Dharma in the Atharvaveda Expiation of murder by transfer to an "Overslaugher” in Paippalādasaṁhitā 19.46.13–15

Abstract

This article proposes that Paippalādasaṁhitā (PS) 19.46.13–15, a tṛca presented in a new critical edition and translated for the first time here, was used in the ritual expiation of murder of family members, probably in a royal context. The guilt is transferred to the didhiṣu-man, an ambiguous figure in Dharma texts. Passages like these in the Atharvaveda could provide a possible answer to Stephanie Jamison’s 2022 Bühler lecture question, ‘What would a Vedic law code look like?’