English
Weigle. * ^is interesting .? * Afivaiayana-s^*^ *' ^,- l^' achrift der Deutschen Moreenl* ^''^ °n Canarese Uterature (Zeit- Atfftia or paft* means a festiv T^^^'^'^en GeseUscbaft). "****" *** its usual signification is chan,? *** Canarese. ,rb'®" " Sanskrit fore refers iaWa to a class of ***" book ^^' ^"'^^ **'*' from the SansWt into the rT**'*^ -w^hich" io **° transferred their meaning. We see. howeJ*''*^o Wag^ ^''' ?*"^ new and full moon, would Jl^^''* that tK *^X i*"^8 ''^ ^""* tached to ;,** in Canare^'^'''t v^^y '^l^%r *^* '^^"^ '*- INDICATIONS OF THE CEBEMONIAL. 491 Do thou perfect our sacred acts that we may live long. Let us not fail in thy friendship, 0 Agni." * Passages like this do not necessitate the admission of a full-grown ceremonial, they only point to its natural beginnings. The same remark applies to the three daily prayers, at sun-rise, lioon, and sun-set. Nature herself suggests these three periods as the most appro- priate for rendering than1(s to the heavenly givers of light and life. Thus Manu Yaivasvata^ alludes several times to the three periods of the day which the gods themselves have fixed for their sacrifice, sun-rise (siirya udyati, or siira udite), mid-day (madhyandine divah, or madhyandine), and sun-set (nimruchi, or d^tuchi), and he calls this established order of the sacrifice Wte, the law or the truth. But when these sacrifices are mentioned with their technical names, when the morning, and noon, and evening prayers are spoken of as first, second, and third libation, we feel that we move in a different at- " ^TTT^wranf ^frf^^f^Rnm: q^irrq^irT^i Rv.Tiii. 27. 19: — ^ rift TOt fi^j^^il ^3i| ^M\M W^ ^ll^ll ^n? v?T ^(^ U'hM^ ^i^pinr u^Tf^H^^H 492 INDICATIONS OF THE CEREMONIAL. mosphere, and that we are listening to priests rather than to poets. Thus Rv iii. 28. 1 : " Agni, accept our offering, the cake, 0 J&tavedas, at the morning libation, thou rich in prayer, "The baked cake, 0 Agni, is prepared for thee alone indeed; accept it, 0 youngest of all the gods. " Agni, eat the cake, offe^ to thee wfien the day is over, thou art the son of strength, stationed at the sacrifice. " At the mid-day libaUon, 0 J&tavedas, accept here the cake, 0 sage ! Agni, the wise do not diminish at the sacrifices the share of thee, who art great. " Agni, as thou lovest at the third libation the cake, 0 son of strength, that is offered to thee, therefore, moved by our praise, take this precious oblation to the immortal gods to rouse them. " Agni, thou who art growing, accept, 0 J4tayedas, the offering, the cake, at the close of day^ This hymn contains in reality nothing but a set of invocations for the three daily libations ; it uses the very words used in the ceremonial, and it would hardly have been written except by some pious priest brought up under the system of the Brahmanic cere- monial. The technical names of the priests are of frequent occurrence. The name of Ritoij would not prove a great development of the ceremonial. It would only mean the priest who officiates at the various seasons. It was then that the sacred fire was kindled by friction. It was lighted in the morning day after day (dive dive), it was lighted at the full and new moon, and it was lighted likewise at each of the great natural divisions of the year. Thus it is said, Rv. DANA8TUTIS. 493 iii. 29. 10 : " This wood is thy mother every season, bom from which thou shonest. Do thou sit there, as thou knowest it, and make our prayers prosper," There is nothing artificial in this. But when we meet with the names of the Ritvij priests, such as Potri, Agnidhra, Prafellstri, Neshtri, Hotri, Adhvaryu, Brahman ^, we can no longer doubt that here we have to deal with late and artificial poetry. These names of priests are afterwards still further generalised, and transferred to Agni, who, as the god of fire, is sup- posed to carry the offerings of men to the seats of the gods. He is called the Purohita, or high-priest. Sapta-hotri also, and sapta-mdjiusha, acting as seven priests^, are names applied to the god of the sacrificial flame. There is a whole class of hymns commonly called ddnastuHs^ or praises of gifts. They