The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c28.s4.6

v1.c28.s4.6

In the main the rule is observed that the prayers, which celebrate the actions of the gods and invoke their aid, are in verse, while the prose is restricted to the formulae, which accompany each act of the sacrifice and in special each offering as it is made. But there are here and there prose prayers spoken by the Adhvaryu, as at the new- and full-moon offering and at the horse sacrifice. But, whatever the type of the prayer, the result is the same: the priest prays that the sacrificer—who may of course be himself—shall have long life, riches, especially in cattle and horses, in chariots and gold, sons in abundance, freedom from disease, success over his enemy, and prosperity in general; he also prays that his enemies may be brought to ruin.² It is undeniable that the prayers are nearly always for material objects, and that the occasional expressions of desire for spiritual goods are in the extreme exceptional: here and there we find admissions of sin and desire to be at friendship with the gods, especially Varuṇa, but that there is much ethical content in the hymns generally it would be absurd to assert. The real object of the hymn is to please the god by the references to his past deeds and his power, and thus induce him to manifest again the strength of his right arm for the benefit of his servants. The hymns often remind the god of their ancestral connexion, and in the pride of their production and of the value which the gods must attach to them are extremely naïve. It is wholly impossible to doubt that, if the Adhvaryu really thought that the acts of the sacrifice and the actual offerings were what mattered, his view was not in the least shared by the Hotṛ, who was of opinion that his perfectly constructed hymns would give the god the greatest possible amount of pleasure. It is a question of interest, but one which cannot be answered, how it came about that this love of poetry died out, after it must have flourished for some centuries. The Brāhmaṇa period is clearly a time when the priests are content in the main to use the traditional poetry, and, if they composed, to base their compositions very closely on the traditional models. The pride of the Vedic poets in their own powers is perfectly evidenced, when they claim that their hymns strengthen Indra for the slaying of Vṛtra or that through the prayers the steeds are yoked to the chariot of the god. Here as everywhere the tendency of the sacrifice to pass into magic is illustrated: the prayer which is really essentially free from magic is at last turned by the pride of its composers into nothing but a spell.