English
If I outgrow it dig a hole, and keep me in it. If I outgrow this, 426 ,, ^^As. ^^ the sea, and J i, „ take ^^^,' ■" ^^^" b ^ved ft-o^ ^^ =triacti<>*^ ^,^r*ie soon i.. He ^?^^ ^"U-grown ^^ ^^^- ^e said to M Ml cot*^ ^<^od rises go I. . ^" °*i worship ^.p^ serve tbe^^^-^ught the fiK . ^ M^^.^ ^t^tjs; And in^K *^* ^^ *fter he h ^ Veot ^^'^^ t-> ^*''i had K M® ^'^ar wiich the fit \^^ '""-"'^fi^t. ■"'• 'I have ,. "■ T^!, **"• "'y the ^r!'^='^ 'i^- Bind the bWP to * „ art on the , ^^'e' not cut thee ... j alone. ^ , • " there He ^ent along meditating . J* tfspring. And he sacrifi % r"' ?^ ^^^hing for off P ,^y clarifi!?'''?^^^^ ^^^^-^ Jo (a p4ka to meet her. va came They B^id to her, Wk^ ^ ., „ c, .ThedaughterofManu' ./vth * ''^ *i<J, y tVn' ak 7. *Sy thou art ours *u ,aid. 'No, sherephed; ^he ^ho has fcegottU ^^^ bsAhmanas. 427 to him I belong.' Then they asked her to be their siftter, and she half agreed and half did not agree. She went off and came to Manu. Manu said to her, * Who art thou ?' She said, * I am thy daughter/ * How art thou my daughter V he asked. She replied, ^ The oblations which thou hast thrown into the waters, clarified butter, coagu- lated milk, whey and curds, by them thou hast be- gotten me. I am a blessing. Praise me at the sacri- fice. If thou praise me at the sacrifice, thou wilt be rich in offspring and cattle. Whatever blessing thou wilt ask by me, will all be given to thee.' Thus he praised her in the middle of this sacrifice ; for the middle of the sacrifice is that which comes between the introductory and the final prayers (pray&jfts and anuy4j&s). Manu went along with her, meditating a hymn, and wishing for offspring ; and by her he begat this offspring, which is called the offspring of Manu, and whatever blessing he asked was all given to him. She is indeed Idd. Whoever knows this, and goes with IdiL, he begets the offspring which Manu begat ; and whatever blessing he asks by her, is all given to him." These extracts from the Br&hmanas will be suffi- cient to show that there is much curious information to be gathered from these compilations. In spite of their general dreariness, the Bdlhmanas well deserve to be preserved from destruction, which can only be done by the help of European editors. It is true that the ceremonial, the vidhis, can be better studied in the SAtras, but if we want to know what meaning was assigned to every act of the sacrifice, such as it 428 , ^^^^''^'Av^s. Ianded doAvn Bral.^*^Ji:>r Brahmana, ^:*' ^^ng before t^ej*^ *'' tion o\^^^^' professed oKl '^"'* ^^^^^^t these ^^^P^^'" they ^l^^^f-'^/fnd phifoLT'^to dogmXr^^'^' in tV.e -^^^ sages ^re J?^^^ he con flic ,C'^^*^."^arfy tunes ^^/J^imini. Accor^^^^''*^ t''^ *^ma! T"^' commetxt* ,3 j^ doubt H.'^'^fc featu^ of .f ?f '^^ and *^f T^ixoini's philos^^r^'^** afterguards be^"^^**^'^' B^^bma^-^ *<> '-'->^Z\ '^ frequently ut^T,^ l^^ ^"^^^ t.l>e attention of l^? ^^^ Problems^ ^^^ orcour^^ t^ discassio/i/n,i„i and his 4o^J"^ w serve to lead us on tc. t/'^° *re stated, but *i? ^" .J revelation. \v_ ;* Considers in the Ho-hf i*® t me the io8t heretical rL ''"^^^•^ ^^° defend fo *^" rap^ns of logic and &'T^V' ^'^ ^^^-P^s^ extxS.elyreptthefin,!*'^^-^^. t^^^^^^^ they ^^^-^* for argament's sake, they are^d f"^ ^^ih Kever was doga^atism mol ?P°" *° "*tai^' The mask of free discusTo^ successfully veiled u^^*^; discussion of the ^r^C^J^^" "" '^' ^^'^^'^i o^ Thefact of 80 many a?:, v .. "^y authorities being quoted K ORIGIN OF THE BRAHMAN AS. 429 name in these works shows that the Br&hmanas ex- hibit the accumulated thoughts of a long succes- sion of early theologians and philosophers. But the very earliest of these sages follow a train of thought which gives clear evidence of a decaying religion. The Br&hmanas presuppose, not only a complete col- lection of the ten Mandalas of the Rig-veda, not only the establishment of a most complicated ceremonial, not only the distribution of the ceremonial offices among three or four chisses of priests, but a complete break in the primitive tradition of the Aryan settlers of India. At the time when