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*'^ Here the commentator adds : — " If there be con tradiction between the customs of countries, &c., and those customs which we are going to describe, one must adopt the custom as laid down by us, not those of the country. What we shall say is the general law, this is our meaning. Amongst the Yaidehas, for instance, one sees at once that loose habits prevail. But in the domestic lawi continence is prescribed ; therefore there is no doubt that the domestic and not the national customs are to be observed."^ 1 A6v. S. i. 7., '^ra y^l^^l ^•IM^^^Jl 4JI4|V|4}l^ <1lf^^l^ 3Wt- fiARLY CUSTOMS. 53 In the Siltras of Gautama, too, a similar line of con- duct is traced out. After it Has been said that the highest authority by which a government ought to be guided consists in the Yedas, Yed&ngas, S&stras, aiid old traditions, it is added (Adhy. 11. Siitra 20.), that in cases where the customs of countries, classes, and families arc not expressly founded upon a passage of the Veda, they are, notwithstanding, to be observed, if they are not clearly against the principles of the sacred writings, such as would be, for instance, marry- ing the daughter of a maternal uncle.^ There is an interesting passage in the Grihya-san- graha-pari6ishta, composed by the son of Gobhila, which Dr. Both quotes in his Essays on the Veda, p. 120. : — " The V&sishthas wear a braid on the right sidej the AtrSyas wear three braids, the Angiras wear ^ The commentator Haradatta here mentions the following as customs that prevailed in certain territories^ and which had no sanction in the Veda : — ^When the sun stands in Aries (mesha), the young girls would paint the San with his retinue, on the soil, with coloured dust, and worship this in the morning and evening. And in the month Mftrgai^irshft (Noven^r-Decemher) they roam about the village, nicely dressed, and whatever they receive as presents they give to the god. When the sun stands in Cancer (karkata) in PtovS Phalguni (February), they worship Uma, and distribute sprouting kidney-beans and salt. When the suns stands in Aries in Uttari Phalgunf (?), they worship the goddess Sri. As customs of classes he mentions that at the marriage of Sd- dras;, they fix posts in the ground, put thousands of reflecting lamps upon them, and lead the bride round by the hand. As customs of families, again, he remarks, that some wear the £ikha (lock of hair) in front, some behind, and that passages of the Veda (pravachanas) allow both accotding to different times. E 3 54 EARLY custom;^' five locks, the Bhrigus have their iea<J q^ite shaved, others have a lock of hair on the top of the head." ^ Another peculiarity ascribed to the Yfisisfathas is that they exclude meat from their sacrifices.^ A similar notice of the customs of neighbouring nations, is found in Raghunandana's quotation from the Harivan^, — that the Sakas (Scythians) have half their head shorn, the Yavanas (Greeks?) and Eambojfts the whole, that the P&radas (inhabitants of Faradene) wear their hair free, and the Pahlavas (Persians) wear beards.* In the same way, then, as difierent traditions were current in India relative to such observances, it is probable that difierent families had their own heroes, perhaps their own deities, and that they kept up the memory of them by their own poetic traditions. It is true that such a view is merely conjectural. But when we see that in some parts of the Veda, which are represented as belonging to difierent illustrious and s This we learn from the Kanna-pradipa, a Bupplement to the Sutras of Gobhila, I 18. : ?rf%itlV fifij: W^T I^^^"^ See also F&n. ga^a mayftravyansakfidi. SABLT CU8T01CS* 55 noble families, certain gods are more exclusively celebrated^; that names which in Yedic poetry ^ In later times, when the sects of Yishna and diva had sprung np and the Indian world was divided between them, it seems as if different deities had been ascribed to different castes. Thus it is said in die first Adhy&ja of the Yasishtha-smpti : Tfwui f^(^ fiimirt ^ VJ0 gf^rarrPRTrii ** A