are the thanks- givings of certain priests for presents received from their royal patrons. All of these, like the Latin pa> negyrics, betray a modern character, and must be referred to the Mantra period. In the Br&hmana period, however, not only are these panegyrics known, but the liberality of these royal patrons is held up to the admiration and imitation of later generations by stories which had to be repeated at the sacrifices. In the l§&nkh&yana-siitras (xvi. 11.), the following stories called N&rd.8ansa (neuter), are mentioned as fit for such occasions. The story of iSunah^pha ; of Xakshi- vat Au6ija who received gifts from Svanaya Bhdr vyaya ; of Sy&vdfiva Archan&nasa who received gifts from Vaidada^vi ; of Bharadvdja who received gifts Rv. ii. 36. ; ii. 37. ^ These seven priests seem to be Hotri, Potri, Nesh^ri, Agnidh, Prai^tri, Adhvaryu and Brahman SATIBICAI. HYMNS. , IJriba tlie carpenter, and Prastoka S&rnjaya ; ot V<^*^ Vitha who was Purohita of King Sud&s Paijavanfl ; Sr^jfieab&.tbi, and how Asanga PlAyogi having been a of -^aw became a man ; of Vatsa K^nva who received y^^^ from Tirindira P&ra&avyaya ; of VaSa A6vy gif* received gifts from Prithu&ravas Kfiinina; 'J wl^-' -^anva who received gifts from Prishadhra M | pr^^ Mfi.tari6va (sic) ; of N&bh&nedishtha M&nflV8 1 db^^^cdved gifts from tHe Angiras'." All these acte "wb^^^yal liberality are recorded in the hymns of the of *" ^eda, but the hymns themselves may safely be B-i^V^ed to the second age of "Vedic poetry. te^"^^otber and most convincing proof that some of ^ymns belong to a secondary period of Vedic o^^ y, is contained in a song, ascribed to Vasishtha, T^ fkic^ the elaborate ceremonial of the Brahroana ^ "^^.^ally turned into ridicule. The 103rd hymn iti \%th I*a?4ala, which is called a panegyric of the y^® is clearly a satire on the priests; and it is •oixs *° observe that the same animal should we beeo chosen by the Vedic satirist torepreaetlt ♦hi nries*^' ^^i<^^ by the earliest satirist of Greece - aelected as the representative of the Homeric ^Tlfterlywg prostrate for a year, like ^ttiW^y^ t^erfo^^S ^-J- tl^e frogs have emitted th^T V^ Used y ^^%f ^^^"^ f l^eaven. When ^u ^^1'=^^ the lo^^"S °^ 'T "^^^^ *^i^ ^ves. ^^^Sk * uV^ben, attheapproach of the rainv sea,.,. ^'° ^as wetted them, as they ^vere longix.g andWx^^S' one goes to the other while he talks, fiC^ * V> ^•- Sber, Baying, akkhala C3pa.^§ xoci§Lol| ^^^ ^ SATIRICAL HYMNS. 495 *' One of them embraces the other, when they revel in the shower of water, and the brown frog jumping after he has been ducked, joins his speech with the green one. " As one of them repeats the speech of the other, like a pupil and his teacher, every limb of them is as it were in growth, when they converse eloquently on the surface of the water. " One of them is Cow-noise, the other Goat-noise, one is brown, the other green; they are different though they bear the same name, and modulate their voices in many ways as they speak. ^^ Like Brahmans at the Soma sacrifice of Atirfttra, sitting round a full pond and talking, you, O frogs, celebrate this day of the year when the rainy season begins. ^^ These Brahinans with their Soma have had their say, performing the annual rite. These Adhvaryus, sweating whilst they carry the hot pots, pop out like hermits. " They have always observed the order of the gods as they are to be worshipped in the twelvemonth; these men do not neglect their season; the frogs who had been like hot pots themselves are now released when the rainy season of the year sets in. " Cow-noise gave. Goat-noise gave, the Brown gave, and the Green gave us treasures. The frogs who give us hundreds of cows, lengthen our life in the rich autumn." There seems thus to be little room for doubt, if we consider the character of this and similar hymns, that we must make a distinction between two periods in the history of Vedic poetry, the one primitive, the 496 DATE OF THE MANTRA PEBIOD. other secondary. Poems, like those which we have just examined, are not the result of an original, free, and unconscious inspiration. They belong to an imitative, reflecting, and criticising age.