Kanda 18
Funeral Rites & Ancestors
Kāṇḍa 18 dari Atharvaveda adalah himpunan Antyeṣṭi (liturgi pemakaman) terbesar dalam Veda, menuntun mendiang dari bahaya liminal kematian menuju ranah Pitṛ (para Leluhur) yang tertata melalui mantra, persembahan, dan penyelarasan leluhur. Keempat sūkta—yang kerap dikaitkan dengan rangkaian Pitṛmedha/kremasi—mengikat pelarutan jasad, pengantaran oleh Agni, dan perjalanan jiwa selanjutnya pada ṛta, sehingga kematian menjadi sebuah “perlintasan” yang dapat dipahami secara ritual, bukan suatu keterputusan. Himne-himne ini berulang kali menyeru para Leluhur dan Yama
Anuvakas in Kanda 18
1 anuvakas (sections) to explore.
Frequently Asked Questions
Its purpose is Antyeṣṭi: to ritually guide the departed from death’s liminal danger to the ordered realm of the Pitṛs, while restoring śānti and stability for the living community.
Because they are oriented to offerings and invocations for the Fathers (Pitṛs), structuring the deceased’s transition into ancestorhood and establishing proper relations between descendants and the ancestral world.
Unlike many kāṇḍas that mix healing, prosperity, and apotropaic rites, Kāṇḍa 18 is unusually concentrated: a focused, liturgical corpus for funerary procedure, ancestral settlement, and post-funeral pacification anchored in ṛta.
Read Atharva Veda in the Vedapath app
Scan the QR code to open this directly in the app, with word-by-word meanings, Sanskrit recitation where available, and more.