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The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s12: § 12. Other Soma Sacrifices of One Day's Duration

The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s12

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§ 12. Other Soma Sacrifices of One Day's Duration

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The Agniṣṭoma is the model on which innumerable² other kinds of sacrifice can be formed, in order to bring about certain desires. The Viçvajit³ is occasionally mentioned: in it a man gives all his goods as the fee, or at least a thousand cattle and hundred horses. In the former case he first hands over to his eldest son his share in the property. After the offering he spends twelve nights in different places, three where an Udumbara is, eating fruits and roots only, three among Niṣādas, without eating the grains cultivated by them, three with folk, and three with folk like himself, or according to another view either Vaiçyas or Rājanyas. The symbolic nature of the rite is obvious.

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² See e. g. the list in BÇS. xviii.

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³ KÇS. xxii. 1. 9 ff.; LÇS. viii. 1. 28; 2. 1 f. PB. xvi. 6; JB. ii. 183 f.; KB. xxv. 15; ĀpÇS. xvii. 26. 14–18.

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The six Sādyaḥkras⁴ are offerings which in one day include all the rites, including the Dīkṣā from the beginning to the end of a Soma sacrifice. The first serves as a model of the rest: the priests, Hotṛ, Udgātṛ, Adhvaryu, and Brahman, are stationed in the four quarters at considerable distances: the altar is a sown field, or field full of ripe barley or rice: the Uttaravedi a threshing-floor. Milk is churned into butter in a skin by the primitive mode of shaking it. The offering is supposed to bring the attainment of heaven, of cattle, and of the defeat of a rival. The second removes disease, and brings strength and food. The fourth is the Viçvajit Çilpa, at which one should give as many fees as possible; the fifth is the Çyena, which is employed for exorcism, and the fee in this case consists of one-eyed lame cattle without horns or tails, mixed with diseased ones.¹

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⁴ Cf. the Ādityas' and Aṅgirases' strife to win heaven first; JB. iii. 187 f.; ii. 115–17; AB. vi. 34 f.; KB. xxx. 6; PB. xvi. 12. 1; BÇS. xviii. 22 f.

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¹ KÇS. xxii. 3. 26 ff.; BÇS. xvii. 20 ff.

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Of special importance are the four Vrātya Stomas,² which are rites apparently intended for the admission into the Brahmanical community of persons who though Aryans have been living outside that community. It is in the ritual said to be intended for the case of persons who have lost their position as twice born by various reasons, including living among non-twice-born people. Of such people it is said that they do not study, do not practise agriculture or trade; they call good words bad, perhaps a reference to differences of dialect, they punish the guiltless with blows, presumably an allusion to difference of law, and, though unconsecrated, speak the speech of the consecrated. According to the views of Kātyāyana, the first offering is for Vrātyas, who, skilled in dance, song, and music, are capable of teaching these arts to a company of Vrātyas, the second for eunuchs, the third for those of little account, and the fourth for old impotent men. The dress of the Vrātyas is described as including a special kind of turban (*uṣṇīṣa*), white garments with black fringes, and a curious kind of bow without a string (*jyāhroḍa*): at the rite also is used a special sort of cart (*vipatha*), and a silver ornament as worn by Vrātyas. The Gṛhapati, who is to be chosen from the leader of the Vrātyas to be converted, carries two skins, one white, one black, and a pair of shoes, black and shaped like ears, or provided with ears. All these articles are to be given as a fee at the proper time to an unworthy Brahman from Magadha, a sign that Magadha was not regarded as strictly Brahmanical, or to Vrātyas who have not yet been converted, and who are thus made scapegoats. When the ceremony is over, the Vrātyas cease to have that characteristic: they become admitted to full membership of the Brahmanical society, and can engage in the pursuit of sacred learning.

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² PB. xvii. 1–4 (a later view in JB. ii. 222); BÇS. xvii. 24–6; KÇS. xxii. 4; LÇS. viii. 6; Weber, *Ind. Stud.* x. 101 ff.; Macdonell and Keith, *Vedic Index*, ii. 341–5; Keith, JRAS. 1913, pp. 155 ff. Vrātyas may have been non-Aryan, but this is not probable; *cf.* Weber, *Ind. Lit.*, p. 73; Hopkins, *Rel. of India*, p. 179; Hillebrandt, *Rituallitteratur*, p. 140; Bloomfield, *Atharvaveda*, p. 94. In some cases Aryans who have fallen from grace may have been so reinstated. Cf. below, Chap. 22, § 9.

