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These great sacrifices were (1) teaching and studying, metaphorically called a sacrifice to the Supreme God (Brahman) ; (2) offerings of water to the departed spirits ; (3) burnt offerings to the minor gods ; 4) offerings to ghosts ; and (5) an ever hospitable recep- tion of guests described as a sacrifice to men. (Ill, 67 and 70). The last duty was a most important one and Hindu sages are never tired of impressing on pious Hindus this great duty to their fellow-men. The five great sacrifices spoken of above are the same as were enjoined in the Sutra Period as Deva- yajna, Bhutayajna, Pitriyajna, Brahmayajna and Manu- shyayajna, (Asvaldyana Grihya Sutra III, 1). The R. c. D., A. I.— III. II Digitized 162 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. ancient and cardinal idea was that man should not look to his own needs and comforts before he had done his duty to all beings above and around him. Accord- ingly it was ordained that these five sacrifices should be daily performed. Apart from the daily offering to departed spirits, there was the monthly Pinda-Pitriyajna (III, 122;, Pindas or cakes were prepared on this occasion and were offered to the manes. Brahmans were fed at the daily offerings to departed spirits, as well as at the monthly funeral offerings, and Manu is as bitter as the Sutrakaras were, against feeding ignorant Brahmans. "As a husbandman reaps no harvest when he has sown the seed in barren soil, even so the giver of sacrificial food gains no reward if he presented it to a man unacquainted with the Richas." (Ill, 142). "As many mouthfuls as an ignorant man swallows at a sacrifice to the gods or to the manes, so many red hot spikes, spears and iron balls, must the giver of the repast swallow after death." (Ill, 133). Elsewhere we are warned against offering even water "to a Brahman who acts like a cat, or like a heron." And it would sound irreverent to modern Hindus if we quoted the words in which Manu indignantly stig- matized the cat-like and heron-like Brahmans of his day ! (IV, 192, 195, 196). With regard to sacrifices we are told that a Brahman should always offer the Agnihotra morning and evening ; Digitized by Google CHAP. X] DOMESTIC LIFE, &C. 1 63 that he ahould perform the Darsa and Paurnamasa Ishtis at the new and full moon ; that he should do the Chaturmasya sacrifices at the end of the three seasons ; that he should perform animal sacrifices at the solsti- ces, and a soma sacrifice at the end of the year. When the new grain was reaped he should perform an Agra- yana Ishti and an animal sacrifice. (IV, 25 to 27.) The reader is referred to Chapters VII and VIII of the Third Book for an account of these and similar rites as described in the older Sutra works. All these injunctions to continue the daily, monthly, and periodical rites prescribed in the ancient Brahmanas and Sutras, shew that Manu sought to perpetuate the old Vedic rites which were fast falling into disuse. Such expressions as " A Brahman who keeps sacred fires" (IV, 27) would indicate that to keep such fires was becoming rather the exception than the rule ; and bitter expressions against heretics would indicate that the influence of Buddhists and others was telling on the ancient forms and rites. A householder is forbidden to honor, even by greeting, heretics and logicians arguing against the Veda (IV, 30) ; he is directed to avoid atheism and cavilling at the Veda (IV, 163) ; and women who have joined a heretical sect are classed with lewd women living with many men, with drunken women, with murderesses of their husbands, and with women who have caused abortion (V, 90). We shall probably never know exactly in what way and Digitized ify BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. by what degrees the Vedic rites and forms of the Epic and Rationalistic Periods were changed into the forms of modern Hinduism. But we may be quite certain that at the very time at which the Institutes of Manu were compiled, the ancient domestic sacrifices (Grihya) at the house-holder's hearth and the more pompous sacrifices (Srauta) performed by priests were falling into disuse, and were being supplanted by those very temple priests whom Manu contemptuously classes with sellers of meat and wine, with shopkeepers and userers (III, 152,180). The Institutes are a vain attempt to perpetuate the past against the innovations of the present, and the historian has little difficulty in noting in what direction the tide was turning. The forms of marriage recounted by Manu are the same that we find in the Dharma Sutras. He enu- merates the Brdhma, the Daiva, the Arsha, the Pr&jA- patya, the Asura, the Gdndltarva, the Rdkshasa, and the Paisdcha forms ; but his sense of decorum rebels against some of the forms ; "the Paisdcha (seduction), and the Asura (sale), must never be used " (III, 25). And again we are emphatically told