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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
The last few years have seen the successful application to so many forms of religious belief of theories which at first sight appear to have no support in Vedic myth or ritual, that it is natural to ask whether this apparent peculiarity of Vedic religion is real or not, or whether there exist in the ritual as preserved traces of beliefs and practices which reveal a state of religious thought older than that presented to us in the main body of the ritual.
page 930 note 1 I cannot, however, accept Oldenberg's view (Religion des Veda, p. 85, n. 1Google Scholar) that the existence, if proved, of totemism in Greece and Italy ia a proof that totemism is Aryan. There is overwhelming evidence that much of Greek and Italian religion is due to the pre-Aryan Mediterranean race; cf. Evans, , Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1901Google Scholar; Farnell, , Evolution of Religion, ch. i. How much, we are hardly ever likely to know.Google Scholar
page 930 note 2 Myth, Ritual, and Religion, ii, p. 212Google Scholar; cf. Fowler, Warde, Roman Festivals, pp. 84, 85.Google Scholar
page 930 note 3 Cf. Farnell, : Cults of the Greek States, iv, pp. 113–123, 256, 257; ii, p. 435Google Scholar. I do not consider totemism probable in Hellenic or Roman religion. SirLyall, Charles (J.R.A.S., 1904, p. 589) doubts its existence among Semitic peoples.Google Scholar
page 930 note 4 Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1894.Google Scholar
page 930 note 5 Farnell, : op. cit., i, pp. 88–101.Google Scholar
page 930 note 6 The Golden Bough 2 and Adonis, Attis, Osiris.
page 931 note 1 Fowler, Warde: op. cit., pp. 241–250.Google Scholar
page 931 note 2 Farnell, : op. cit., iv, pp. 268–284.Google Scholar
page 931 note 3 Vedic Mythology, p. 153Google Scholar. Cosmogonic myths (see J.A.O.S., xv, p. 178Google Scholar) are hardly in point. For later instances cf. Weber, , Ind. Stud., xiii, p. 415Google Scholar; Oldenberg, , Religion des Veda, pp. 85, 86.Google Scholar
page 931 note 4 So suggested in Müller's, Max translation, S.B.E., i.Google Scholar
page 931 note 5 As in modern India, see J.R.A.S., 1907, p. 489.Google Scholar
page 932 note 1 Cf. Burdon, , The Khasis, pp. 65, 66Google Scholar. Mere food tabus (e.g. Oldenberg, , op. cit., p. 415Google Scholar) prove nothing for totemism. See also Hopkins, , J.A.O.S., xvi, p. cliv.Google Scholar
page 932 note 2 Macdonell, : Vedic Mythology, pp. 150, 151.Google Scholar
page 932 note 3 Ibid., p. 153. Oldenberg, : Religion des Veda, p. 69. This worship may be a borrowing from the aborigines, but quite probably it may have arisen, spontaneously.Google Scholar
page 932 note 4 Farnell, : op. cit., iv, p. 22Google Scholar. Oldenberg's view (Religion des Veda, pp. 83, 84) is similar, but lays special stress on the temporary nature of the identification and its connection with magic.Google Scholar
page 933 note 1 Macdonell, : op. cit., pp. 148–150.Google Scholar
page 933 note 2 Thiere und Götter im vedischen Ritual, Breslau, 1905, p. 7.Google Scholar
page 933 note 3 The choice of colours of animals, of which Hillebrandt gives many cases, points in the same direction. Similarity means partial identity.
page 934 note 1 Frazer, : Adonis, Attis, Osiris, p. 80.Google Scholar
page 934 note 2 Hillebrandt, : Rituallitteratur, p. 116.Google Scholar
page 934 note 3 Religion des Veda, p. 77Google Scholar; see also Hillebrandt, , Thiere und Götter, p. 9, n. 5Google Scholar; Weber, , Ind. Stud., xiii, p. 247, n. 3.Google Scholar
page 935 note 1 The Golden Bough 2, ii, pp. 389 seq.Google Scholar Cf. Hunter, : Indian Empire 3, p. 100.Google Scholar
page 935 note 2 Thiere und Götter, p. 5.Google Scholar
page 935 note 3 Op. cit., pp. 6–8.Google Scholar The puruṣamṛga offered to the moon (Saṃhitā, Taittirīya, v, 5, 15Google Scholar) is of particular interest. Cf. Oldenberg, , op. cit., pp. 357–359.Google Scholar
page 936 note 1 Macdonell, : op. cit., p. 148.Google ScholarOldenberg, : op. cit., p. 74.Google Scholar
page 936 note 2 Frazer, : Adonis, Attis, Osiris, pp. 188, 189.Google Scholar
page 936 note 3 Oldenberg, (op. cit., p. 73) recognises the probability that Pūṣan originally was conceived as a goat.Google Scholar
page 936 note 4 Farnell, : op. cit., ii, pp. 435 seq.Google Scholar
page 936 note 5 Evans, : Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1901, p. 161Google Scholar. While recognising the original lion form of the god, Frazer, (Adonis, Attis, Osiris, pp. 53–56) takes the god for a vegetation deity like Attis or Adonis.Google Scholar
page 938 note 1 Hillebrandt, : Rituallitteratur, pp. 73, 122Google Scholar. Oldenberg, : op. cit., pp. 332, 499.Google Scholar
page 938 note 2 Still more so, of course, if the animal were already quasi-divine.
