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The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c34.s3: § 3. The Transmutation of the Dead

The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c34.s3

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§ 3. The Transmutation of the Dead

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The Rigveda and the Vedic literature of the period of the Saṁhitās and the Brāhmaṇas presents us with no clear proof of the belief in the transmigration of the dead : the scanty evidence which has been adduced to prove the contrary view will be discussed hereafter,³ but in this place it is important to note certain really popular beliefs of which there are traces in that literature and in that of the Sūtras. The most important piece of evidence is late : it is recorded by Baudhāyana ⁴ that the birds at the offering to the dead should receive lumps of food, just like the Fathers, on the ground that in the form of birds the Fathers go about. It must, however, be admitted that this is not enough to prove a real popular belief. The idea of the incarnation of men as snakes is clearly to be accepted for the later period,⁵ but for the actual Vedic period it is not demonstrated, and it must in all likelihood be deemed to be an idea which entered the religion of the Veda with the advance of aboriginal influences. A more interesting case is recorded in the ritual for the final burial of the bones of the dead ; ⁶ if they cannot be found, then a garment is spread out, and, if a beast alights on it, it is treated as representing the bones of the dead. But this usage which is recorded for us at a late period cannot be pressed very far. To this scanty evidence may be added such support as can be obtained from such stories as that ⁷ of a mother, who, dying in the absence of her son, lies in wait for him in the shape of a newly created jackal to warn him of danger. The proof does not come to much, and none of it is of early date.

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³ Part V, Chap. 28.

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⁴ BDS. ii. 14. 9, 10. The Indo-European character of the belief is asserted by Feist, *Kultur der Indogermanen*, pp. 323 ff., but his evidence is not conclusive (Greek religion cannot safely be seen in the Hagia Triada sarkophagos, which is Minoan). Cf. also Johannson, *Solfågeln i Indien*, pp. 20 ff. ; G. Weicker, *Der Seelenvogel in der alten Literatur und Kunst*. That soul birds are referred to in PGS. i. 2. 4 ff., or TS. i. 1. 13, is out of the question (*contra*, Arbman, *Rudra*, pp. 100 f.).

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⁵ Winternitz, *Der Sarpabali*, p. 37 ; *contra*, Paton, *Spiritism*, pp. 96 ff.

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⁶ Kauç. lxxxiii. 22 ff.

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⁷ *Jātaka*, ii. 388 ; Oldenberg, *Rel. des Veda*², pp. 564, 565.

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Of the soul becoming a plant or passing into a plant we have no early evidence save such as may be derived from the solitary address to the dead man in the Rigveda ⁸ which tells him to go to the plants with his members, and the isolated statement that the Fathers lie about the roots of the plants.⁹

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⁸ x. 16. 3.

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⁹ ÇB. xiii. 8. 1. 20. Cf. Dieterich, *Mutter Erde*², p. 49 ; Cook, *Zeus*, i. 687, n. 3.

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There is much evidence of connexion with stars. This, however, is very different from a normal transmigration: it obviously is connected with the belief in the departure of the souls to the regions of heaven, and on the philosophical side it appears as the doctrine of the identity of the soul with Āditya.¹ The epic notoriously is fond of seeing the souls of the great heroes and priests of the past in the constellations of the heavens. The Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa² calls the stars women and the light of those who by their good works have reached the heaven. The same view is found in the Sūtra of Āpastamba.³ It is possible also that the same idea may be referred to in the Rigveda⁴ in the reference to the seers who watch the sun, or those who stand high in heaven through the giving of plenteous largesse to the priest.⁵ Perhaps too the name of the Great Bear as the Seven Seers,⁶ of one of the Pleiades as Arundhatī, and even the view of the Kṛttikās as wives of the Bears, may be traced to this idea. The view that the moon is the abode of the souls is found also in the later period, but there is no identification with the moon, but merely by a transfer of ideas the change of the resting-place of the souls.⁷

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¹ TB. iii. 10. 9. 11; ÇB. ii. 6. 4. 8 ff.

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² vi. 5. 4. 8; cf. Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* iii. 420–3, who finds planets in most impossible places, e. g. the five Adhvaryus of RV. iii. 7. 7, or perhaps (iii. 321, n. 1) the Pleiades as the Maruts transported to heaven. Cf. above, Chap. 11, § 10.

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³ ApDS. ii. 9. 24. 14.

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⁴ x. 107. 2; 154. 5; AV. xviii. 2. 47.

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⁵ Oldenberg, *Rel. des Veda*², p. 566. For the epic see Hopkins, *Epic Myth.*, p. 53.

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⁶ ÇB. ii. 1. 2. 4; xiii. 8. 1. 9; JUB. iv. 26. 12; HGS. i. 12. 14 ff.; cf. RV. iv. 42. 8.

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⁷ Kauṣ. i. 2; KÇS. xxv. 6. 11; Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* i. 276, 394 ff.; Scherman, *Visionslitteratur*, p. 29. On shooting stars cf. MS. i. 8. 6; *Ath. Pariçiṣṭa*, lviii b. i. 3 ff.; Hopkins, *Epic Myth.*, p. 34; Haradatta, on ApDS. i. 11. 31. 17. Cf. F. Cumont, *After-Life in Roman Paganism*, pp. 92 ff., 104 ff. It is very dubious if we are to see Chaldean influence, as held by Cumont and E. Pfeiffer, *Studien zum antiken Stern-glauben*, pp. 113 ff.

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