The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c28.s3.46

v1.c28.s3.46

The fear of the spirits is of course an undoubted motive in the case of the constant taboo of anything connected with death. The teacher who desires to instruct his pupil in the secret texts which cannot be recited in the village must not see blood, a cemetery, nor certain beasts, which are said to be shaped like a corpse.⁹ The pupil himself is to avoid the sight of a place of burning bodies or the bearers of such bodies ; he should not look into a well, nor climb a tree : ¹⁰ the first of these rules reminds us that the spirits dwell in the depths of the earth, that it is dangerous to see one’s own reflection in the water, and the second may refer to the part played by the tree as giving the coffin or covering for the body or ashes of the dead. Again the Snātaka may not sit directly on the bare earth, which may be thus explained or by the fear of his losing his holiness by contact with earth.¹ He may not go by evening to another village or by any but the main road, probably lest he meet evil spirits.² There are also innumerable other taboos, connected not only with death but with lying-in women, and women in their courses, who are regarded as specially full of danger by many peoples, an idea which is often to be traced to the blood taboo.³ Of special frequence is the occurrence of taboo against the use of vessels of clay : the consecrated man must not use such a vessel for his milk food, the butter used at the Tānūnaptra service must not be covered by such a vessel, the learner of the Jyeṣṭha Sāman must not eat or drink from such an utensil, the milk for the new-moon offering must not be covered in this way, and so on.⁴ The vessel used when certain secret texts are recited must be of metal.⁵ In these cases the Brāhmaṇas show clearly that the sense of the connexion of the earth with the dead was the cause of the objection.