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1One might as well suppose that, at the Asvamedha, all the ‘evil-doers’ who, according to Katyayana, are to bathe in the river, were meant to be drowned. INTRODUCTION. xli a purely symbolical performance. A large number of men and women, apparently intended to represent all classes of the community, are bound to eleven sacrificial posts, and after the necessary rites, concluding with the ‘ paryagnikarana ’—or the carrying of fire round the oblations—have been performed on them, they are one and all set free ; the sacrifice then proceeding with the offering of the set of eleven animal victims. That the ceremony in this form, with its pedantically elaborate array of symbolic human victims, cannot possibly lay claim to anyvery great antiquity is self-evident; the only question is whether it has not come to take the place of some other form of human sacrifice. Now, after the foregoing statement of facts, it would be idle to deny that the existence, at one time, of a simple form of human sacrifice is not only quite possible, but is indeed highly probable; and it would be no more than might be expected, if such a practice should eventually have revolted the moral sense of the more refined classes of the community !, just as it happened, little more than a hundred years ago, in the case of the scarcely less odious practice of the burning of witches in Christian lands. The practice of human sacrifices seems, however, to receive evidence of a yet more direct and unmistakable kind than the facts hitherto mentioned, from the ceremonial of the Purushamedha, as set forth in the Sankhayana and Vaitana Sdtras. If this evidence has been reserved here to the last, it is because there seems reason to believe that, in the form in which it is presented in those works, the sacrifice was never actually performed, and probably never meant to be performed, but that we have here to do with a mere theoretical scheme intended to complete the sacrificial system. The importance of the subject makes it, however, desirable that we should take a somewhat closer view of the procedure of the ‘human sacrifice,’ as laid down in those two Sdtras. 1 When the practice became generally recognised that the Sacrificer (and priests) should eat a portion of the offered victim, this alone would, as Professor Weber suggests, have tended to make human sacrifices impracticable. xlii SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
21 When the practice became generally recognised that the Sacrificer (and priests) should eat a portion of the offered victim, this alone would, as Professor Weber suggests, have tended to make human sacrifices impracticable. xlii SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA. Sankh. XVI, 10, 1. Pragdpati, having offered the Asvamedha, beheld the Purushamedha : what he had not gained by the Asvamedha, all that he gained by the Purushamedha!; and so does the sacrificer now, in performing the Purushamedha, gain thereby all that he had not gained by the Asvamedha. 2, 3. The whole of the Asvamedha ceremonial (is here performed); and an addition thereto. 4-8. First oblations to Agni Kama (desire), A. Datrz (the giver), and A. Pathikrizt (the path-maker)... 9. Having bought a Brahmaza or a Kshatriya for a thousand (cows) and a hundred horses, he sets him free for a year to do as he pleases in everything except breaches of chastity. 10. And they guard him accordingly. 11. For a year there are (daily) oblations to Anumati (approval), Pathy4 Svasti (success on the way), and Aditi. 12. Those (three daily oblations) to Savitré? in the reverse order. 13. By way of revolving legends (the Hotri recites) Narasamsani . . .— XVI, 11, 1-33 enumerate the Naérasamsani °, together with the respective Vedic passages.—XVI, 12, 1-7. There are twenty-five stakes, each twenty-five cubits long . ..; and twenty-five Agnishomiya victims. 8. Of the (three) Asvamedha days the first and last (are here performed). g-11. The second (day) is a pa#kavimsa-stoma one... 12. The Man, a Gomrega, and a hornless (polled) he-goat— these are the Pragapatya‘* (victims). 13. A Bos Gaurus, a Gayal, an elk (sarabha), a camel, and a Mayu Kimpurusha (? shrieking monkey) are the anustaraz4A4. 14-16. And the (other) victims in groups of twenty-five for the twenty-five seasonal deities... 17. Having made the adorned Man smell (kiss) the chanting-ground, (he addresses him) with the eleven verses (Kig-v. X, 15, 1-11) without ‘om,—‘ Up shall rise (the Fathers worthy of Soma), the lower, the 1 The Asvamedha section of the same work begins:—Prag4pati desired, ‘May I gain all my desires, may I attain all attainments.’ He beheld this three days’ sacrificial performance, the Asvamedha, and took it, and offered with it; and by offering with it he gained all his desires, and attained all attainments. 2 See XIII, 4, 2, 6-17. ® See p. xxxii. * See XIII, 2, 2, 2 seqq. INTRODUCTION, xliii
