The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s7.12

v2.c30.s7.12

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