The Arctic Home in the Vedas c11.60

Language: English

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In the light of what has been stated above, we can now better understand the original nature and meaning of the *Ati-râtra* sacrifice. It is a nightly sacrifice, performed during the night even at present, and the Mîmâmsakas have not succeeded in converting it into a day-sacrifice. So far it is all right; but the question is why should the sacrifice be called *Ati-râtra*? The prefix *ati* (corresponding with Latin *trans*) ordinarily denotes ‘something beyond,’ ‘something on the other side, or at the other end,’ and not ‘something pervading, extending, or spreading through the whole extent of anything.’ Even Sâyaṇa in his commentary on VII, 103, 7, the only place where the word *Ati-râtra* occurs in the Rig-Veda, explains it to mean ‘that which is past or beyond the night’ (*râtrim atitya vartate iti atirâtraḥ*), and Rudradatta, in his commentary on the Âpastamba Shrauta Sûtra (XIV, 1, 1), gives the same explanation. The *Ati-râtra*, therefore, denotes a trans-nocturnal sacrifice, that is, performed at either end of the night. Now according to the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (IV, 5), the *Ati-râtra* sacrifice is performed for the purpose of driving out the Asuras from the darkness of night; and the Tâṇḍya Brâhmaṇa (IV, 1, 4-5) tells us that Prajâpati, who first perceived the sacrifice, created from it the twin of day and night (*aho-râtre*).

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It follows from this that the *Ati-râtra* was performed at the close of such night as gave rise to the ordinary days and nights, or, in other words, the regular succession of days and nights followed its performance. This can only be the case if we suppose that the *Ati-râtra* was performed at the end of a long continuous night in regions where such night occurred. With us in the temperate or the tropical zone, ordinary days and nights regularly succeed each other throughout the year without any break, and it is meaningless, if not absurd, to speak of the cycle of day and night, as produced from a particular night in the year. Again, on the theory of a daily struggle between light and darkness the Asuras must be turned out of darkness every night, and strictly speaking the performance of the Ati-râtra is necessary on every one of the 360 nights of the Sattra. But as a matter of fact the Ati-râtra is performed only at the beginning and the end of the Sattra; and even then the regular Sattra is said to commence on the Chaturvimsha and close on the Mahâvrata day, and not on the concluding Atirâtra day. It seems, therefore, that the performance of the Ati-râtra was not originally intended to drive away the Asuras from only the first of 360 nights over which the Sattra now extends. For in that case, there is no reason why the Asuras were not required to be expelled from every one of the 360 nights.

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It follows, therefore, that the Ati-râtra or the trans-nocturnal sacrifice refers to some night not included in the regular nights of the Gavâm-ayanam. It is true that the Ati-râtra is performed at the beginning and the end of every Sattra, and in one sense it is, therefore, a trans-sattra or ati-sattra sacrifice. But that does not account for the name Ati-râtra, as the Sattra is not held during night. We must, therefore, hold that the two Ati-râtras were originally performed not at the beginning and the end of a Sattra, but at the beginning and the end of a night, which occured or intervened between the last and the first day of the Sattra. When this night ended with an Ati-râtra, the usual Sattra began; and as the sun was above the horizon during the period producing the regular succession of days and nights, no Ati-râtra was needed during the Sattra, for, as stated in the Tâṇḍya Brâhmaṇa, the object of the Ati-râtra was gained. But the Sattra closed with the long night, and the Ati-râtra had, therefore, again to be performed at the end of the Sattra to drive the Asuras from this night. I have shown before that we have direct and reliable authority in the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ to hold that the Gavâm-ayanam was once completed in ten months or 300 days, and it was, therefore, appropriately closed with and introduced by an Ati-râtra.

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The word Ati-râtra is thus rationally explained, for the sacrifice was performed at the beginning and the close of the long night and, was therefore, adequately called a trans-nocturnal sacrifice. Between these two Ati-râtras came all the night-sacrifices mentioned above, offered exclusively to Indra. The old Gavâm-ayanam of ten or less than ten months, the Ati-râtra or the trans-nocturnal, the Râtri-kratus and Râtri-sattras, or nightly Soma sacrifices of two, three, &c., up to a hundred continuous nights' duration, and lastly the Ati-râtra, to be again followed by the Gavâm-ayanam, thus formed the complete yearly round of sacrifices performed by the primeval ancestors of the Vedic people; and each of these sacrifices had originally the same place in the yearly round as is indicated by the root-meaning of its name.¹ But when the year of ten months was converted into one of twelve to suit the altered conditions of the new home, the Gavâm-ayanam expanded into a performance of 360 days, and the elastic nature of the greater portion of the performance, as pointed out above, permitted the change to be easily carried out. But though the annual Sattra expanded in this way, encroaching upon the night-sacrifices of the long night, which were no longer needed, the Ati-râtra was retained as an introductory sacrifice and was incorporated in the ceremonies of the Sattra itself.

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Thus the two Ati-râtra sacrifices, which were originally performed, as shown by the etymology, at the two termini of the long night, came to be converted into the introductory and concluding sacrifices of the annual Sattra; and if the word Ati-râtra had not been retained, we could not have got any clue to reveal to us the story of its changing fortune. But the night-sacrifices, the Râtri-kratus or Râtri-sattras, which were performed during the long night between the two Ati-râtras, were no longer needed and their nature came to be soon misunderstood, until at last the Mîmâmsakas finally made room for them in the class of daily Soma sacrifices, partly under Ahînas and partly under Sattras, by means of the equation that râtri (night) is equal to aho-râtre (day and night) in the sacrificial literature. How this change was carried out is a question beyond the scope of this book; but I may here state that, in my opinion, it was the authors of Brâhmanas, or the Brahmavâdins who preceded them, that had to perform the difficult task of adapting the ancient sacrificial calendar to the changed conditions of their new home, somewhat after the manner of Numa's reform of the ancient Roman calendar. The sacrifice was the main ritual of the Vedic religion, and naturally enough the priests must have tried to preserve as much of the old sacrificial system as they possibly could in adapting it to the new conditions.

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The task was by no means an easy one, and those that find fault with the Brâhmanas as full of fanciful speculations must bear in mind the fact that an ancient and sacred system of sacrifices had to be adapted to new conditions, by assigning plausible reasons for the same, at a time when the true origin of the system was almost forgotten. The Brâhmanas could not have indulged in free speculations about the origin of the rites and ceremonies mentioned by them, had the latter originated in their own time, or in days so near to them that the real traditions about the origin of these ceremonies could be preserved intact. But so long as these traditions were fresh, no explanation was probably needed; and when they became dim, their place had to be supplied by plausible reasons based on such traditions as were known at the time. This throws quite a new light on the nature and composition of the Brâhmanas; but as the discussion is not pertinent to the subject in hand, we cannot enter into it more fully in this place.