The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c28.s3.36

v1.c28.s3.36

When the ground is ploughed for a fire altar, there are sowed upon it seeds of every kind except one, and of that the sacrificer never tastes again in his life.¹ If a man use a goat or Kuça grass as a fetish of the fire, then he must not eat either the goat or sit on Kuça grass ; ² if a man takes his fire from the house of a wealthy man, he may not again eat in his house ; ³ at the Vājapeya the sacrificer is anointed, or deluged, with various libations, in preparing which all kinds of food are mixed with water, one only being excepted of which he never eats again.⁴ The builder of the fire altar in bird form must not again eat a bird in his life,⁵ and the same rule is laid down for the learner of the Jyeṣṭha Sāman.⁶ To see here traces of totemism is of course possible, but like all possibilities, which have no evidence to raise them into probabilities, not a very helpful mode of procedure. The case of the altar is clearly due to its bird form : the bird is invested with the holiness of Agni, and must not be eaten by a man who is closely connected with Agni, as is the builder of the fire altar. The borrowing of the same taboo by the learner of the Jyeṣṭha Sāman must not mislead us : once a taboo starts, others easily follow. The idea that the taboos represent an agreement with spirits to abstain from one food, in return for being allowed to use others, is one which has no support of any kind in the Vedic religion.⁷