Brahman versed in the four Yedas, who does not find Y&sa deva, is a donkey of a Brahman, trembling for the heavy burden of the Yeda. Therefore, unless a man be a Yaish- nava, his Brahmahood will be lost ; bj being a Yaishnava one obtains perfection, there is no doubt For N&rftjana (Yishnu) the highest Brahma, is the deitj of the Brahmans ; Soma, Sfirya, and the rest, are the gods of Kshatrijas and YaiiSyas; while Bndra and similar gods ought to be sedu- louslj worshipped hj the Sftdras. Where the worship of Rudra is enjoined in the Fur&nas and law-books, it has no reference to Brahmans, as Fraj&pati declared. The worship of Budra and the Tripun^ra (the three horizontal marka across the forehead) are celebrated in the Fur&^as^ but onlj ■ 4 56 VEDIC TRADITIONS REMODELLED. are known as those of heroes and poets (PurA- ravas, Kutsa) are afterwards considered as names of infidels and heretics, we have a right to infer that we have here the traces of a widely extended practice. In the hymns of the Kig-veda we meet with al- lusions to several legendary stories — afterwards more fully developed by the Brahmans in their Br&hmanas — by which laws that were in later times acknow- ledged as generally binding, and as based upon the authority of the Veda, are manifestly violated. It is an essential doctrine of the Brahmans, that the reli- gious education, and the administration of sacrifices, as well as the receiving of rewards for these offices, belong exclusively to their own caste. Kakshivat, however, whose hymns are found in the first and ninth mandala of the Rig-veda, and who, whether on account of his name or for some better reason, is said to have been a Kshatriya, or of royal extraction, is represented as receiving from King Svanaya presents, which, according to Manu \ it would have been un- lawful for him to accept. In order to explain this for the castes of the Kshatrijas, YtA&yfkS, and ^{Ldras, an4 not for the others. Therefore, ye excellent Munis, the Tri- pundra must not be worn by Brahmans." 1 Cf. Mann, x. 76. ; and Rig-veda-bhashya, ii. p. 30. Kosen, who has quoted this passage to Rv. i. 18. 1., reads i||9|^imMl ^ ftifci^l^ T|f^^l^T<| which he translates by "abstinere jubet a dirigendis sacrificiis, ab institutione sacra et ab impuris donis,'' referring to Mann, x. 103 — 110. t^l$^ however, does not mean impure, but pore. The reading of the commentary ought to bo f^V4^l^ ^rf^XPf : for thus the very words of Manu, x. 76., are restored. ^^.X-lLt^ET visr>ic 1x1 o. tWaonof King: l^alinga, yet^ i^ilal tlao first ^^ ^^ 13C30XX usl^^ *^ ^ ffisebeen preseirved in. *^ — 4=1 -=t Teda. This poot lisxd fja, ± ma j>jt;i> iAj._*. _p*_'.^ "-- ^ lieget oflFspring^ for faim, accordin^^^g?^ caa lie custom. The queex^, l:icveveT, re*^^ sage, and sent lier- sei-va"t-i"i<ii**^^^*^^ this servant and the KisHi X^Srgha vat, and as tHe son <:>:^ ^'^V^^ to perform sacrifices and *o receiv ^^ Btory shows its piir-f>ose ^^'*^^ '=^^*. ^ '^ " k little doubt tUn,t. it ow*3S 't^i^^.T' conscience of the J^^^'^™^"^^^ of see their la^vs viola t<^* l>>^ *^ pi in _ Jl< tat the poets of the ^^^fi,„.^io la^- the observance of the ^^^ ^^^ compose* not exist when they lived *^,,^^i-e raise^i^ t for which in later times ttK^>^ -t^fis the so saints. Whether K:a.kshi^^^^^^^^t_,nai43 <c ;jjai) or a Kshatriya, of - ^ :^uit it is <3<3j .^ impossible to de.t^^^"^ived, 1^ ^^c times in which, rk*^ scrupled to act both a^ *^ -^liis cumatances required *5^ ^fc^ssor — -- — ^ evident, if we accept -- ^ _ woiai and p hecome^ Xassen 's evident, if we accept ^5" fii.tlier of Kakshf^ coBsideraDlrghatai^aas, ?" _^issio"^"^^ '^ t^e of the earliest BrtOimo.-n''^^ ^^^ >%.n^as atnj ^' pjjrts of Bengal, " ^-o — aro*^"*^ t In tWa case, tUe & gmfimt, for SadeVTj. Hi 58 VBBIC TRADITIONS KBMODBLLED. Now, under circumstances of this kind, when the Brahmans wei'e still labouring to establish their su- premacy over different parts of India, it can hardly be believed that the different castes and their respective duties and privileges should have been established as strictly as in later times.