page 938 note 3 Farnell, : op. cit., iv, pp. 20 seq.Google Scholar
page 939 note 1 Ibid., p. 258.
page 939 note 2 Religion of the Semites.
page 939 note 3 Cf. Farnell, , Hibbert Journal, Jan., 1904Google Scholar; Frazer, , Adonis, Attis, Osiris, p. 172.Google Scholar
page 939 note 4 This practice may perhaps explain the reference in the Bhaktamāla to Kṛṣṇa gathering the waste food at the Rājasūya which DrGrierson, discusses, supra, pp. 680, 681.Google Scholar For other examples of sacramental meals see Oldenberg, , op. cit., pp. 326 seq.Google Scholar; and cf. the reason given in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa why Brāhmaṇas only can sacrifice (S.B.E., xxx, p. 321).Google Scholar
page 940 note 1 So the wife of the sacrificer, who wishes children, tastes the offering to the pitṛs, and thus wins their favour (Gobhila Gṛhya Sūtra, iv, 3, 27).Google Scholar
page 940 note 2 Āśvalāyana, Gṛhya Sūtra, i, 24.Google Scholar
page 940 note 3 Thiere und Götter, p. 4.Google ScholarOldenberg, (op. cit., pp. 327, 328)Google Scholar and Hopkins, (J.A.O.S., xvi, p. ecxxxix) take substantially the same view.Google Scholar
page 941 note 1 Āśvalāyana Gṛhya Sūtra, iv, 8, 27.Google Scholar
page 941 note 2 Farnell, : op. cit., iv, p. 304.Google ScholarFrazer, (Adonis, Attis, Osiris, p. 193)Google Scholar and Rohde, (Psyche 3, ii, p. 77) differ, but their views are much less probable.Google Scholar
page 941 note 3 Cf. Mannhardt, : Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 97–99.Google Scholar
page 941 note 4 Gṛhya Sūtra, iv, 8, 34.Google Scholar Cf. Oldenberg, , op. cit., pp. 333 seq.Google Scholar
page 942 note 1 Cf. Farnell, , op. cit., iv, p. 284, on the death of the priest of Apollo in the Earneia.Google Scholar
page 942 note 2 For similar spells cf. the use of a tiger-skin in the Rājasūya (Hillehrandt, , Rituallitteratur, p. 145Google Scholar), and of a bull's hide—to confer strength and long life—in the funeral rite, Āśvalāyana Gṛhya Sūtra, iv, 6, 8Google Scholar. So also at the Vājapeya, Hillebrandt, , p. 142.Google Scholar Cf. Oldenberg, , op. cit., pp. 324, 325, 330, 356, 357.Google Scholar
page 943 note 1 Bloomfield, : J.A.O.S., xv, p. 270.Google Scholar Probably they were once conceived as horses (Oldenberg, , op. cit., p. 73).Google Scholar
page 943 note 2 Macdonell, : op. cit., p. 52.Google Scholar
page 943 note 3 If the ass is so regarded, this would explain its presence with the horse and goat—both representing deities—at the Agnicayana (Oldenberg, , op. cit., pp. 78–80Google Scholar). From Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xi, 15, it appears to represent the Aśvins.Google Scholar
page 943 note 4 Cook, : l.c., pp. 81 seq.Google Scholar
page 943 note 5 Fowler, Warde: op. cit., pp. 320, 321.Google ScholarMannhardt, : op. cit., pp. 113 seq.Google Scholar
page 943 note 6 Ind. Stud., xiii, pp. 218 seq.Google Scholar Shāh Jahān placed decapitated criminals in the foundations of Shāhjahānābād (Manucci, , Storia do Mogor, i, p. 183).Google Scholar
page 944 note 1 Cf. Macdonell, , op. cit., pp. 162–164Google Scholar; Oldenberg, , op. cit., pp. 60–62.Google Scholar
page 944 note 2 Furness, : Home-Life of Borneo Head-Hunters, p. 59Google Scholar. So among the Was, , Upper Burma Gazetteer, i, 1, pp. 496 seq.Google Scholar Cf. however, Burdon, , The Khans, p. 16.Google Scholar
page 944 note 3 Weber, : Über der Königsweihe, p. 52Google Scholar. Hillebrandt, : Rituallitteratur, p. 145.Google Scholar