that " No father who knows the law must take even the smallest gratuity for his daughter ; for a man who, through avarice, takes a gratuity, is a seller of his offspring " (III, 54). As if to leave no doubt whatever on the subject, we are told that even a Sudra should not take a nuptial fee ; and that such a transaction has never been heard of (IX, 98 Digitized by Google CHAP. X.] DOMESTIC LIFE, &C. l6$ and 100). But nevertheless a nuptial fee was probably received among the low people in ancient times as it is done to this day in India, and Manu in one place in- cautiously lays down a rule that if one damsel has been shewn and another is given to a bridegroom, he may marry both for the same price (VIII, 204). Similarly Manu is indignant against widow-marriage, which ancient custom was becoming unpalatable to the later Hindus ; but he unguardedly informs us of the fact, — and the fact is more valuable to the historian than Manu's opinions, — that widow-marriage still pre- faced in his time, although it was not approved by the orthodox. We are told in (V, 157) that a widow must never even mention the name of another man after her husband has died, and again that a second husband is nowhere prescribed for virtuous women (V, 162). But nevertheless we are told of husbands of re-married women (III, 166) t and of sons of re-married widows (III, 155 and 181 ; IX, 169, 175 and 176). Virgin wi- dows were expressly permitted to re-marry. Such a widow " is worthy to perform with her second husband the nuptial ceremony " (IX, 176). Intermarriage, as we have already seen before, was free- ly allowed, provided that a man of a lower caste did not marry a woman of a higher caste. How far this pro- hibition was faithfully observed we do not know. Houen Tsang, after speaking of the four castes, the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya and the Sfldra, Digitized by Google 1 66 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. adds that 11 When they marry, they rise or fall in posi- tion according to their new relationship." Marriage between relations was strictly prohibited in Manu's time. " A damsel who is neither a Sapinda on the mother's side, nor belongs to the same family on the father's side, is recommended to twice born men for wedlock and conjugal union" (III, 5). And Houen Tsang also tell us that " they do not allow promiscuous marriages between relations." With regard to the age at which girls were married, we should infer from Manu's rules that though girls were sometimes married before they reached their puberty, this was by no means obligatory, and they often married later. We are told that a man of thirty should marry a girl of twelve, and that a younger man should marry girls still younger (IX, 94). We are again told that to a distinguished handsome suitor a father should give away his daughter " though she have not attained the proper age." This is laid down as an exception, and the usual rule therefore, we should infer, was to give away girls at " the proper age." And we are expressly told that a girl when marriageable should wait for three years and then give herself away (IX, 90), and that her father should rather keep her unmarried the whole of her life than give her away to a bridegroom who is not suitable (IX, 89). The ancient custom of raising issue on a brother's widow seems to have fallen into disuse. Manu in his Digitized by Google CHAP. X ] DOMESTIC LIFE, &C. 167 anxiety to adhere to ancient rule, and also to pro- claim a purer custom, seems to flatly contradict himself. In (IX, 59 & 60) he says that on failure of issue by her husband, a wife or widow who has been authorized may obtain the desired offspring by a bro- ther-in-law, or by some other Sapinda of the husband. But shortly after he emphatically declares that a widow must never be appointed to raise issue in this way ; that in the sacred texts the appointment of widows is nowhere mentioned ; that the practice is reprehended by the learned as fit for cattle (IX, 64 to 68). This is pretty strong language, and shews how utterly the somewhat primitive custom had fallen into disuse. It will be seen from what has been stated above that the Institutes of Manu are somewhat composite in their character. The author tries to adhere to ancient law, often quotes the current sayings and verses of his time, — many of which have been found in the Mahabha- rata,— - and at the same time he is anxious to proclaim a pure law for the Aryans. Actuated by such different in- fluences, Manu is sometimes uncertain in the rules he lays down ; but the general scope and object of his law cannot be mistaken by the candid reader. And if such a reader carefully peruses all the chapters and verses in the Code bearing on the position of women, he wuTin spite of some objectionable passages certainly form a high idea of the status of women, and of the Hindu civi- lization and manners of Manu's time.