Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c4.18

c4.18

There were three functions which the priest might perform in the ritual, and to those who performed them different names were given. The *hotṛi* was the leading priest, and while the sacrifice was being made he recited poems or hymns of praise in honour of the particular god he was worshipping (Indra, Agni, etc.). Another part of the ritual was concerned with the soma sacrifice. Soma¹ was really a juice pressed out from a certain plant, which on account of its exhilarating and invigorating action came to be regarded as a divine drink which bestowed everlasting life. It was afterwards hypostatized and regarded as a god, and a special ritual grew up in connection with which hymns were sung. The priest who sang these sāmans was called an udgātṛi. Another priest was concerned with the manual acts of sacrificing, and he was called an adhvaryu. There was at first, however, no distinct order, and each priest might perform any of these functions. There was but one education for all, and each priestly student received a triple training so that he might perform any one of these three duties. Gradually, however, the ritual of the sacrifices became elaborated, and with its growing complexity some division of priestly labour became unavoidable. No one priest could become an expert in the three branches of ritual, and specialist training became necessary. Probably at first it consisted in a priestly student first learning the ritual of all three branches and then specializing in one of them. The collection of Soma hymns into the ninth book of the Rigveda seems to show traces of this. But eventually something more than this was needed, and there came to be three orders of priests, each possessing its own particular Veda, and having its own training schools. This probably took place at some time between 1000 and 800 B.C.