page 944 note 4 Weber, : Episches im vedischen Ritual, p. 10Google Scholar. Oldenberg, (op. cit., p. 366) appears to accept the view that there once was a real sacrifice.Google Scholar
page 945 note 1 Farnell, : op. cit., i, p. 94.Google Scholar
page 945 note 2 Frazer, : Adonis, Attis, Osiris, pp. 12, 34, 38, 85, 182, 314. I do not, however, consider the conjecture probable.Google Scholar
page 945 note 3 Farnell, : op. cit., ii, p. 441.Google ScholarSmith, Robertson: op. cit., pp. 345 seq.Google Scholar
page 945 note 4 Frazer, : op, cit., pp. 10, 34, 39.Google Scholar
page 946 note 1 Weber, : Ind. Streif., i, pp. 53 seq.Google Scholar; Episches im vedischen Ritual, pp. 9 seq.Google ScholarHillebrandt, : op. cit., p. 153.Google ScholarOldenberg, : op. cit., p. 365.Google Scholar
page 946 note 2 Z.D.M.G., xl, pp. 708 seq.Google Scholar; Gött. gel. Anz., 1889, pp. 418 seq.Google Scholar
page 946 note 3 J.R.A.S., 1907, p. 226Google Scholar, and see now Oldenberg, , Gött. gel Anz., 1907, p. 218, n. 1.Google Scholar
page 946 note 4 Farnell, : op. cit., iv, pp. 208–210.Google Scholar
page 946 note 5 Cf. Hillebrandt, : p. 152.Google Scholar Even the Mahābhāṣya (Ind. Stud., xiii, pp. 385 seq.Google Scholar) recognises, not onlythe Aśvamedha (Smith, Vincent, Early History, p. 177), but also sattras—though not dīrghasattas—as performed.Google Scholar
page 947 note 1 Cf. Griffith, : translation of Veda, White Yajur, p. 255.Google Scholar
page 947 note 2 Thiere und Götter, p. 7.Google Scholar
page 947 note 3 The parallelism with the Mexican rites described by Sahagun and others is striking as far as regards this point. But the rule is found in the Aśvamedha, and seems originally to have been due to the solar character of that rite, and in other points the parallel breaks down.
page 947 note 4 Cf. Frazer, , The Golden Bough 2, ii, pp. 238–248Google Scholar; Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 359–361Google Scholar; Farnell, , op. cit., iii, pp. 19, 20Google Scholar; Dieterich, , Archiv f. Religions-wissensch., 1904, pp. 10 seq.Google Scholar The sacrifice among the Khasis (Burdon, , op. cit., pp. 94 seq.Google Scholar) may have been an offering to propitiate the earth-goddess, or merely an offering to the snakes. The sacramental meal at Jaintia (ibid., p. 102) is noteworthy.
page 948 note 1 Cf. Hopkins, , Great Epic of India, pp. 378, 474Google Scholar; Hunter, , Indian Empire 3, p. 262.Google Scholar
page 948 note 2 Macpherson, : Memorials of Service in India, p. 113.Google ScholarFarnell, : op. cit., iii, p. 20, n. 6.Google Scholar
page 948 note 3 Gait, : J.A.S.B., 1898, pt. iGoogle Scholar, quoted by Burdon, , op. cit., p. 102.Google Scholar
page 948 note 4 Cf. SirLyall, C. in Burdon, , p. xxiii.Google Scholar
page 948 note 5 Burdon, , p. 72.Google Scholar
page 949 note 1 Burdon, , pp. 15, 16Google Scholar, and J.R.A.S., 1907, pp. 744, 745.Google ScholarUpper Burma Gazetteer, i, 1, pp. 484 seq.Google Scholar
page 949 note 2 Well summarised by Davids, Rhys, Buddhist India, pp. 223, 224.Google Scholar
page 949 note 3 One source may have been the desire to provide the god, not with food, but with a servant or wife. So in Mexico many of the cases of human sacrifice seem to have been intended to provide brides for the deity (Sahagun, , trans, by Jourdanet, & Simeon, , pp. 147, 148).Google Scholar
page 949 note 4 First pointed out by Aufrecht, , Bodleian Catalogue, p. 103.Google Scholar
