[16] The latter name Angiras which is linked to Agni and priests in the Vedas, states George Brown, may also be related to Indo-European Angirôs found in an Aramaic text from Nippur.

[8] The Pancalas region contributions came from composer-priests Angirasas and Bhargavas, whose style was unlike the metric Rigvedic composition, and their content included forms of medical sorcery.

[29][30] The Caraṇavyuha, a later era Sanskrit text, states that the Atharvaveda had nine shakhas, or schools: paippalāda, stauda, mauda, śaunakīya, jājala, jalada, brahmavada, devadarśa and cāraṇavaidyā.

[9] The Samhita layer of the text likely represents a developing 2nd millennium BCE tradition of magico-religious rites to address superstitious anxiety, spells to remove maladies believed to be caused by demons, and herbs- and nature-derived potions as medicine.

[9] The text, states Kenneth Zysk, is one of oldest surviving record of the evolutionary practices in religious medicine and reveals the "earliest forms of folk healing of Indo-European antiquity".

[41] The Atharvaveda Samhita contains hymns many of which were charms, magic spells and incantations meant to be pronounced by the person who seeks some benefit, or more often by a sorcerer who would say it on his or her behalf.

[34] The most frequent goal of these hymns, charms, and spells were long life of a loved one or recovery from some illness.

[34] Some magic spells were for soldiers going to war with the goal of defeating the enemy, others for anxious lovers seeking to remove rivals or to attract the lover who is less than interested, some for success at a sporting event, in economic activity, for bounty of cattle and crops, or removal of petty pest bothering a household.

The 19th century Indologist Weber summarized the contrast as follows, The spirit of the two collections [Rigveda, Atharvaveda] is indeed widely different.

In the Rigveda we find the people in a state of free activity and independence; in the Atharva we see it bound in the fetters of the hierarchy and superstition.

Jan Gonda cautions that it would be incorrect to label Atharvaveda Samhita as mere compilation of magical formulas, witchcraft and sorcery.

For example, the verses in hymn 4.15 of the recently discovered Paippalada version of the Atharvaveda, discuss how to deal with an open fracture, and how to wrap the wound with Rohini plant (Ficus infectoria, native to India):[48] Let marrow be put together with marrow, and joint together with joint, together what of the flesh fallen apart, together sinew and together your bone.

Numerous hymns of the Atharvaveda are prayers and incantations wishing a child or loved one to get over some sickness and become healthy again, along with comforting the family members.

[49] Hymn 5.21 of the Paippalāda edition of the text, for example, states, Heaven our father, and Earth our mother, Agni the men-watcher, let them send the ten days’ fever far away from us.

O fever, these snowy mountains with Soma on their back have made the wind, the messenger, the healer for us, Disappear from here to the Maratas.

[51] The Atharvavedic hymn states (abridged), The tawny colored, and the pale, the variegated and the red, the dusky tinted, and the black – all Plants we summon hitherward.

I speak to Healing Herbs spreading, and bushy, to creepers, and to those whose sheath is single, I call for thee the fibrous, and the reed like, and branching plants, dear to Vishwa Devas, powerful, giving life to men.

The contents of the Atharvaveda have been studied to glean information about the social and cultural mores in the Vedic era of India.

As this comfortable cave, O Indra!, furnishing a safe abode hath become pleasing to all life, thus may this woman be a favourite of fortune, beloved, not at odds with her husband!

Do thou ascend the full, inexhaustible ship of fortune; upon this bring, hither the suitor who shall be agreeable to thee!

The Atharvaveda Samhita, as with the other Vedas, includes some hymns such as 4.1, 5.6, 10.7, 13.4, 17.1, 19.53-54, with metaphysical questions on the nature of existence, man, heaven and hell, good and evil.

The Atharvaveda, like other Vedic texts, states William Norman Brown,[57] goes beyond the duality of heaven and hell, and speculates on the idea of Skambha or Brahman as the all pervasive monism.

[57] Good and evil, Sat and Asat (truth and untruth) are conceptualized differently in these hymns of Atharvaveda, and the Vedic thought, wherein these are not dualistic explanation of nature of creation, universe or man, rather the text transcends these and the duality therein.

The third Mundakam continues the discussion and then asserts that the state of knowing Brahman is one of freedom, fearlessness, liberation and bliss.

[73] The text discusses the syllable Om, presents the theory of four states of consciousness, and asserts the existence and nature of the Atman (Soul, Self).

[80] The Shaunakiya text was published by Rudolf Roth and William Dwight Whitney in 1856, by Shankar Pandurang Pandit in the 1890s, and by Vishva Bandhu in 1960–1962.

[82] These were followed by a nearly complete translation (missing Book 20) with textual commentary by William Dwight Whitney, published in 1905, which is still cited in contemporary scholarship.

[83][84][85] A corrupted and badly damaged version of the Paippalāda text was edited by Leroy Carr Barret from 1905 to 1940 from a single Kashmirian Śāradā manuscript (now in Tübingen).

[93] The 1st millennium AD Buddhist literature included books of magico-religious mantras and spells for protection from evil influences of non-human beings such as demons and ghosts.

[94][95] These were called Pirita (Pali: Paritta) and Rakkhamanta ("mantra for protection"), and they share premises and style of hymns found in Atharvaveda.