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The rites are specially interesting, as they mention several words which are not easily explicable, and evidently were not well understood at a very early date: they may be borrowed from the speech of the eastern tribes, and together with the mention of the Brahman from Magadha suggest, but do not prove, that the Vrātyas came from the east rather than from the west, though we know that the western tribes were by no means fully Brahmanized,³ and it has been suggested that the Vrātyas represented one or other of the many Aryan tribes which were in motion in the period 1500–1000 B.C. There are clear traces that the Udgātṛs were specially active in the business of bringing in these outlying members of the Brahmanical society: possibly this may stand in some relation to the fact that the Chāndogas were never held in the highest repute among the Vedic Indians.¹ The suggestion of Charpentier² that we are to see in these Vrātyas adherents of Rudra-Çiva must be regarded as impossible. It is, however, of interest to note that already in the Atharvaveda³ the Vrātya is a well-known figure, and by the curious ideas of that Veda is turned into an expression of the supreme deity.

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³ A rash hypothesis (cf. above, Chap. 1), based on late linguistic facts, and supported by worthless ethnological material, claims that the Vedic Indians were Aryans who entered their homes from Chitral and Gilgit and not directly connected with the Punjab (see e.g. Risley, *People of India*, pp. 55 ff.). The theory contradicts the evidence of the Rigveda, and the Chitral route, as Holdich (*The Gates of India*) insists, is impracticable for a people’s migration.

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¹ Burnell, *Devatādhyāya Brāhmaṇa*, p. ix; Muir, *Sansk. Texts*, iii. 26; Hillebrandt, *Sonnwendfeste*, p. 34.

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² VOJ. xxv. 355–88; see Keith, JRAS. 1913, pp. 155–60. Caland (JB., p. 184) amazingly argues that the fact that in JB. Içāna is hostile to the Vrātyas supports the theory.

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³ xv. This shows some trace of the influence of Rudra worship. It is clearly late.

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Of other rites of this class the Upahavya⁴ is interesting, as it is born of strife between the gods and the Asuras, and in it the names of the gods are carefully changed to avoid mentioning them aloud: thus the name of Indra is Çakra, of Soma Indu, and likewise the *hotā deva* is changed to *hotā yakṣe*, and so on, even the simple word *sarva*, all, becoming the old *viçva*. There is a rite, the Sarvasvāra,⁵ for one who wishes to die: the sacrificer in it is completely covered over and sits facing south on a dark skin. In the Bṛhaspatisava,⁶ on the other hand, which is offered by one who wishes such rank as a Purohitaship, the sacrificer must be treated with respect, be greeted by others without returning the salutation, and be styled Sthapati, ‘lord’, all these things by sympathetic magic working the desired end. If the Apacitis⁷ are offered to bring a man honour, he must pay dearly in Dakṣiṇās in proportion to what he aspires to attain, and so in all these offerings the greed of the priest for fees shows itself.

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⁴ LÇS. viii. 9; comm. on PB. xviii. 1. 3; BÇS. xviii. 28 has a different version.

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⁵ KÇS. xxii. 5. 31; 6. 1 ff.

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⁶ BÇS. xviii. 1, 2; cf. § 13. Other rites dwelt on in the JB. are Çada, Upaçada, Punastoma, Valabhid, Udbhid, Durāça, Tīvrasoma, Ṛtapeya, &c.

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⁷ KÇS. xxii. 10. 13; LÇS. ix. 4. 13; BÇS. xviii. 39; ĀpÇS. xxii. 12. 4 f.; JB. ii. 100 ff.; PB. xix. 8.

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The Gosava is of special interest, because it involves incest with one’s mother, sister, and a woman of one’s own Gotra, that is with whom marriage is forbidden. The Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa⁸ records that Janaka of Videha declined to undertake it, though it would have secured him the world of the Ox, doubtless Prajāpati as in the Atharvaveda,⁹ but a Çibi king did perform it, carrying out literally the rule of acting according to nature.

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⁸ ii. 113; ĀpÇS. xxii. 13. 1–3.

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⁹ iv. 11.

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