The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s2.17

v1.c27.s2.17

It would, however, be a complete error to assume that the magic side of the sacrifice is the primitive one, and that the whole sacrifice is really a magic performance. The sacrifice might well have in it *ab initio* elements of magic, and certainly the Vedic sacrifices known to us have many, but the Brāhmaṇas enable us to see clearly that the priests were determined to find in them throughout a magical effect. To every point some special working is attributed, and it becomes possible to secure ruin or prosperity for the sacrificer by the mere manipulation of some detail of no importance. All this is clearly the work of a later constructive religious outlook, and what is most noteworthy is not that, here and there, the same spirit is to be found in the Rigveda, but that it should play so small a part in that collection. Nor can there be any doubt that, in the course of the fixing of the ritual, many details must have been added or altered, simply for the purpose of introducing elements of magic potency: it is impossible not to see such influences effective in the drawing up of many of the details of the horse sacrifice,¹ which is reduced by the Vedic texts to a performance, which cannot possibly have ever been realized in practice, and in which the magic purpose of much of the machinery is plain and undeniable.²