Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c31.84

c31.84

Those collections would have grown with the fresh hymns composed by later rishis⁷ and especially during the great advance of brahmanism under the various branches of the Bhāratas, when and by whom sacrificial rites appear to have been largely developed¹ as the hymns show. Tradition does not indicate any marked stage for a long time afterwards, except that it suggests,² that in the time of Vasu Caidya-uparicara (pp. 118, 149) the question became acute, whether animals should be offered in sacrifices or only inanimate things. He was the foremost monarch of his day. He was appealed to as an authority on dharma, and declared that the practice of sacrificing animals was quite permissible, and so incurred the anger of brahmans who asserted the doctrine of *ahiṃsā*;³ though it is said he made a great sacrifice in which nothing living was offered.⁴