The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c9.s1.38

c9.s1.38

But what is there in it for the sacrificer, we may ask? It is all very well for him to silence those raucous voices of demand, and keep giving—for a while. He must in the long run get something in return, or he will balk. Our texts, explicit if nothing else, leave no doubt in our minds as to the way in which the sacrificer was rewarded, or thought he was rewarded, under this otherwise monotonously one-sided arrangement. We have seen that Faith, Çraddhā, is personified. Now the sacrifice, called *ishṭa*, and the baksheesh, called (by another name) *pūrta*, enter into a close compound, the *ishṭāpūrta*. They, in their turn, get to have a kind of personal reality, and turn into a kind of beneficent genius, or perhaps better a kind of solid asset which becomes useful with the gods during life, and, mark you, after death as well. During life, the god helps him who sacrifices and gives baksheesh; he adds to, does not rob his property.¹ But it is for the most part a question of future reward. In a well-known funeral hymn of the Rig-Veda the corpse is addressed most realistically: