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The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2: Volume 2

The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2

Language
English

Contents

Volume 2

Front matter

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This image contains a plain black, textured book cover (or blank endpaper) with no visible printed text or markings.

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in 2025

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https://archive.org/details/bwb_C0-CCN-775-32

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THE HARVARD ORIENTAL SERIES

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VOLUME THIRTY-TWO

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EDITED

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WITH THE COÖPERATION OF VARIOUS SCHOLARS

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BY

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CHARLES ROCKWELL LANMAN

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*Professor at Harvard University; Honorary Fellow of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, of France, of England, and of Germany; Corresponding Member of the Society of Sciences at Göttingen, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres of the Institute of France*

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Volume Thirty=two

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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

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Harvard University Press

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LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD

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OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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THE RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE VEDA AND UPANISHADS

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BY

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ARTHUR BERRIEDALE KEITH D.C.L., D.LITT. *Of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, and of the Scottish Bar; Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the University of Edinburgh; formerly of the Colonial Office*

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The second half, Chapters 20–29 Page 313 to page 683

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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

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Harvard University Press

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LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Keith’s Religion and Philosophy of the Veda was printed in 1925 from monotype-matter, each of the two volumes in 2000 copies

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ACADEMIAE HARVARDIANAE IN NOV ANG ET CHRISTO ECCLESIAE VERITAS SIGILLVM

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Printed (on paper made at its Wolvercote Mill) and bound at the University Press, Oxford, England by Frederick Hall, Printer to the University

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CONTENTS OF VOLUME 32

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| CHAP. | PAGE |
| 20. The sacrifices of the Çrauta ritual | 313 |
| § 1. General characteristics | 313 |
| § 2. Establishment and re-establishment of the fires | 316 |
| § 3. The Fire-god oblation or Agnihotra | 318 |
| § 4. The new-moon and full-moon sacrifices | 319 |
| § 5. The four-month or seasonal sacrifices | 321 |
| § 6. First-fruit sacrifice (āgrayaṇa iṣṭi) and others | 323 |
| § 7. The animal sacrifice | 324 |
| § 8. The Soma sacrifice | 326 |
| § 9. The Pravargya or hot-milk sacrifice | 332 |
| § 10. The Aikādaçina animal offering | 333 |
| § 11. Other forms of Jyotiṣṭoma | 334 |
| § 12. Other Soma sacrifices of one day's duration | 336 |
| § 13. The Vājapeya or drink-of-strength | 339 |
| § 14. The royal consecration | 340 |
| § 15. The horse sacrifice | 343 |
| § 16. The human sacrifice | 347 |
| § 17. Other Ahīna rites | 348 |
| § 18. The Sattras or sacrificial sessions | 349 |
| § 19. The Sautrāmaṇī | 352 |
| § 20. The piling of the fire-altar | 354 |
| § 21. The Hotṛ formulae | 356 |
| § 22. Expiations | 356 |
| 21. The domestic ritual | 358 |
| § 1. General character of the domestic sacrifices | 358 |
| § 2. The various offerings | 359 |
| § 3. Birth-ceremonies and others | 366 |
| § 4. Studentship | 369 |
| § 5. Marriage | 373 |
| 22. Magic in the ritual | 379 |
| § 1. The relations of magic to religion | 379 |
| § 2. The nature of Vedic magic | 380 |
| § 3. The removal of hostile influences | 382 |
| § 4. The attraction of beneficial substances and powers | 386 |

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| CHAP. | | PAGE |
| | § 5. Mimetic magic . . . . . . . . . . | 388 |
| | § 6. Divination and ordeal . . . . . . . . . | 390 |
| | § 7. The magic spell . . . . . . . . . . | 393 |
| | § 8. The magic sacrifice . . . . . . . . . | 396 |
| | § 9. Yoga practices . . . . . . . . . . | 401 |

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CONTENTS OF PART IV.—THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD

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| 23. | The abodes of the dead . . . . . . . . . . | 403 |
| | § 1. The nature of the dead . . . . . . . . . | 403 |
| | § 2. The places of the dead . . . . . . . . | 406 |
| | § 3. The transmutation of the dead . . . . . . . . | 415 |
| 24. | The disposal of the dead . . . . . . . . . . | 417 |
| 25. | The cult of the dead . . . . . . . . . . | 425 |
| | § 1. The living and the dead . . . . . . . . | 425 |
| | § 2. The offerings to the dead in the domestic ritual . . . . | 427 |
| | § 3. The offerings to the dead in the Çrauta ritual . . . . | 429 |

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CONTENTS OF PART V.—THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE VEDA

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| 26. | The beginnings of Vedic Philosophy . . . . . . . . | 433 |
| 27. | The Theosophy of the Brāhmaṇas . . . . . . . . | 440 |
| | § 1. The general character of the Brāhmaṇa philosophy . . . | 440 |
| | § 2. The highest principle of the universe . . . . . . | 442 |
| | § 3. The theory of the sacrifice . . . . . . . . | 454 |
| | § 4. The ethics of the Brāhmaṇas . . . . . . . . | 468 |
| | § 5. Modes of thought and categories . . . . . . . | 482 |
| 28. | The Philosophy of the Upaniṣads . . . . . . . . | 489 |
| | § 1. The origin of the Upaniṣads . . . . . . . . | 489 |
| | § 2. The extant Upaniṣads . . . . . . . . . | 497 |
| | § 3. The interpretation of the Upaniṣads . . . . . . | 507 |
| | § 4. The problem and conditions of knowledge . . . . . | 513 |
| | § 5. The nature of the Absolute . . . . . . . . | 516 |
| | § 6. The Absolute and the Universe . . . . . . . | 522 |
| | § 7. Māyā and Prakṛti—Illusion and Nature . . . . . | 529 |
| | (*a*) Illusion . . . . . . . . . . . | 529 |
| | (*b*) Nature . . . . . . . . . . . | 532 |
| | (*c*) The origin of the Sāṁkhya and Buddhism . . . . | 535 |
| | § 8. The Supreme and the Individual Souls . . . . . | 551 |

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| CHAP. | | PAGE |
| | § 9. The four states of the Soul . | 567 |
| | § 10. The doctrine of transmigration . | 570 |
| | § 11. The way of salvation . | 581 |
| | § 12. The ethics of the Upaniṣads and Yoga . | 584 |
| | § 13. The significance of the philosophy of the Upaniṣads . | 592 |
| 29. | Greece and the philosophy of India . | 601 |

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| A. | The age of the Avesta and the Rigveda . | 614 |
| B. | The sacrifice of Puruṣa and the origin of the world . | 619 |
| C. | The Aryan conception of the heaven . | 621 |
| D. | The drink of immortality . | 623 |
| E. | The Indo-European fire-cult . | 625 |
| F. | Cremation and burial . | 626 |
| G. | The Dravidian element in Indian thought . | 629 |
| H. | Pythagoras and Parmenides . | 634 |

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| General Index | . | 639 |
| Sanskrit Index | . | 675 |

Chapter 20. The Sacrifices of the Çrauta Ritual

§ 1. General Characteristics

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THE rites of the Çrauta ritual have much essentially in common, in addition to the necessity of the use of the three or one at least of the three fires in place of the domestic fire. They necessitate the presence of priests numbering from one up to sixteen, or with the Kauṣītakins seventeen,¹ to whom should be added the actual performers of some of the minor actions in the more complicated forms of the ritual, whose number is not defined, and whose menial functions rendered them of no consequence in the eyes of the priests of the higher rank. It is obvious, for instance, that in the slaughtering of the victims there must often have been need for other aid than that of the Adhvaryu and his assistants proper, and the Çamitṛs are occasionally referred to as charged with the actual slaying: more often a general term like servant is used to apply to such helpers.

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¹ See Keith, *Rig-Veda Brāhmaṇas*, pp. 48, 498, n. 1.

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As a result of the constant development of the ritual, the festivals of the Çrauta type are full of details which are of no consequence with regard to the meaning of the sacrifice: practically in no case is an important rite addressed to one god only: the effort on the contrary was clearly to find as much room as possible for as many gods as possible. We find, too, many variations among the details of the rites, of which but a few can be reduced to any simple principle. Thus we know that some families like the Jamadagnis and the Bhṛgus made five divisions or layers of the offerings, while other families² made but four, whence the former are called *pañcāvattins*, and the latter *caturavattins*. Another distinction which has more religious value is the differences between families based on the distinction of the use of Tanūnapāt or Narāçaṁsa, as one of the deities invoked at the Āprī litanies of the animal sacrifice,³ while the difference of dressing the hair is also of interest from the point of view of social usages,⁴ having many parallels in other lands.

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² KÇS. i. 9. 3; Eggeling, SBE. xii. 192.

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³ Weber, *Ind. Stud.* x. 89 ff.

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⁴ Zimmer, *Altind. Leben*, p. 264; Hillebrandt, *Rituallitteratur*, pp. 7, 8.

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In the Sūtras the principle is laid down that the sacrifices are to be distinguished as Prakṛtis and Vikṛtis, the former being the base on which the later are built up; thus the new- and full-moon sacrifices are the model for other sacrifices of the type known as Iṣṭi, and for the animal sacrifice, in its form as an offering to Agni and Soma, on which further animal offerings are based. The Agniṣṭoma again is the fundamental form of the Soma sacrifice:

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on it are based other performances up to the Dvādaçāha inclusive, while on the latter are based the Sattras. Each sacrifice is divided into Pradhānas, the characteristics which mark it out as a special offering, and Aṅgas, the auxiliary parts which are common to many sacrifices, and which build the framework, Tantra, which serves to maintain the sacrifice. The distinction between the Yajatayas and the Juhotayas, the latter managed by the Adhvaryu alone and accompanied by the mere utterance of the word Svāhā, ‘hail’,¹ has already been noted.

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¹ Hillebrandt, *Rituallitteratur*, p. 100.

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In the Soma offering there is added the complications of the recitation of the Sāmans. The rule is that the Sāman is a melody, which is performed on a verse of the Rigveda, and the verses can be sung to different melodies, for which purpose they have to be eked out by the addition of letters, or even of whole syllables, which have themselves no meaning, and of which as many as fifteen are enumerated.² The nature of the tunes must have been varied in the extreme, to judge from the many names recorded, of which the Bṛhat and the Rathantara are the most notorious, but the nature of Indian music is an unsolved problem, and perhaps insoluble.³ Seven notes are mentioned, but their significance is much disputed. Each Sāman is divided into parts, the most usual being that into Prastāva, introduced by the word *hum* (*huṅkāra*), sung by the Prastotṛ, the Udgītha, introduced by *om*, sung by the Udgātṛ, the Pratihāra, introduced by *hum*, sung by the Pratihartṛ, and the Nidhana, or finale, sung by all together. In some cases the Pratihāra is divided into two parts, the latter, the Upadrava, being sung by the Udgātṛ, or the Hiṅkāra is made into a separate element. Moreover there are Upagātṛs, three in number, who accompany the song with the word *ho*. The contempt which through the Indian literature is more or less clearly shown for Sāman singers is justified by the extraordinary stupidity of the position assigned to them.

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² Cf. Felber, *Die indische Musik der vedischen und der klassischen Zeit* (1912); A. H. Fox Strangways, *The Music of Hindostan* (1914); Caland and Henry, *L'Agniṣṭoma*, pp. 461-7; Oldenberg, *GN.* 1915, pp. 522 ff. For the metre see H. Weller, *ZII.* i. 115-84.

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The singing of more than one verse on a tune is a Stotra, which usually is made up of a triplet or a Pragātha, a double verse, which is made into three for recitation purposes. From the Stotras are built up the Stomas, or forms of chanting Stotras. Of these there are many varieties. The simplest in some ways is the Trivṛt, which is the first used in the Agniṣṭoma: it consists of nine verses, which can be variously arranged in sets of three, either as *adg*, *beh*, *cfi*, which is the Udyatī form, or *abc*, *def*, *ghi*, the Parivartinī, and *abc*, *efd*, *igh*, the Kulāyinī. On the other hand the other Stomas, the Pañcadaça, Saptadaça, Ekaviṅça, which with the Trivṛt are the main Stomas of the Agniṣṭoma, and others such as the Pañcaviṅça, Triṇava, Trayastriṅça, Caturviṅça, Catuṣcatvāriṅça, and Aṣṭācatvāriṅça, are all based on three verses or a Pragātha made into three. The numbers of the Stomas are derived from the number of verses which are used: thus the Pañcadaça in one form is made up of *aaabc*, *abbbc*, and *abccc*, the Hiṅkāra being said before each set of three similar verses. Further complications will be noted later on.

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Before the Stotras can be performed the singers must obtain the approval of the Brahman and the Maitrāvaruṇa, who give it with the words *oṁ stuta*, the Brahman saying also one of the Stomabhāgas, certain formulae provided for the purpose. The Stotra is followed by a Çastra, a recitation of the Hotṛ or his fellows, the signal for it being given by the performer of the Stotra saying *eṣā*, ‘this is the last verse.’ The Hotṛ asks the Adhvaryu if he is to recite, the latter agrees. But at the morning litany in front of this dialogue are placed certain syllables, and a muttered prayer to Mātariçvan and the Kavis. This is followed by the silent praise, Tūṣṇīṁjapa, and by the Puroruc, ‘that which shines before’, but in the midday and evening Çastras the place of the Puroruc is taken by Nivids, which are inserted in the hymns of the Çastra. The Nivids are introduced by the procedure of asking the Adhvaryu’s authority to recite, but this formality is omitted in the case of the Puroruc at the first Çastra in the morning: at the second Çastra, on the other hand, we find seven Purorucs preceded by the dialogue of Hotṛ and Adhvaryu, and followed by a triplet. In the case of the midday Çastras there are further complications. In the first Çastra of the midday and the evening pressings there are found sets of three verses called Pratipad and Anucara, which are preceded by the usual dialogue; then comes in the case of the midday Çastra, the Māruta Çastra, a Pragātha addressed to Indra, which is recited as three verses, the last part of each verse being repeated with the first of the next: thus the Pragātha, which consists of a Bṛhatī¹ and Satobṛhatī² or Kakubh³ and Satobṛhatī, is made into a Bṛhatī and two Kakubh verses. This is followed by a Pragātha for Bṛhaspati, Dhāyyās, supplementary verses, a Pragātha for the Maruts, the hymn in which the Nivid is inserted, the Ukthavīrya formula, and then as in the other Çastras come the offering verse and the libation. In the case of the second Çastra of the midday and evening pressings, and all the Çastras of the assistants of the Hotṛ, the Hotrakas, the same sort of beginning is prescribed, but the verses are called Stotriya and Anurūpa, names which refer to the fact that they follow the strophe and antistrophe of the corresponding Stotra of the Sāman singers, which obey the rule that the Anurūpa, ‘corresponding verse’, should follow the Stotriya in metre, number of syllables, and deity. As usual the rule is obeyed that the two verses of the Stotriya are made into three in recitation, and so with the Anurūpa. Then in the second Çastra of the midday pressing, the Niṣkevalya, come Dhāyyās, a Sāmapragātha, the hymn with the Nivid, the Ukthavīrya and the offering verse with the libation.

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¹ A verse of 4 lines (8+8+12+8 syllables).

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² 12+8+12+8 syllables.

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³ 8+12+8 syllables.

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In the first Çastra of the evening pressing, the Vaiçvadeva, the Pratipad and Anucara are followed by a hymn with a Nivid, then a verse for Vāyu, then a hymn with a Nivid to sky and earth, a hymn with a Nivid for the Ṛbhus, three isolated verses, and a hymn with a Nivid to the All-gods. The second, the Āgnimāruta, is composed of a hymn with a Nivid to Vaiçvānara, a Dhāyyā, a hymn with a Nivid to the Maruts, the Stotriya and Anurūpa made from Pragāthas, a hymn with a Nivid to Jātavedas, and a mass of miscellaneous stanzas addressed to the waters, &c. The other Çastras are less important: the specimens given indicate the confusion and elaboration of ideas.

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In other cases there takes place an elaborate process of intermingling both verses and parts of verses of different strophes with one another. This is the rule with the recitation of the Vālakhilya hymns, which may be treated in two different but both complicated ways,¹ with the Mahānāmnī verses,² with the verse for the Āpyāyana or swelling out of the dry Soma stems, and so forth. It is only worth noting that as early as the Rigveda these puerilities seem to have been in vogue.

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¹ Cf. Oldenberg, *Prolegomena*, pp. 212 ff., 494 ff., 514 ff.; *GGA.* 1907, pp. 230 ff.; Scheftelowitz, *Die Apokryphen des Ṛgveda*, pp. 36 ff., 89 ff.

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² Cf. Oldenberg, *GN.* 1915, p. 377.

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The most important division of the sacrifices is that between the Soma offerings and the offerings which are sometimes classed as Haviryajñas, and which differ essentially from the Soma sacrifice as they do not employ the Sāman singers. With the latter may be classed the animal sacrifice, but it also forms an integral and important part of the Soma offering.

§ 2. The Establishment and Re-establishment of the Fires

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The ritual texts lay down various periods as appropriate for the setting up of the sacred fires,³ the spring is the season for a Brahman, the summer for a Kṣatriya, the rainy season for a Rathakāra, and the autumn for a Vaiçya, or the cool season is suited for all castes. They also suggest that the proper time is the new moon, especially in conjunction with certain asterisms, but the full moon is also permissible. The essential part of the rite which takes two days is the setting up of the fires: on the first day are set up two sheds, the one for the Gārhapatya, the other for the Āhavanīya fire: the actual altar of the first is round, that of the second square: the Dakṣiṇa fire is south of the Gārhapatya and is shaped like a half moon. The fire is obtained for the Gārhapatya either by friction, or by being borrowed from the house of a wealthy man or distinguished sacrificer. The night of the first day is spent by the sacrificer and his wife in wakefulness to the noise of lutes and flutes. Early in the morning the new fire for the hearths is produced by friction, and a horse is brought to watch and further the process by its presence, doubtless as a symbol of the fire or the sun. Moreover, while the fire is being produced by friction from the wood,⁴ Sāmans may be sung. As soon as the fire appears the sacrificer breathes upon it and inhales it. It is placed on the Gārhapatya and wood placed upon the fire: it is addressed with words which recall the ancestors of the offerer: thus an Āṅgirasa refers to Aṅgiras, a Bhārgava to the Bhṛgus, a Rājanya to Indra, a Kṣatriya to Varuṇa, a Vaiçya to Manu Grāmaṇī, the typical village headman, and a Rathakṛt to the Ṛbhus, the famous chariot makers among the gods. At the same time Sāmans may be sung, not by the Sāman singers, but, as in the Vājapeya and the Sautrāmaṇī rites, by the Brahman or alternatively by the Adhvaryu himself. Then a brand is taken from the Gārhapatya and borne to the Āhavanīya, the horse preceding it, and the sacrificer following it so that the smoke reaches him: it is carried at first knee high, then navel high, and then the height of the face. The Dakṣiṇa fire is then in one version lighted in the same way; according to others it precedes the setting up of the Āhavanīya: it may also be made from the fire which on the preceding day was placed on the Gārhapatya for cooking the porridge for the priest: at any rate it afterwards can be used for cooking any offerings save meat offerings.

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³ ĀpÇS. v. 1 ff.; BÇS. ii; MÇS. i. 5; 6. 5; KÇS. iv. 7-10; ĀÇS. ii. 1. 9 ff.; ÇÇS. ii. 1; LÇS. iv. 9. 10 ff.; 12. 6 ff.

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⁴ Roth, *ZDMG.* xliii. 590-5; Schwab, *Altind. Thieropfer*, pp. 77 ff.

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After the Āhavanīya is set up follows, in the case of a Kṣatriya only it seems, the setting up of a Sabhya fire, one doubtless in the Sabhā, the meeting hall of the community. The ceremony for that is accompanied by the dicing for a cow as a prize by the priests perhaps or by Kṣatriyas: the game is as usual unintelligible: it seems to have amounted to a test of the power to produce even numbers.¹ In the normal case this ceremony is not performed, and the establishment of the fires ends with a full offering of butter to Agni, after which the Agnihotra can be duly performed with the fires. Twelve days afterwards, the fires being carefully maintained in the interval, may be performed the Tanūhavis offerings which are offerings to Agni in three forms, Pavamāna, Pavāka, and Çuci. As soon as the performance of the establishment is over, the sacrificer is bound to observe chastity for 3 to 12 days, maintain the fire, offer the Agnihotra, and sleep on the ground near the fire. After that he must for all his days avoid untruth, place no bad wood on the fire, eat nothing cooked by a covered fire, drink no water from a ship, and so on. If he is prosperous he must keep up the fires all his life.

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¹ Macdonell and Keith, *Vedic Index*, i. 2 ff.; Lüders, *Das Würfelspiel im alten Indien* (1907).

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The ceremony of re-establishment² is prescribed in cases where the fires bring the sacrificer no luck. The old fires are allowed to go out, and, after a break of three days to a year, new fires are established in much the same way as before, but the fire is nourished when produced with Kuça grass, not with wood. In the fore- and after-offerings which are part of the rite the use of different forms, Vibhakti, of the word Agni is expressly enjoined, doubtless to secure the special attention of the god to the new fires. The fees for the priest contain references to the character of the rite; so for instance a mended garment and repaired chariot are given. Traces of a periodic re-establishment of outworn fires cannot be proved: the mere fact that the re-establishment, if necessary, is placed at the period of the rains as well as at other times is inadequate evidence on which to found any theory.¹

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² ĀpÇS. v. 26; BÇS. iii. 1–3; KÇS. iv. 11; ĀÇS. ii. 8. 6 ff.; ÇÇS. ii. 5. 1; Vait. viii. 3.

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¹ Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* ii. 77 ff.

§ 3. The Fire-God Oblation or Agnihotra

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It is the duty of the man who has established his fires, as of the man who has no fires, to offer daily, morning and evening, the Agnihotra :² the precise time of offering, whether just before or just after the rising of the sun in the morning, and whether after sunset or after the appearance of the first star in the evening, is a subject of much discussion in the Brāhmaṇas and Sūtras. If the fires were kept perpetually alight, then they required only to be brightened up for each occasion : if not, then the fire must be taken from the Gārhapatya, either only every evening, it being used also for the morning, or each time : the Dakṣiṇa might be kept perpetually alight, or taken out daily, or only on the new- and full-moon days, on which according to some authorities the sacrificer must himself perform the ritual. The main offering was milk, milked by an Aryan into a pail made by an Aryan : the milk was heated and mixed with water on the Gārhapatya, and offered in the Āhavanīya and Gārhapatya. At the end the sacrificer eats and offers four water libations to the gods, the Fathers, the seven seers, and Agni on the earth, or to other deities also. The Dakṣiṇa fire received no special honour.

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² ĀpÇS. vi; BÇS. iii. 4–9; MÇS. i. 6; KÇS. iv. 12–15; ĀÇS. ii. 2–5; ÇÇS. iii. 7–12; Vait. vii.

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With the Agnihotra might be performed the ceremony of homage to the fires, Agnyupasthāna, usually carried out at the night service only. The Āhavanīya is honoured first, then the cow from which the milk was taken, then the Gārhapatya, and then the cow, or its calf might be substituted for the cow. At the end the sacrificer names the name of his dear son who is to succeed him in the duty. The same close connexion of the offering and the home is seen in the fact that, on going on a journey, the householder takes leave of the fires, and on return approaches them with wood and words of welcome. If he goes away from the old house for good, he offers a libation to Vāstoṣpati, the lord of the abode, while his cart has one horse, the right-hand one, spanned, and the other not yoked. The obligation to offer the Agnihotra ends only when one becomes a wandering mendicant.

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There can be little doubt that even as early as the Rigveda there was present the idea that the Agnihotra, with its brightening up of the fires, was a spell to aid the rising of the sun, a view which was doubtless the ground of the opinion of those who pressed for the performance of the ceremony before sunrise.³

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³ Weber, *Ind. Stud.* x. 329. Cf. the worship of Hestia in Greece and Vesta in Rome, and the holy fire of the Lithuanian tradition, as well as the still greater development of the fire cult in Iran. The view of Feist (*Kultur der Indogermanen*, p. 345) that the fire worship takes its origin in respect to the spirits of the dead who congregate at the hearth is untenable; cf. Wissowa, *Archiv f. Religionswissenschaft*, vii. 45 ff. For Germany, see Caesar, *B. G.* i. 50; Helm, *Altgerm. Rel.* i. 258. See also below, Appendix E.

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But we must not decide from this that the origin of the rite was a mere spell : it is clearly the tendance of the god in the house, the family fire in a developed form in the Çrauta, in a simple form in the domestic ritual.

§ 4. The New-moon and Full-moon Sacrifices

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These sacrifices¹ are of special value as they form the model for all sacrifices of the type called Iṣṭi, which include an enormous number of offerings for special ends ; in all these cases the sacrifice is assumed to be performed precisely as in the new- and full-moon offerings, but with the distinction that some special rite is inserted in the place of the essential features of these offerings, which are at the full-moon offering a cake for Agni and Soma, and at the new-moon offering a cake for Agni and Indra. Moreover, at the latter offering some authorities allowed a milk mess made of sweet and sour milk for Indra or Mahendra, while others restricted this offering to one who offered the Soma sacrifice. The new and full moon themselves received no offerings, except in the view of certain authorities who prescribed offerings to the Parvans : the times served only to fix the dates of the offerings, and there was, it is clear, difficulty in deciding exactly when the offerings should be made. Two days were required at new moon, but one might suffice at the full moon. On the first day the ceremonies were in the main preparatory, the making ready of the fires, and the taking of a vow by the sacrificer, which involved abstinence from meat, sleeping on the ground, the cutting of hair and beard, and so on.

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If the milk mess were to be offered on this day, a twig of Palāça or Çamī wood was cut to drive away the calves from the cows, for the milking of the latter, a rite which is paralleled in western Europe.² The ceremonies of the second day consisted in the preparation of the rice, its pounding and husking, the cooking of the cakes, the preparation of the altar, the girding of the wife of the sacrificer, the looking at a pot of butter, the covering of the altar with the grass, and the setting up of the partitioning sticks which were intended to keep off evil spirits. At the end of these preliminaries the real sacrifice begins ; first come fifteen Sāmidhenī verses accompanying the laying on of kindling wood. The verses are joined into a single whole by the device of pausing after the first half verse of each. Then come two libations of the butter, doubtless in part at least necessary to make the fire burn brightly ; between them comes the Pravara, the enumeration of the seers who were claimed as ancestors by the sacrificer—or if he were not a Brahman by his Purohita—and the invitation of the gods, whom Agni is invoked to bring to the offering in the order in which they were to be honoured. After the second of these Āghāras comes the formal choosing of the Hotṛ by the Adhvaryu on the authority of the Āgnīdhra, in which the ancestors of the sacrificer are again named. The Hotṛ then touches the Adhvaryu and Āgnīdhra, in order doubtless to establish a community between them.

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Then come the fore-offerings of butter to the kindling sticks, the god Tanūnapāt or Narāśaṅsa, the sacrificial food (*iḍā*), the gods who have been invited to the offering and are now honoured. Then come the Ājya offerings of butter for Agni and Soma, which at the new moon must be accompanied by verses containing the word *vṛdh*, 'grow', and at the full moon by verses referring to the slaying of Vṛtra. There follows a cake for Agni, a butter offering made in a low tone for Agni and Soma, and then the offering, to Agni and Soma at the full moon, to Agni and Indra, with or without a milk mess for Indra, at the new moon. The close of the offering is marked by an offering to Agni Sviṣṭakṛt, 'the maker of the sacrifice correct', in which all the gods are invoked. Then comes the tasting of the offering by the priest, the Brahman has a special portion, the Prāçitra, the Āgnīdhra another, the Ṣaḍavatta, and all the priests invoke the Iḍā, which is taken from all the offerings, and, while doing so, they touch the sacrificer. Then the cakes are given to them, and thereafter each has a part of the Iḍā. The Fathers are invoked to take part, and the fees are given, in this case the Anvāhārya mess cooked in the Dakṣiṇa fire, perhaps merely because of the name. The distribution of the fees is followed by the Anuyājas, to the strew, Narāçaṅsa, and Agni Sviṣṭakṛt, and the Sūktavāka, which concludes with an invocation of prosperity for the sacrificer and a prayer;

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at the end of this prayer the Prastara, or bundle of grass which is supposed to represent the sacrificer, is put in the fire. Then comes the Çaṁyuvāka, an invocation of prosperity, accompanied by the burning of the enclosing sticks. The remains are offered to the All-gods, then follow four Patnīsaṁyājas, offerings to the gods with the wives of the gods, to Soma, Tvaṣṭṛ, the wives of the gods, and Agni Gṛhapati: the third is offered under a covering while the wife of the sacrificer touches the Adhvaryu: the offerings are of butter, and made in the Gārhapatya fire. Then come minor rites to accompany the burning of the strew, and to make good defects, the Rakṣases are given the fragments which have been produced in the husking of the rice, the wife's girdle is loosened and laid down, the sacrificer in imitation of and assimilation to Viṣṇu strides three steps from the south hip of the altar ground, which is made to be like the shape of a woman, to the east, pays reverence to the Āhavanīya and Gārhapatya, and then lays aside his vow.

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¹ ApÇS. i–iii; BÇS. i; MÇS. i. 1–3; KÇS. ii–iv. 5; ĀÇS. i. 1, 4–13; ÇÇS. i. 4–15; Vait. i–iv; Hillebrandt, *Neu- und Vollmondsopfer* (Jena, 1880); Weber, *Ind. Stud.* x. 329 ff. Even magic sacrifices are normally based on this principle; see below, Chap. 22, § 8. Cf. Keith, *Taittirīya Saṁhitā*, i. p. cv.

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² Kuhn, *Herabkunft des Feuers*², p. 159.

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The rite is to be performed all one's life, or for thirty years, or for fifteen only, in which case the two offerings are to be conjoined: in the Dākṣāyaṇa form¹ it is celebrated every day for a year only, both forms being used. In the case of the first offering of the new- and full-moon sacrifice, the Anvārambhaṇīyā Iṣṭi is offered, which consists of a cake on eleven potsherds for Viṣṇu, a pap for Sarasvatī, and a cake on twelve potsherds for Sarasvant. It is offered as an independent rite on the first full-moon day after the Agnyādhāna and Agnihotra. Each new- and full-moon sacrifice can be followed by an offering to Aditi and to Indra Vaimṛdha, and the sacrifice can be carried out with Soma if desired and so also the other Haviryajñas.¹

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¹ ÇB. ii. 4. 4. 1-6, where is given the history of the transmission of the rite from Prajāpati through Pratidarça Çvaikna, Suplan Sārñjaya, Devabhāga Çrautarṣa, and Dakṣa Pārvati to the royal Dākṣāyaṇa line. Similarly a list of the handers down of the drink for the king at the royal consecration is given in AB. vii. 34.

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¹ ÇÇS. xiv. 2 ff.; LÇS. iv. 9 ff.

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The position of Agni and Soma in the ritual is peculiar in view of the rarity of the conjunction of these gods in the Rigveda, and it is a legitimate and probable conjecture of Oldenberg’s² that the place they obtained was only gradually won by them, in consequence in some degree at least of the tendency to see the moon in Soma.

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² *Rel. des Veda*², p. 439, n. 2.

§ 5. The Four-month or Seasonal Sacrifices

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The three four-month offerings³ are connected intimately with the seasons of the year, the Vaiçvadeva being offered in spring, the Varuṇapraghāsas in the rains, and the Sākamedhas in the autumn, at the beginning of each season. The connexion with the seasons is shown by the formulae, the names of the months which are connected with certain libations, and the formal cutting of the hair which is connected with certain of the rites. The man who first performs them must begin with an Iṣṭi to Agni Vaiçvānara and Parjanya or an Anvārambhaṇīyā Iṣṭi. In each case the sacrifice is introduced by five libations to Agni, Soma, Savitṛ, Sarasvatī, and Pūṣan. In the first follow offerings to the Maruts, to the All-gods, and to heaven and earth, the first and last of cakes, the second of a milk mess. The season is indicated by the use of a tree with budding branches for the wood for the fire, while the strew is made from plants which are shooting.

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³ ApÇS. viii; BÇS. v; MÇS. i. 7; KÇS. v; ĀÇS. ii. 15–20; ÇÇS. iii. 13–18; Vait. viii. 8 ff.; Weber, *Ind. Stud.* x. 337.

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The second offering, the Varuṇapraghāsas, is more important. One point in it is the preparation of two animals, a ram and sheep, from barley, which the sacrificer and his wife cover with wool and equip with the marks of sex made prominent; the Adharyu makes the one, the Pratiprasthātṛ the other: there are two Vedis, and the south one is assigned to the latter priest, who there performs a mimicry of the action of the Adhvaryu. There are offerings to Indra and Agni, to Varuṇa, to the Maruts and to Ka: the ram and the ewe are offered in the milk messes presented to Varuṇa and the Maruts respectively, the remainder being eaten. A further important point is the ceremony already referred to,⁴ by which the wife of the sacrificer is called upon to admit what lovers she has and to offer in the Dakṣiṇa fire the plates of Karambha, ‘porridge’, which number one more than the members of the family. The husband and wife then share a bath, washing each other in it. The two elements of the rite are clearly enough the aim to secure the abundance of the flocks, and the sin offering to Varuṇa, whose presence in the rite may be due either to his deep and undeniable connexion with water, or merely be accounted for by the sin offering and the concluding bath, which are clearly in great measure merely pieces of magic to which a religious connexion has been attached.

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⁴ Above, Part III, Chap. 18, § 3. For the two figures Hubert and Mauss (*Année sociol.* ii. 111) adopt the view that they represent the spirit of barley as fertilizing and fertilized, which is eaten in the rite, and that the ram is ‘Varuṇa visible’, but this is quite impossible, or a mere mistranslation of ÇB. ii. 5. 2. 16.

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The third festival is the Sākamedhas: the number of offerings in it, especially for the Maruts, is considerable, but the most important element is a feast for the dead, the Pitṛyajña, or Mahāpitṛyajña, where the Fathers are honoured as Somavantas, ‘connected with Soma’, sitting on the strew, and as ‘burnt by Agni’. The rite follows the rules for offerings to the dead: it takes place in a hut south of the Dakṣiṇa fire, in which a Vedi is made and the fire there placed: the offerings are made with the term Svadhā¹ in place of Svāhā. Still more important is an offering to Tryambaka,² which is an offering to Rudra, everything therefore being done in the north, the region of that god. At a cross-way a fire is made and cakes offered in it, at least four, but properly one more than the number of the members of the family. One, however, is thrown upon an ant-heap in the north with the words, ‘This is thy portion: the mole is thine animal, O Rudra’. On returning the priests engaged and the sacrificer all say, ‘We supplicate Rudra away from us, away the god Tryambaka’. As in the offering to the Fathers, they go round the fire thrice from right to left, smiting the left thigh, then thrice in the opposite and normal way, smiting the right thigh, and the same form is followed by the unmarried women of the family, in verses which show that they hoped thus to secure marriage and avoid death. The remains of the cakes the sacrificer throws up in the air and catches as they fall: the cakes are then tied up in two baskets, tied to a bamboo, and placed on a tree³ or some similar object so high that an ox cannot reach them. Rudra is then asked to go away beyond the Mūjavants, after which the breath is held and the sacrificers return from the place without looking back,⁴ and touch water. The fee is a white horse, or a bull, white or with white marks. The festival is followed by an offering to Çunāsīrau, which is evidently an agricultural rite for ploughing, addressed to two parts or deities of the plough. The features of it are a cake on twelve potsherds for Çunāsīrau or Indra Çunāsīrīya, fresh milk or barley gruel for Vāyu, and a cake on one potsherd for Sūrya: the fee is a six or twelve span plough or two plough beasts, while for the offering to Sūrya a white horse or sheep is the fee. A curious way of celebrating the whole of the offering together, in five days from the 11th day of the light half of Phālguna to the full moon, is recorded as practised by the Kaṭhas. The offerings can also be connected with the Soma and the animal offering in such a way that the six days of the three make up a Pṛṣṭhya Ṣaḍaha.

