The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s3.1

v1.c27.s3.1

In the ritual of the sin offering the mixture of magic and sacrifice presents itself in the clearest way. The sin offering is only in essence a special form of the gift sacrifice: the gift is offered to avert the wrath of the god: it seeks to produce in him not the positive action of furthering the welfare of the suppliant as is normally the case, but the negative attitude of sparing the guilty man. In its rudest form the chain of ideas must be assumed to be that the food and drink will delight the god, and thus he will forget his anger: such a view is based on one of the most primitive instincts of mankind: the hungry man is unlikely to forgo his wrath, while the soothing effects of meat and drink on humanity, however just its anger, and moral its indignation, are notorious. Nor is there any doubt that simple sacrifices to avert the anger of the god, usually Varuṇa, were common: it is legitimate to suppose that the hymns of deprecation² of the anger of Varuṇa and of expressions of hope to be reconciled with him, which are found in the Rigveda, were accompanied by sacrifice: it would be very remarkable if this were not the case, but apart from that point the ritual is well aware of such offerings. Thus for the breach of an oath an offering is ordered to Agni Vaiçvānara,³ who may safely be assumed to have been the god by whom in the special instance the oath was sworn, and who therefore must be appeased if he is not to execute vengeance for the breach of faith.