The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c34.s2.52

Language: English

v2.c34.s2.52.1

As compared with the clear conception of the dwelling of the spirit in the highest heaven or in hell, there is little trace in the Vedic literature of the more simple and perhaps more primitive conception⁹ which regards the dead as dwelling in the earth, whether actually in the place of burial, or in the under world. The idea that the dead man's spirit went to the sky is not in the slightest degree essentially bound up with the burning by fire, for the Rigveda¹ expressly places both the Fathers, who have been burnt, and those who have not been burnt, as dwelling in the heaven, and there is no hint of any contrary view in Vedic literature. But undoubtedly here and there the idea is to be seen that the burning by the fires was the moment of the passage of the soul to the sky: of this the best proof is the doctrine of Āçvalāyana² that the place attained by the spirit depends on the nature of the fire, which first seizes the corpse when the body is set on the bier within the reach of fires derived from the sacred three fires. But this example in itself is not in the slightest degree a proof that it was the fire which sent the spirit to heaven: it is only a natural, but not primitive, view, as is shown by the mere fact that it depends on the use of the three fires, which the average householder could not dream of maintaining.

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The real view was doubtless less complicated, and in the same passage Āçvalāyana presents us with a different idea: a pit, knee deep, is to be dug north-east of the Āhavanīya fire, a water plant, Çīpāla, is put there, and with the smoke the soul thence goes to the heaven. This latter view, which looks at the earth as the place of the dead, is also supported by various other considerations. When a man is near to death, a spell is used to bring him from the lower to the upper earth to the protection of Aditi, sun and moon.³ When a pit is dug, as often in the ritual, it is called the place of the Fathers; what is dug down has the Fathers as its deity;⁴ Yama⁵ even is lord of the earth; the darkness of the abode of the dead is referred to in passages where we cannot see any reference to the punishments of hell;⁶ a spell of the Atharvaveda⁷ seeks to send his enemy to the place of Yama; the dead are mentioned as living at the roots of the plants; the dead man in the funeral ritual is spoken of as being laid to rest in mother earth, which is to be kind to him. The path of the gods is often distinguished from the path of the Fathers,⁸ the presence of the dogs⁹ on the way shows that the road was a special one, and not the peaceful path of the gods;

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the door of the heaven is in the north-east, that of the world of the Fathers in the south-east,¹⁰ a conception which is clearly due in part at least to opposition to the world of the gods: the relation of the south to the Fathers may be due to the fact¹¹ that on the shortest day, the time of the spirits *par excellence*, the sun is at the furthest south point in his course.

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The path too appears to be a different one from that of the gods since it is described as *pravat*, which may denote either a downward path as of a stream, or, at any rate, a path forward to the horizon, rather than one rising erect to the heaven.¹² But, if any doubt existed as to the connexion of the spirits with the earth, it would be removed by the descriptions of the ritual of the dead, which, though not given in detail in the Brāhmaṇas, are set out at length in the Sūtras, and must be of great antiquity in their essence.¹ The gifts for the souls are not sent to them by fire to be conveyed to the sky: they are often laid in pits on the earth or upon the earth, in the neighbourhood of human dwellings which spirits all the world over are ever supposed to haunt: they come to the meal, and sit on the place made ready for them, or they find their way into the water-bottle:² they take out the heat of the food, and leave only the outer substance.³ At the end of the meal they are sent away, politely indeed, with the words, 'The Fathers have satisfied themselves', or, as at the Anthesteria in Athens, more directly with, 'Depart, ye Fathers, Soma-loving, on your ancient deep paths;

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but return a month later to our house to eat the offering, with wealth in offspring, in heroes.'⁴ The shaking out of the garment of the offerer is another proof of the anxiety to be rid of the ghostly guests.⁵ But it must not for a moment be supposed that the belief in the presence of the spirits on earth on such occasions was incompatible with the belief in their dwelling in the sky: the two beliefs are inextricably confused in the human mind at the present day, and have been so confused for centuries, probably for thousands of years.