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¹ This term is of ambiguous sense, but refers perhaps to the self-disposal or volition of the dread spirits. This according to Oldenberg (*Rel. des Veda*², p. 531, n. 3) is due to their partaking of the food for the dead. *Contra*, Colinet, *Mélanges Lévi*, pp. 159 ff.

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² Arbman, *Rudra*, pp. 48–64; Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* ii. 186 ff.

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³ So also in the Baudhyavihāra rite in HÇS. ii. 9. 1. Rudra thus stands out in ritual as associated with a primitive mode of offering. Cf. above, Chap. 9, § 10.

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⁴ This common rite in connexion with chthonic powers Weber (*Rājasūya*, p. 11, n. 4) ingeniously but most implausibly conjectures to be due to a desire to show the complete confidence of safety produced in the mind of the performer by his devotion. The placing of gifts on a tree is a rite with many parallels; Meyer (*Gesch. d. Alt.*³ I. ii. p. 722) holds that the idea is to bring the offering (e. g. in Ilion and Bambyke live animals) into immediate contact with the divinity temporarily resident in the tree. Cook (*Zeus*, i. 533) holds that the fertilizing animal is placed on the tree to secure its life. We are reduced to mere conjecture. Helm (*Altgerm. Rel.* i. 244 f.) ascribes the German rite (Tac. *Ann.* i. 67) either to an offering to wind and air demons or to tree spirits.

§ 6. First-fruit Sacrifice (Āgrayaṇa Iṣṭi) and others

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Before partaking of any of the fruits of the fields it is necessary for a man who has established the fires to make offerings.¹ The normal offerings are those of rice in autumn, and barley in spring: alternatives are bamboo seeds in summer, and millet in autumn or the rains: in these two cases Soma is the god to whom the offerings are made: in the other case Indra and Agni receive a cake of the new fruits, and the All-gods and heaven and earth also have offerings. In the first case the fee is a garment or a repaired car, in the second the firstborn of the calves cast that year. In place, however, of the ordinary Iṣṭi the new- and full-moon sacrifices may be performed, or the Agnihotra made night and morning with the new fruits. Or, again, the rice or barley may be given to a cow to eat, and then the Agnihotra offered with the milk of that cow. In that case the motive of the offering may be taken as merely a desire to secure that the first-fruits shall, in the first place, be used by some one other than man; but it is more probable that we have nothing more here than the not rare practice of giving animals food in place of the deities, or yet more probably that the offering is merely a variety of the normal offering, milk being used instead of the actual first-fruits, a simple explanation, and one perfectly reasonable in itself. The offering of first-fruits then remains a perfectly natural offering to the gods, rather however as the formulae show an offering to secure the safe use of the fruits, than the expression of gratitude to the gods for their gift. That it was felt to be in any way sacramental, or even as inducing a special sense of community, is not to be seen in the Vedic evidence.

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¹ ApÇS. vi. 29. 2 ff.; BÇS. iii. 12; MÇS. i. 6. 4; v; KÇS. iv. 6; ĀÇS. ii. 9; ÇÇS. iii. 12; Vait. viii. 4; Lindner, *Festgruss an Böhtlingk*, pp. 79 ff. In Mexico the eating of maize had to be preceded by a human sacrifice; Sahagun, trans. by Jourdanet and Siméon, pp. 126, 135; Hubert and Mauss, *Année sociol.* ii. 95, 97.

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Of other Iṣṭis there are innumerable varieties, but they are all based on the model of the new- and full-moon offerings, and differ only in the presence of certain new offerings. Thus, there are Iṣṭis for one who desires a son, for various purifications, for making people subject to the sacrificer, and so on. One of the most interesting is the Kārīrīṣṭi, which is obviously a dressed up rain spell. A black horse is placed in the east facing west; the sacrificer robes it with a black garment and makes it neigh, and from the sounds which it makes and its actions he can foretell rain.¹ The new- and full-moon offerings themselves can be applied to fulfil wishes, and forms of these offerings are mentioned such as the Munyayana, Turāyaṇa, and Vasiṣṭhayajña, which may extend to a year in duration.

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¹ HGS. xxii. 13.

§ 7. The Animal Sacrifice

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According to the Sūtras we must distinguish between the animal sacrifice as an independent offering and the sacrifice as connected with the Soma sacrifice: the offering of a goat to Agni and Soma in that offering is often treated as the Prakṛti of all animal sacrifices, but in some cases the independent animal offering which is called the Nirūḍhapaçubandha² takes the place of the Agnīṣomīya. The rite is to be performed by any man who establishes the fires, before he eats meat, and then yearly or half yearly, in which case the beginning of the bright course of the sun and the end of that period are prescribed by some authorities. The form of the offering is that of the new-moon sacrifice, the victim taking the place of the milk offered to Indra or Mahendra, but there is present another priest, the Maitrāvaruṇa, whose duty it is to give directions to the Hotṛ to say his Yājyā verses. For Indra and Agni, or Sūrya, or Prajāpati, a goat is the victim; it must be perfect, free from blemish, such as the loss of a horn or an eye; but in other offerings than the Nirūḍhapaçubandha are found many other animals, including normally oxen and sheep; and exceptionally, as at the piling of the fire, at the horse sacrifice and at human sacrifices, large numbers of victims are alleged to be offered, mainly if not entirely in theory. For Nirṛti the dove, owl, and hare are offered,³ to the Rakṣases the black dog, the ass with lop ears, and the unknown *tarakṣu*.⁴ Some animals appear as unfit for ordinary sacrifice, the dog, the *durvarāha*, ‘bad boar’, and *eḍaka*, ‘vicious ram’. The normal rite occupies two days, of which the former is filled by preliminary rites, the second being the day of the actual sacrifice. The two days however may be compressed into one.

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² ApÇS. vii; BÇS. iv.; KÇS. vi; MÇS. i. 8; ĀÇS. iii. 1–8; iv. 11, 12; ÇÇS. v. 15 ff.; vi. 18 ff.; Vait. x; Schwab, *Das altindische Thieropfer* (Erlangen, 1886); Haug, *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, ii. 72 ff.; Weber *Ind. Stud.* x. 344 ff.; Hubert and Mauss, *Année sociol.* ii. 62 ff. (with many parallels from Jewish and Greek records); Keith, *Rig-Veda Brāhmaṇas*, pp. 134 ff., 403 ff.

