The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s4.76

v1.c27.s4.76

Jevons⁴ insists that all sacrifice involves essentially the idea of drawing near to the god and making an offering to secure his favour, a step adopted originally when the community felt that its god was alien from it through the misconduct of one of its members, and had to be propitiated by tokens of repentance. The offering brought need not be consumable; if it were, it might easily be eaten after acceptance by the worshippers in a festival of joy at the feeling of reunion with their god. At first offerings are only occasional, evoked by fear of the anger of the god, who, however, is recognized to be justly wrath and to be also merciful and willing to forgive his worshippers, but the habit of solemn feasting on these occasions is gradually adopted in respect of the harvest fruits, when, as in the case of the occasional offerings, the worshippers first sacrifice to the god, before they partake of the fruits of the earth. But, as the fruits are thus sacred, they come to be regarded as divine, and as divine they take the rank of deities, the spirits of vegetation, to whom he denies in their own right divine status. Sacrifice thus is from the first much more than a gift offering or covenant offering; it is also not a communion feast, though both the gift and the communion theory of sacrifice are natural ways of interpreting the rite, which are adopted by the worshippers. In his view the gift theory is essentially irreligious; from it no true religion could spring. This, however, appears a decidedly dubious assertion; it is by no means obvious that the presenting of gifts to a god in the hope of favour, without consciousness of sin or divine wrath, is not an essentially primitive form of sacrifice.