Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c11.38

c11.38

Every orthodox Brahman even now says the morning and evening prayers with corresponding variations according to the school of the Veda he belongs to. The main features of the morning prayer for a follower of the Rigveda are approximately the following (cf. § 55) : the bath (snāna), sipping of water (ācamana), the holding of the breath (prāṇāyāma), the many times repeated murmuring of the Gāyatrī and the recital of many other texts, proclaiming the family tree of the devout person, repeated Ācamanas, the Veda sacrifice (brahmayajña) in the narrow sense which principally consists of the recital of the initial words of various Vedic and later works, and finally the libation (tarpaṇa) which here is directed to the gods, Ṛṣis and the fathers¹. The Homa in the morning and the evening and the other Mahāyajñas are still partly in vogue. Moreover the Śrāddha with the Piṇḍas still always plays a chief role in the cultus particularly of the Brahmans, and also among other castes². The liberation of a bull on the occasion of a Śrāddha is still practised³. A famous Śrāddha (ekoddiṣṭa) in Bengal is said to have cost over a million rupees, and in well-to-do families not less than five to six thousand rupees are spent there at the first Śrāddha⁴. Even now Śrāddhas are preferably performed at certain holy places, particularly at Gayā in Behar⁵ as prescribed in Vi. 85, 67.