The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.81

v1.c17.81

The sacrifices offered included offerings of milk, grain, and ghee, as well as offerings of flesh and of the Soma. It is impossible to adapt the later sacrificial theory, as it appears in the next period, to the Rigvedic texts, and it is clear that at this time the sacrifice was less elaborate than it became; but there is abundant proof that already the Soma sacrifice in particular had been elaborated, and that the labour had been divided among several priests, the chief being the Hotṛi who recited the hymns and in earlier times composed them, the Adhvaryu who performed the manual actions to the accompaniment of muttered prayers and deprecations of evil, the Udgātṛi who sung the Sāman chants, and several assistants, the number seven being found quite frequently in the Rigveda. Naturally these elaborate sacrifices could not be undertaken by any save the rich men of the tribe and especially the king; and we must therefore picture to ourselves the priests as maintained by the rich men, the Maghavans, 'bountiful ones,' of the Rigveda, their number and rewards rising with the social scale of their patron, until the height of the priest's ambition was attained, the position of Purohita to the king. Beside all this elaborate ritual there was of course the daily worship of the ordinary Āryan, which he no doubt in this period, as later, conducted himself; but the Rigveda is an aristocratic collection and contains little of popular religion beyond a few incantations in the tenth book, which carry us into the homely region of spells against rivals and to repel diseases and noxious animals. But these are not really parts of the main body of the Saṃhitā.