The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c6.s1.33

c6.s1.33

The Rig-Veda presupposes a tolerably elaborate and not uninteresting ritual, or scheme of priestly practices, in connection with the hymns addressed to the gods. How this may be read between the lines of the Rig-Veda’s poetry I hope to show quite clearly later on. The Yajur-Veda represents the exceeding growth of this ritualism, or sacerdotalism, as time went by. Gradually the main object, namely, devotion to the gods, is lost sight of: solemn, pompous performance, garnished with lip service, occupies the centre of the stage. This performance is supposed to have magic or mystic power of its own, so that its every detail is all-important. It regulates mechanically the relation of man to the divine powers by its own intrinsic power, but yet a power controlled and guided by the wonderful technique of the priests, and their still more wonderful insight into the meaning of all the technical acts. A crowd of priests---seventeen is the largest number---conduct an interminable ceremonial full of symbolic meaning down to its smallest minutiæ. The priests seat themselves on the sacrificial ground strewn with blades of sacred *darbha*-grass, and mark out the altars on which the sacred fires are built. They handle and arrange the utensils and sacrificial substances. And then they proceed to give to the gods of the sacrifice, each his proper oblation and his proper share. Even the least and most trivial act has its stanza or formula, and every utensil is blessed with its own particular blessing. These stanzas and formulas, to which a description of the rites is more or less directly attached, make up the numerous redactions of this Veda.