32 See XIII, 4, 2, 6-17. ® See p. xxxii. * See XIII, 2, 2, 2 seqq. INTRODUCTION, xliii higher, and the middle ones. 18. The Apri verses are ‘Agnir mrityu#’... 20. They then spread a red cloth, woven of kusa grass, for the Man to lie upon. 21. The Udg&tri approaches the suffocated. Man with (the chant of) a Saman to Yama (the god of death).— XVI, 13, 1. The Hotri with (the recitation of) the Purusha Narayaza (litany). 2. Then the officiating priests—Hotri, Brahman, Udgatrz, Adhvaryu—approach him each with two verses of the hymn (on Yama and the Fathers) Rég-v. X, 14, ‘Revere thou with offering King Yama Vaivasvata, the gatherer of men, who hath walked over the wide distances tracing out the path for many.’ 3-6. They then heal the Sacrificer (by reciting hymns X, 137; 161; 163; 186; 59; VII, 35). 7-18. Ceremonies analogous to those of the Asvamedha (cf. XIII, 5, 2, 1 seqq.), concluding with the Brahmavadya (brahmodya).— XVI, 14, 1-20. Details about chants, &c. ; the fourth (and last) day of the Purushamedha to be performed like the fifth of the Przsh¢kya-shadaha. Vait. S. XX XVII, 10. The Purushamedha (is performed) like the Asvamedha... 12. There are offerings to Agni Kama, Datr#, and Pathikrét. 13. He causes to be publicly proclaimed, ‘Let all that is subject to the Sacrificer assemble together!’ 14. The Sacrificer says, ‘To whom shall I give a thousand (cows) and a hundred horses to be the property of his relatives? Through whom shall I gain my object?’ 15. If a Brahmawa or a Kshatriya comes forward, they say, ‘ The transaction is completed.’ 16. If no one comes forward, let him conquer his nearest enemy, and perform the sacrifice with him. 17. To that (chosen man) he shall give that (price) for his relatives. 18. Let him make it be publicly known that, if any one’s wife were to speak !, he will seize that man’s whole property, and kill herself, if she be not a Brahmaza woman. 19. When, after being bathed and adorned, he (the man) is set free, he (the priest) recites the hymns A.V. XIX,6; X, 2.—20. For a year (daily) offerings to Pathyd Svasti, Aditi, and ' That is, as it would seem, with a view to dissuading her husband from offering himself as a victim. xliv SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA, ~ Anumati. 21. At the end of the year an animal offering to Indra-Pfishan. 22. The third day is a Mahvrata. 23. When (the man’) is bound to the post, he repeats the three verses, ‘Up shall rise’ . ..; and when he is unloosened, the utth4pani-verses. 24-26. When he is taken to the slaughtering-place (the priest repeats) the hariziverses; when he is made to lie down, the two verses, ‘ Be thou soft for him, O Earth’; and when he has been suffocated, (he repeats) the Sahasrabahu (or Purusha N4rayaza) litany, and hymns to Yama and Sarasvati — XXXVIII, 1-9 treat of the subsequent ceremonies, including the recitation, by the Brahman, of hymns with the view of healing the Sacrificer.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1One might as well suppose that, at the Asvamedha, all the ‘evil-doers’ who, according to Katyayana, are to bathe in the river, were meant to be drowned. INTRODUCTION. xli a purely symbolical performance. A large number of men and women, apparently intended to represent all classes of the community, are bound to eleven sacrificial posts, and after the necessary rites, concluding with the ‘ paryagnikarana ’—or the carrying of fire round the oblations—have been performed on them, they are one and all set free ; the sacrifice then proceeding with the offering of the set of eleven animal victims. That the ceremony in this form, with its pedantically elaborate array of symbolic human victims, cannot possibly lay claim to anyvery great antiquity is self-evident; the only question is whether it has not come to take the place of some other form of human sacrifice. Now, after the foregoing statement of facts, it would be idle to deny that the existence, at one time, of a simple form of human sacrifice is not only quite possible, but is indeed highly probable; and it would be no more than might be expected, if such a practice should eventually have revolted the moral sense of the more refined classes of the community !, just as it happened, little more than a hundred years ago, in the case of the