English
It has no reference to any special sacrifice, it contains no technical expressions, it can hardly be called a hymn, in our sense of the word. It is simply a poem expressing, ^vithout any eflfort, without any display of far-fetched thought or brilliant imagery, the feelings of a man who has watched the approach of the dawn with mingled delight and awe, and who was moved to give utterance to what he felt, in measured lan- guage. We have heard the same thoughts and feel- ings expressed by so many poets, that we can hardly enter into the pleasure with which those early singers spoke their hearts out for the first time. We have become so accustomed to the rules of the most com- plicated metres that we hardly consider how mys- terious is that instinct which suggested to the first poets the extraordinary variety of rhythm which we HYMN TO THE HORSE. 553 find in the Veda. But there is a charm in these primitive strains discoverable in no other class of poetry. Every word retains something of its radical meaning, every epithet tells, every thought, in spite of the most intricate and abrupt expressions, is, if we once disentangle it, true, correct, and complete. But this is not the case with all the poems of the Veda, It would be tedious to translate many specimens of what I consider the poetry of the secondary age, the Mantra period. These songs are generally intended for sacrificial purposes, they are loaded with technicalities, their imagery is sometimes more brilliant, but always less perspicuous, and many thoughts and expressions are clearly borrowed from earlier hymns. One speci* men may suffice, a hymn describing the sacrifice of the horse with the full detail of a superstitious cere- moniaL (Rv. i. 162.) " May Mitra, Varuna, Aryaman, Ayu, Indra, the Lord of the Ribhus, and the Maruts not rebuke us because we shall proclaim at the sacrifice the virtues of the swift horse sprung from the gods. When they lead before the horse, which is decked with pure gold ornaments, the offering, firmly grasp- ed, the spotted goat^ bleats while walking onward ; it goes the path beloved by Indra and Pdshan. This goat, destined for all the gods, is led first with the quick horse, as Pftshan's share ; for Tvashtri him- self raises to glory this pleasant ofifering which is brought with the horse. When thrice at the proper seasons men lead around the sacrificial horse which goes to the gods, Pftshan's ^ The goat is the victim or the offering which is led before the horse, and sacrificed to Indra and Piishan. 554 HTMN TO THB HOBSE. share comes first, the goat, which announces the sacri- fice to the gods. Hotri, Adhvaryu, Avayaj, (Pratiprasthlltri), Agni- mindha TAgnidhra), Grd.vagr&bha (Gr&vastut), and the wise Sanstri (PrasdpStn)^, may you fill the streams (round the altar) with a sacrifice which is well pre- pared and well accomplished. They who cut the sacrificial post, and they who carry it, they who make the ring for the post of the horse, and even they who bring together what is cooked for the horse, may their work be with us. He came on — (my prayer has been well per- formed),— the bright-backed horse goes' to the regions of the gods. Wise poets celebrate him, and we have won a good friend for the love of the gods. The halter of the swift one, the heel-ropes of the horse, the head-ropes, the girths, the bridle, and even the grass that has been put into his mouth, may all these which belong to thee be with the gods ! * What the fly eats of the flesh, what adheres to the stick, or to the axe, or to the hands of the immolator and his nails, may all these which belong to thee be with the gods ! The ordure that runs from the belly, and the smallest particle of raw flesh, may the immolators well prepare all this, and dress the sacrifice till it is well cooked. The juice that flows from thy roasted limb on the spit after thou hast been killed, may it not run on 1 All names of priests. * In these hymns it is sometimes difficult to say whether the horse be meant, or the sun, of which it is the emblem. 3 The Terb in the singular (astu) with the substantive in the plural (sarva) finds an analogy in Greek. HYMN TO THE HOBSB, 555 the earth or the grass ; may it be given to the gods who desire it. They who examine the horse when it is roasted^ they who say "it smells well, take it away," they who serve the distribution of the meat, may their work also be with us. The ladle of the pot where the meat is cooked, and the vessels for sprinkling the juice, the vessels to keep off the heat, the covers of the vessels, the skewers, and the knives, they adorn the horse. Where he walks, where he sits, where he stirs, the foot-fastening of the horse, what he drinks, and what food he eats, may all these which belong to thee be with the gods ! May not the fire with smoky smell make thee hiss, may not the glowing cauldron smell and burst. The gods accept the horse if it is offered to them in due form. The cover which they stretch over the horse, and the golden ornaments, the head-ropes of the horse, and the foot-ropes, all these which are dear to the gods, th^ offer to them. If some one strike thee with the heel or the whip that thou mayest lie down, and thou art snorting with all thy might, then I purify all this with my prayer, as with a spoon of clarified butter at the sacrifices. The axe approaches the thirty-four ribs of the quick horse, beloved of the gods. Do you wisely keep the limbs whole, find out each joint and strike. One strikes the brilliant horse, two hold it, thus is the custom. Those of thy limbs which I have sea- sonably prepared^ I sacrifice in the fire as balls offered to the gods. 556 ANTIQUITY OF FHILOSOPHT. May not thy dear soul burn thee while thou art coming near, may the axe not stick to thy body. May no greedy and unskilful immolator, missing with the sword, throw thy mangled limbs together. Indeed thou diest not thus, thou sufferest not ; thou goest to the gods on easy paths. The two horses of Indra, the two deer of the Maruts have been yoked, and the horse come to the shaft of the ass (of the Afivins.) May this horse give us cattle and horses, men, pro- geny, and all-sustaining wealth. May Aditi keep us free from sin ; may the horse of this sacrifice give us strength I A comparison of the general tone of this hymn with that of the hymns to Varuna, Indra, and Ushas, translated before, can leave little doubt in the mind of critical historians as to its more modern cha- racter. We must be careful, however, not to judge the poetry of the ancient bards of India according to our own standard of what is simple and natural and what is not. The great im- portance attached to what to us seem mere trifles in the performance of a sacrifice would not be sufficient to stamp this hymn as modem. The superstitious feel- ing about ceremonial minutiss is natural in a primi- tive state of civilization, and there are numerous hymns in the Veda which must be adjudged to the earliest period, and where, nevertheless, we meet with sentiments worthy of the most advanced cere- monialists. The same caution is still more necessary with re- gard to another criterion which has been used to prove the modern date of certain hymns, the presence PHILOSOPHICAL HYMNS. 557 # of philosophical ideas. It has been the custom to re- gard any hymn in which the nature of the deity, the problems of existence, the hope of immortality are expressed, as decidedly modern. The whole tenth Mandala has been assigned to a later period, chiefly because it contains many hymns the language of which approaches the philosophical diction of the Upanishads and of the still later systems of philosophy. This is a mistake. There is very little to guide us in forming a judgment of what is genuine and primitive in the ancient poetry of so peculiar a race as the Aryans of India. We have nothing to compare with the poetical relics of. the Vedic age. Because we find in some hymns ideas or expressions which, in the literatures of other nations, such as the Jews, or Greeks and Romans, we have accustomed ourselves to regard as of comparatively modern growth, we have no right to conclude that they are equally modern in the history of the Indian mind. The Veda opens to us a chamber in the labyrinth of the human mind through which the other Aryan nations had passed long before they become visible to us by the light of history.