The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s1.3

v1.c27.s1.3

The dead stand in a peculiar relation to man, since they deserve from him consideration and honour, but mingled with that conception is the fear of the quick for the dead. It is often asserted ² that the mode of honouring the gods is a direct imitation of the mode of providing for the dead, but the assertion admits of no proof, and must stand or fall with the effort to demonstrate *a priori* that all sacrifice or worship of gods is secondary, and dependent on the cult of the dead. In the Vedic, as in the Greek ritual, the nature of the cult of the gods and that of the dead is markedly and in important measure different,³ a fact which tells, as much as any such argument can tell, against the original identity of the two cults. This fact renders it at once desirable and convenient to treat of the cult of the dead together with Vedic eschatological conceptions in the next part of this work.