The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c31.s2.5

v2.c31.s2.5

In the version of Çāṅkhāyana,¹ Vaiçvadeva offerings are made in the fire evening and morning to Agni, Soma, Indra and Agni, Viṣṇu, Bharadvāja Dhanvantari, Viçve Devās, Prajāpati, Aditi, Anumati, and Agni Sviṣṭakṛt. Then come the actual Balis offered in the centre of the floor for the same deities, followed by Balis for Brahman and the Brahmans and Vāstoṣpati. Balis are then distributed through the different quarters of the horizon in due order to the presiding deities, Indra, Yama, Varuṇa, Soma, and Bṛhaspati, each with those connected with him. Then turning towards the disk of the sun offerings are made to Aditi and the Ādityas, the Nakṣatras, seasons, months, half-months, days and nights, and years. On the thresholds offerings are made to Pūṣan as maker of ways, Dhātṛ, Vidhātṛ, and the Maruts; on the grindstone to Viṣṇu, on the mortar to the tree; in the place where the herbs are kept to the herbs; near the water-pot to Parjanya and the waters; at the head and the foot of the bed respectively to Çrī and Bhadrakālī; in the privy to Sarvānnabhūti; in the air in the evening to the night-walkers, in the morning to the day-walkers; in the north to the unknown gods and Dhanapati, the lord of wealth. Finally the remnants are poured out in the south for the Fathers, and then a Brahman or student and women are formally fed, as well as boys and the old. In this version we have a duplication which shows the fire ritual encroaching on the ordinary Bali ritual, which involves merely the placing on the ground of the offering for the use of the divinities. There is no doubt of the substantial antiquity of the latter rite, which is attested for Iran by the express and clear assertions of Herodotos,² and has also parallels in the usage of the Slavs, Lithuanians, and Germans.³ It is further clear from Çāṅkhāyana that we have in this elaborate rite the development of something far more simple and primitive, the purpose of which is hinted at in the further directions which are given that one should eat nothing without having cut off and offered a portion thereof as a Bali, nor should one eat alone or before others. Not merely the eating of firstfruits is a dangerous thing, rendering a preliminary offering to the gods and the Fathers desirable to break any taboo, but in every case of a meal it is well to propitiate by sharing the food which is enjoyed.⁴ Hence Çāṅkhāyana recommends, though not as part of the formal rite, the giving of food to the dogs, the dog-butchers, and the birds, and Manu¹ formally includes in the Bhūtayajña dogs, outcastes, diseased persons, birds, and insects. In the Kauçika Sūtra² we find abstract deities, Dharma, Adharma, hope, faith, wisdom, prosperity, modesty, and knowledge, along with the Vedic gods and snake deities such as Vāsuki, Citrasena, Citraratha, Takṣa, and Upatakṣa.