The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c26.8

v1.c26.8

The hymns of the Hotṛs were evidently even at this period united into litanies, Ukthas, and in the litanies were inserted the formulae called Nivids, celebrating the gods who were to enjoy the offering; the term Puroruc, which later means merely a Nivid in a different place from the usual Nivid, is also mentioned: even the curious breaking up and transposing of a verse in recitation which is common later (*viharaṇa*) is mentioned, it seems, in jest.³ The Nivids are not preserved for us in the Rigveda, but they are extant in a collection, and it was asserted by Haug ⁴ that they take us to an earlier stage in the offering than the Rigveda itself; this is not borne out by their form and contents; while the Nivids of the Rigveda must often have been similar to those preserved, the latter are elaborated and later in date.⁵ The Sāman singers were already divided into the two classes of Udgātṛs and Prastotṛs at least: the Sāmans, or tunes, Bṛhat and Rathantara were known, perhaps also others like the Çākvara: as in the ritual, the Sāmans were sung to the verses used by the Hotṛs in some degree at least. The Çakvarī verses preserved only in the Sāmaveda were known. The technical terms are found in which the Adhvaryu in the ritual is asked to give the word for the recitation to begin,⁶ and his response, and the frequent formulae *astu çrauṣaṭ*,⁷ *vaṣaṭ*, and *svāhā*. But one class of priest which is found in the later ritual, the Brahman as overseer of the whole sacrifice, is not recognized in most, if not the whole, of the Rigveda; the Brahman mentioned there seems to be the priest later distinguished from the Brahman as Brāhmaṇācchaṅsin, and the Purohita of the king, who is mentioned in the Rigveda as securing rain by an offering,⁸ probably was at this stage of the offering ready to perform the part of one of the priests, not to supervise the whole. At this time we may fairly say that the importance of the ceremony must have belonged to the Hotṛ, as the composer of the hymns, rather than to any other priest. The name Hotṛ, which is the Avestan Zaotar, carries us a step farther back in the ritual when the priest was called by the name he bore from his performing the actual offering,¹ but the Hotṛ, who first meant offerer, had by the time of the Rigveda left to the Adhvaryu the actual manual work of the sacrifice. With this complication of the sacrifice it well accords that it seems clear that the practice was well established for Vedic priests to wander here and there, giving their services for hire for the performance of offerings. The formal choice of the priest (*ṛtvig-varaṇa*) which is known from the later ritual is clearly alluded to in the Rigveda.