadowy and rather unattractive conception of an afterlife in a gloomy underworld.
