English
Whate'er in this perpetual course we sacrifice to god and god, that gift is offered up in thee. May he be our dear household Lord, Priest, pleasant and choice-worthy ; may we, with bright fires, be dear to him. The gods, adored with brilliant fires, have granted precious wealth to us ; so, with bright fires, we pray to thee. And, O Immortal One, so may the eulogies of mortal men belong to us and thee alike. With all thy fires, O Agni, find pleasure in this our sacrifice, and this our speech, O Son of Strength. Rigveda, I. xxvi ; Griffith, vol. i. 34. THE THREE VEDAS 27 2. Funeral Hymn NOTE. — The verses of this hymn nre used in the Hindn funeral ceremony as it is prescribed in the Sutras. See Asvalayana, Grihyasutra , iv. 1-6. Him who departed over the mighty mountains, and thus showed the path to many, the son of Vivasvant, the gatherer of the peoples, Yama the king, do thou honour with an oblation. Yama first found a refuge for us ; nor can that rich land be taken away. Whither our fathers of old time have gone, thither along their own paths the children go. Go forth, go forth by the ancient paths whither our fathers of old time have gone. Thou shalt see both kings re joicing in their bliss, Yama and Varuna the god. Go join the Fathers, join Yama, and thy merit in highest heaven. Leaving thy imperfections, return to thy home, and, filled with life, join thy body. Depart, separate and disperse : for him the Fathers have prepared this place ; Yama grants him a place of rest, adorned with days and waters and nights. By the straight path hasten thou past the two Sarameyan dogs, four-eyed, brindled. Then draw near the mindful Fathers, who revel in bliss with Yama. And these two dogs of thine, Yama, warders, four-eyed, path-guardians, men-beholders, to them do thou entrust this man, O king, and bestow both health and wealth upon him. Rigveda, X. xiv. 1-2. "-IT. 2S OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY TABLES 2. The Divisions of the Vedic People which became the Great Castes 1. Brahmaiis : prayer-men, priests. 2. Kshatriyas : authority-men, rulers and soldiers (called also Rajanyas). 3. Vaiiyas : men of the people, agriculturalists. 4. Sudras : aboriginal people brought under Brahman authority. 3. The Three Orders of Brahmans from hu = pour on the fire, from ndgai = sing. 3. adhvaryu = ' working priest ' from adhvara = a ritual act. 4. The Vedas and their Names the holri recites richas, ' praises ' : hence Rigveda. the udgdtri raises sainatn', ' chants ' : hence Sdmaveda. the adlivaryu mutters yajumshi,' sacrificial formulae ' ; hence Yajwveda. XOTE. — The word Veda means knowledge. 5. Growth of the Three Vedas DATES UNKNOWN External Events. History. literature. The Indo-Aryans on both sides of the Indus. Gradual Israel leaves Egypt, about 1320 B.C. The Priests divided into Composition of Fall of Troy. Three Orders. Rise of Priestly Education. the Hymns. David, King of Israel, about 1000 B. C. The Indo-Aryans as far east as Gradual Kurukshetra. Compilation Theory of the Four Castes. of the Compilation Rigveda. of the Sdmaveda. Compilation of the Yajuiveda. CHAPTER III SACERDOTAL PERIOD THE BRAHMANAS Dates Unknown 18. The great question which we have to learn to answer at this point is : How did the simple people we have just heard of become the Hindus whom we know ? The trans formation took place as a result of two forces : — (a) The gradual development of the culture of the people. (l>) The gradual conquest of India by them. The conquest was carried out partly by war, but largely by the priests, who won over the tribes by their superior knowledge and culture. This chapter and the following will show how the simple faith of the ftisveda was transformed into the Hindu system. 19. History. The Aryans continued to advance eastwards during this period, leavening the old population as they went, until by its close nearly the whole of North India had come under their government and civilization. As they NOTE. — The text at the top of the page calls THE BRAHMANS GODS : ' Verily, there are two kinds of gods; for, indeed, the gods are the gods ; and the Brahmans who have studied and teach sacred lore are the human gods.' Satapatha Brdhniana, II. ii. 2, 6. 30 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY went, the Brahmans brought the aboriginal tribes under their priestly rule, giving each tribe a definite place in their social system, which was now steadily stiffening into caste. Thus many new caste-groups arose. The land was divided into a great many small kingdoms, most of them ruled by kings of Aryan race. Large trade sprang up ; even sea voyages on the Indian Ocean were undertaken ; and wealth increased. Through the intercourse of Indian sailors with merchants in Babylonia the art of writing was introduced ; but for lack of suitable writing materials it was not used for literary purposes for many centuries. By the end of the period the patriarchal family had become more developed, and women were beginning to be looked down upon. It became the rule that a Hindu could not eat with his wife. 20. Religion. The extension and elaboration of the sacrificial system is what gives this period its religious character. While, in the times of the Rigveda, men sought to win the regard of the gods, or to persuade them to give their help by sacrifice, hymn and prayer, in this new period the sacrifice is regarded as a mysterious operation which, if faithfully carried out, will irresistibly compel the gods to grant the appropriate reward. If only carried far enough, sacrifices will exalt a man to the level of the gods. The accurate performance of every detail of the ritual thus became a matter of extremes! importance. 21. For this reason the priest was all-powerful. His help was needed at every point in the intricate ceremonial of the altar. Without him the layman was helpless. Hence the divine authority of the Brahman was fully acknowledged and became firmly rooted in the religious practice of the nation. Indeed, so great had the power of the priests become that they were spoken of as gods upon earth, and were feared even more than the gods of heaven. Fees paid to them were declared to be quite as meritorious as sacrifices offered THE BRAHMANAS 31 to the celestials. All the old sacrifices were greatly extended and elaborated, so that no layman could conduct them with accuracy. It was during this period that the Rajasuya, or Coronation Sacrifice, the Asvamedha, or Horse Sacrifice, an assertion of imperial authority, the Purushamedha^ or Human Sacrifice (but a substitute was used), and the other great sacrifices, took definite form and became famous. 22. During this period the theological ideas of the Brahmans underwent a great change. A deep tendency is manifested towards belief in one God, either the personal Creator, Prajapati, or, more often, a mysterious incompre hensible divine essence diffused through all things. Along with this new God came the idea that the ordinary gods were merely mortals until they extorted immortality from the Supreme by sacri fice and austerity. Many of the ancient gods had already fallen into the back ground, while others had come into great prominence, among whom were Rudra, who now received his more attractive name, Siva, and Vishnu; Sivaasthemountain- god and the god of thieves, and Vishnu as the sun-god. 23. Towards the end of this period we begin to meet a real order of ascetics. They lived in the forest and usually built themselves huts of wood or leaves. They were called Vanaprasthas, forest-dwellers, hermits, and a collection of their huts was . A VANAPRASTHA AND HIS HUT From the Bharhut Stiipa, now in Calcutta Museum (Cunningham, pi. xlvi). See below, p. 62. 32 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY called an asrama, hermitage. They wore coats of bark or skin, wound up their hair in matted coils, and lived largely on woodland fare. The law of ahimsa (harmlessness), that they must not kill an animal nor break a living twig from a tree, gradually arose among them. They continued the worship of the gods and the worship of their ancestors, and they retained their place in the family and in caste, but did no work of any kind. They practised various methods of severe austerity, enduring extreme cold and heat, strange food, most painful postures, and such like.