the law was laid down about the employment of certain hymns at certain parts of the sacrifice, the original meaning of these hymns, and the true conception of the gods to whom they were addressed, had been lost. The meaning also of the old and sacred customs by which their forefathers had hallowed the most critical epochs of life and the principal divisions of the year, had faded away from the memory of those whose lucubrations on the purport of the sacrifices have been embalmed in the so-called ArthavlUlas of the Br&hmanas. It is difficult to determine whether, before the beginning of the Br&hmana period, there existed various S&kh&s among the Bahvrichas. The collection of the Rig- veda sanhitft must no. doubt have been completed long before the age which led to the composition of Br&hmanas. Various readings also may have found their way into that collection before the Br&hmana period. But the scrupulous preservation of such variations, which were the natural result of oral tra- dition, seems more akin to the spirit of the Br&h- manas than to that of an earlier age. .There is less ^<:>bt as to fu '°°' ^''J*:.^ ^"? ^^^hando^f ^*^ o^ the 6^kh6 *. Brftbna^^^4^ Sanhitft, £„ *I called the T • ° *''e but ^** .^, ^' ^ataina .^'•^hmana of the ! ?'^' ice sucH *^^ion of ^ !L ''^quired bV the Lu ^'•'- ^-\.:1 o? *^ Chhaudo2^'**?n with re^ard?.''^- ^*"^\!Mb ^*"y ^alled^l^: l' ^ ot with ^f'^ ^''^ ^^'^^f *Btici^*y' ^^^ ^^ooy^T?'^'^^^^^ object, hZy^' xnana literature, we confine onSlZ^Z"^ °^^^h. thai not one line of any of tCtlZT 1^''''^^^, Dossess could have been comlcf ^/^^""^^a^ which ^ ' ^^e^ collection of the R^^^^^ -til after the co^! Fold division of the cere^fnlal *' ^1 "^'V^u *^*^- tnanas was composed by T^ -Not one of the Br^h, either a Bahvricha, an^A^h ""^ ""^^"^ *ot ' Adhvar>'U, or Cbhandoc^ THE TIIKEEFOLD CEKEMONIAL. 431 There was a fourth class of superintending priests, -who were supposed to be cognisant of the duties of all the three other classes: but there was, as we shall see, neither Br&hmana nor Sanhit& for their special benefit. According to the opinion of some, the superintendent or Brahman might indeed be an Adhvaryu, or even a Chhandoga, but the gene- ral rule is that he should be a Bahvricha^, because the Bahvricha had the widest knowledge of Vedic hymns. There must have been a time when every Brahman who had to act as a priest, whatever offices he had to perform at the sacrifice, was acquainted with the complete body of the sacred hymns, collected in the 'Rig-veda. But of that time no traces are left in our Brd^hmanas. Our Br&hmanas know of no hymns which are not the property of Hotri, Adhvaryu, or Udgfltri ; they know of no priests, except the four classes which have divided between themselves all the sacrifices, and have distinct duties assigned to them, whether they officiate singly or jointly. Such a system could only have been carried out by a power- ful and united priesthood ; its origin and continuance can hardly be conceived, without the admission of early councils and canons. Originally every sacrifice was a spontaneous act, and as such had a meaning. When the sacrifices fell into the hands of priests, the priest was at first the minister, afterwards the repre- KauBb..br. vi. 11. rf^is: ^K^P^ f%4i<4J ^^IH! ^uHH iIH4(^)ii ^ Mf<4lKli %^llV il^rftf^ *<^^l- ^^'^f^fcl '9S^^ f%pf I Some allowance must be made for the fact that the Kanshitakins are Bahvrichas. ^^^ ^ Of those ^,,, ^ -H bkAhm.,,,, sentati^ ^ ^fce last stage of^"^*^ t^* sacrifice ^ ^^^^^^^r^^^' '"^ cerTai^^P'-ie^tcraft that A ^"^'^ are ^i^^r^^ P"''^^- All .x**"'* made the ^P"''' of --.^*^^ --^ "'^^t ^f'^*^^' had taken pia^T^^Iy the r\-^^^^^^y well con^ * ^^ Br^hmana'^^"!! '^-fi*'^ left io *^^^<^^^>e first !.*''*'"ht andfeeiin^^^*'^ v,orBl^P^^^Bt\on from a >. ^"'^J' durvt^g^^^option beca.^^'§ Periods, muTi''"''^d ^v Vedio hyrans, thft i ^^^ original inte„ '^'"■ *^^ ^H an estraneeml. ^ ^ hardly n!S '**'* f "TeBsS^e- had ff,r-t oould have\ren'-J-nd !r.n Tbe author of ,t '° **^ J^ of t^,* * -^ed that those L *^ BrAhmanas ZJ^^^' '"^^tr the sake Of Th'^.