Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c11.s5.9

c11.s5.9

**Places of Sacrifice.** The *Tāṇḍya* or *Pañchaviṁśa Brāhmaṇa* contains a variety of interesting geographical data. In the first place, we have minute descriptions of sacrifices on the Sarasvatī and Dṛishadvatī. Secondly, we have descriptions of *Vrātyastomas* or sacrifices by which Aryan but non-Brahmanical Indians were admitted into the Brahmanical order. Thirdly, the great sacrifice of the Naimishīya Ṛishis is mentioned, along with the river Sudāman. Weber concludes from these data that they point to an active communication with the west, particularly with the non-Brahmanic Aryans there, and, consequently, to the fact that the locality of its composition must be laid more towards the west. But there are other data which point us to the east such as the mention of Para Āṭṇāra, King of the Kosalas, of Nami Sāpya, King of the Videhas (the Nimi of the Epic), of Kurukshetra, Yamunā, etc., of the Vedic name Trasadasyu Purukutsa (connecting it with the earlier Ṛishi period) and the significant absence of any allusion to the Kuru-Pañchālas or to Janaka (showing probably its origin in a different locality or its priority to the flourishing epoch of the Kuru-Pañchālas).