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³ MS. iii. 14. 19.

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⁴ MS. iii. 14. 21. For the dog offering cf. that of a dog to Robigus in the Roman religion; Warde Fowler, *Religious Experience of the Roman People*, p. 197. The motive in both cases was presumably propitiation; the choice of an abnormal victim being due to the abnormal character of the recipient.

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An essential feature of the rite is the use of a post, to which the victim is tied : in the greater rites as many as eleven are used : the tree is solemnly cut down with protestations that it is not being injured, and, when a splinter is struck out of it in the cutting, that is kept and placed ultimately in the pit in which the post is inserted. The stump is treated with respect, and receives a libation, accompanied by a prayer that it shall spring up with a hundred shoots. The post is placed in a hole which is half within, half without the altar. Round the post a band is placed at the height of the navel; if the sacrificer wishes little or much rain he places it lower or higher. For the sacrifice the altar is placed west of the fire, and in the east third of it another altar, Uttaravedi, is provided as at the Varuṇapraghāsas, and a fire placed there, which takes the place of the normal Āhavanīya, while that serves as the Gārhapatya. There are required also special implements, the spit for the heart, and the utensils by which the omentum is cooked.

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When the preparations are over, the victim is bathed, and brought up, and tied to the post by a string, which is fastened to the left forefoot, round the back, and over the left horn : it is then sprinkled and given a drink.¹ Then the kindling verses are said, the butter oblations are offered, the victim is anointed with the butter,² and the usual procedure of the new- and full-moon sacrifices followed down to the fore-offerings, which number eleven and to which the Āprī litanies provide the Yājyā verses. After the tenth of the fore-offerings, the splinter of the tree, and the one edge of the two-edged knife, are dipped in the butter : the actual slaying must be done with the unconsecrated side by the slaughterer or Çamitṛ, the other being used by the Adhvaryu to cut off portions for offering. The Āgnīdhra thrice carries a brand round the victim, the Apāvya libations are performed, the Adhvaryu gives through the Maitrāvaruṇa the order to the Hotṛ to recite the old litany³ for the slaying of the victim; from the Gārhapatya fire flame is placed on the Çāmitra fire, the victim is then taken over to that fire, preceded by the Āgnīdhra with his firebrand, followed by the Pratiprasthātṛ, touching it with the spit, the Adhvaryu holding on to him and the sacrificer to the Adhvaryu, thus keeping in close contact with the holy power in the victim.

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Then the victim, with its head facing west, its feet north, is by the Çamitṛs strangled or pierced without sound,⁴ while the rest of those present turn their heads away. Then a libation is made, and the wife of the sacrificer brought up. The Adhvaryu or the wife pours water over the members of the victim and washes them. The omentum is taken out and placed on a spit: in the first blood a grass blade is dipped, and thrown north-west or south-west as a spell to devote the enemy to the deepest darkness. It is cooked on the Çāmitra fire, and then placed on the Uttaravedi, where it is covered with butter. Then come the eleventh fore-offering, the two butter portions, and then the offering of the whole of the omentum, which is covered with pieces of gold and butter. The spits are then cast into the fire, and the fees distributed, three barren or three milch cows. Then come the making of the rice cake and the cutting up of the victim: of these eighteen portions are made, of which the first eight count as *daivatāni*: the heart is cooked separately on a spit, the rest of the pieces are cooked in a pot, while the excrement, blood, and stomach are offered to the Rakṣases, in a pit west of the Çāmitra fire outside the altar-ground. The various parts of the animal are then offered, the priests have shares both of the Iḍā as usual and of the meat. Then come the 11 after-offerings, offerings to the strew, the divine doors, &c.

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With each of the after-offerings a supplementary offering is connected in which the Pratiprasthātṛ offers pieces of the intestines which are left over. The splinter, the staff, of which the Maitrāvaruṇa never lets go, and the Prastara, 'bundle of grass', are put into the fire. The offering to the wives of the gods is performed with the tail of the victim, the heart spit is buried, with a verse imploring Varuṇa to forgive sin, in the presence of the sacrificer, his wife, and all the priests.¹ As they go back they each pick up three dry twigs, and place them on the Uttaravedi.

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¹ Perhaps originally to secure a free flow of blood; *cf.* Eitrem, *Opferritus und Voropfer der Griechen und Römer*, p. 435; Keith, JHS. xxxvi. 109. Doubtless it may have been felt in time as purificatory (*cf.* the sacrificer's rinsing of his own mouth), as taken by Hubert and Mauss (*op. cit.* 65, n. 1).

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² *Cf.* the Roman *mola salsa*, the Greek *οὐλαί* (JHS. xxxvi. 108).

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³ Roth, *Nir.*, pp. xxxviii ff.; AB. ii. 6; KB. x. 4; *cf.* Warde Fowler, *Religious Experience of the Roman People*, p. 180.

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⁴ For this requirement *cf.* the solemn display of the corn at Eleusis; probably in silence the corn was cut and displayed likewise in silence; *cf.* Reinach, *Revue des Études Grecques*, xvi. 342 ff.; *E.S.*, JHS. xxxvi. 105; Farnell, *Cults of the Greek States*, iii. 183 f.

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¹ Above, Part III, Chap. 18, § 6.

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The animal sacrifice can be used for many special purposes, in which cases some variation is made to adapt it to the special end in view.

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In all its essential features the offering must be regarded as a gift only: the presence of the divine essence in the victim is clearly proved by abundant evidence, and the priests all taste of it. But there is not the slightest sign in the elaborate ritual, nor in the formulae which are recorded in full, that there was any idea that the death of the victim was the ritual death of one of the gods, or that the ceremony was a sacrament, in which worshippers renewed or strengthened their union with the god by a common meal.²

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² *Ibid.*, § 5. Hubert and Mauss (*Année sociol.* ii. 81, 82) indeed compare the invocation and consumption of the Iḍā to the Mass and transubstantiation; but this is clearly a grave exaggeration. The Iḍā is the divine power present in the food when eaten: there is no question of the death and eating of a divinity.

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