The study of the Paippalāda recension of the Atharvaveda: The state of the art

This article provides a survey of recent scholarship on the Paippalādasaṃhitā (PS) of the Atharvaveda, and presents the main lines of research that are currently being pursued. In particular, it discusses: the different approaches to the text-critical work on the PS; the debate on the history of its transmission; the linguistic studies based on the text; the hypothesis that the PS is a manual for the king’s purohita; the ongoing research on the connection between the Paippalādins, the Vrātyas and the Pāśupatas; and recent scholarship on its ancillary literature.