The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c39.s3.1

v2.c39.s3.1

Amid an infinity of varied details the Brāhmaṇas present a perfectly definite body of opinion as to the fundamental nature of the sacrifice,⁷ and in connexion with the sacrifice of the gods, the Asuras, the seers, and men. This theory is the most characteristic and independent part of the Brāhmaṇas: in the speculations as to the unity of the universe and the god in whom that unity finds expression, the Brāhmaṇas are only inheritors of the speculation of the Rigveda, but in the doctrine of the sacrifice they develop a theory which may have been held in germ at least in the age of the Rigveda, but which is not expressed there and which doubtless in considerable measure is a new creation. This is indicated by one fundamental fact: the sacrifice in the Brāhmaṇas is a piece of magic pure and simple: this is assuredly not the attitude of the average seer of the hymns of the Rigveda. The turning into magic of the sacrifice is, we have seen, a conception which is secondary: the existence of magic as early as the sacrifice is one thing: the converting of what was originally a sacrifice into magic is, like the art of black magic, a subsequent development.