The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c31.s2.39

v2.c31.s2.39

The agricultural festivals are not unimportant, and are numerous. Formulae are regularly used for the driving out and the return to their stalls of the cattle.⁴ Many curious performances⁵ are recorded as devices to secure the multiplying of the herds: the marking of a pair of calves male and female is one: in another a pap is offered to Agni, Pūṣan, Indra and Īçvara, and honour is paid to the bull, whose neck and horns are ornamented and who is fed. In the case of a horse, Yama and Varuṇa are included in the offering, and the same respect is paid to the horse. A cow which has two calves should be given away. The spit-ox⁶ sacrifice brings wealth and is of a special character: an ox is offered in spring or autumn to Rudra. The offering is made away from the village after midnight, or at least after sunset: Rudra's twelve names are invoked. The omentum is offered with a leaf or a wooden instrument, not with the Juhū ladle. Balis are offered also in all four quarters to appease the troops of Rudra.⁷ The tail, skin, &c., are thrown into the fire, the blood is poured out on Kuça or Darbha grass for the snakes, to whom formulae are addressed. None of the victims may be brought into the village, since the god is fain to hurt men, no connexion of the sacrificer may be near the place of sacrifice, and he himself shall not eat the flesh save for a very special instruction, in which case, however, he will prosper greatly. In another version of the offering, place is found for the wives of Rudra, Rudrāṇī, Çarvāṇī, Bhavānī, and for Indrāṇī: the blood-covered entrails are burned or cast into the fire. In another quite different form⁸ the offerings take the place of three messes of rice, which are offered to three animals, a bull, a cow, and a calf, which are styled the Çūlagava or Īçāna, the bountiful one, and the victor respectively: when the offerings are given, Rudra is hailed by all his names, the second offering is made to the wife of Rudra, the third to Jayanta. The cows are placed round the fire so as to smell the burnt offering, and all go round it from left to right, while verses are addressed to the Çūlagava. It is perfectly clear¹ that here the bull and the cow are fetishes for the god and his wife, but the position of Jayanta is less obvious: possibly a child of the two is deemed to be represented by him. At the same time it must be realized that the beasts are so treated merely as a substitute for the other rite of slaughter; the rite has every appearance of being a later elaboration.