scarcely less odious practice of the burning of witches in Christian lands. The practice of human sacrifices seems, however, to receive evidence of a yet more direct and unmistakable kind than the facts hitherto mentioned, from the ceremonial of the Purushamedha, as set forth in the Sankhayana and Vaitana Sdtras. If this evidence has been reserved here to the last, it is because there seems reason to believe that, in the form in which it is presented in those works, the sacrifice was never actually performed, and probably never meant to be performed, but that we have here to do with a mere theoretical scheme intended to complete the sacrificial system. The importance of the subject makes it, however, desirable that we should take a somewhat closer view of the procedure of the ‘human sacrifice,’ as laid down in those two Sdtras. 1 When the practice became generally recognised that the Sacrificer (and priests) should eat a portion of the offered victim, this alone would, as Professor Weber suggests, have tended to make human sacrifices impracticable. xlii SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
21 When the practice became generally recognised that the Sacrificer (and priests) should eat a portion of the offered victim, this alone would, as Professor Weber suggests, have tended to make human sacrifices impracticable. xlii SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA. Sankh. XVI, 10, 1. Pragdpati, having offered the Asvamedha, beheld the Purushamedha : what he had not gained by the Asvamedha, all that he gained by the Purushamedha!; and so does the sacrificer now, in performing the Purushamedha, gain thereby all that he had not gained by the Asvamedha. 2, 3. The whole of the Asvamedha ceremonial (is here performed); and an addition thereto. 4-8. First oblations to Agni Kama (desire), A. Datrz (the giver), and A. Pathikrizt (the path-maker)... 9. Having bought a Brahmaza or a Kshatriya for a thousand (cows) and a hundred horses, he sets him free for a year to do as he pleases in everything except breaches of chastity. 10. And they guard him accordingly. 11. For a year there are (daily) oblations to Anumati (approval), Pathy4 Svasti (success on the way), and Aditi. 12. Those (three daily oblations) to Savitré? in the reverse order. 13. By way of revolving legends (the Hotri recites) Narasamsani . . .— XVI, 11, 1-33 enumerate the Naérasamsani °, together with the respective Vedic passages.—XVI, 12, 1-7. There are twenty-five stakes, each twenty-five cubits long . ..; and twenty-five Agnishomiya victims. 8. Of the (three) Asvamedha days the first and last (are here performed). g-11. The second (day) is a pa#kavimsa-stoma one... 12. The Man, a Gomrega, and a hornless (polled) he-goat— these are the Pragapatya‘* (victims). 13. A Bos Gaurus, a Gayal, an elk (sarabha), a camel, and a Mayu Kimpurusha (? shrieking monkey) are the anustaraz4A4. 14-16. And the (other) victims in groups of twenty-five for the twenty-five seasonal deities... 17. Having made the adorned Man smell (kiss) the chanting-ground, (he addresses him) with the eleven verses (Kig-v. X, 15, 1-11) without ‘om,—‘ Up shall rise (the Fathers worthy of Soma), the lower, the 1 The Asvamedha section of the same work begins:—Prag4pati desired, ‘May I gain all my desires, may I attain all attainments.’ He beheld this three days’ sacrificial performance, the Asvamedha, and took it, and offered with it; and by offering with it he gained all his desires, and attained all attainments. 2 See XIII, 4, 2, 6-17. ® See p. xxxii. * See XIII, 2, 2, 2 seqq. INTRODUCTION, xliii
32 See XIII, 4, 2, 6-17. ® See p. xxxii. * See XIII, 2, 2, 2 seqq. INTRODUCTION, xliii higher, and the middle ones. 18. The Apri verses are ‘Agnir mrityu#’... 20. They then spread a red cloth, woven of kusa grass, for the Man to lie upon. 21. The Udg&tri approaches the suffocated. Man with (the chant of) a Saman to Yama (the god of death).— XVI, 13, 1. The Hotri with (the recitation of) the Purusha Narayaza (litany). 2. Then the officiating priests—Hotri, Brahman, Udgatrz, Adhvaryu—approach him each with two verses of the hymn (on Yama and the Fathers) Rég-v. X, 14, ‘Revere thou with offering King Yama Vaivasvata, the gatherer of men, who hath walked over the wide distances tracing out the path for many.’ 3-6. They then heal the Sacrificer (by reciting hymns X, 137; 161; 163; 186; 59; VII, 35). 7-18. Ceremonies analogous to those of the Asvamedha (cf. XIII, 5, 2, 1 seqq.), concluding with the Brahmavadya (brahmodya).— XVI, 14, 1-20. Details about chants, &c. ; the fourth (and last) day of the Purushamedha to be performed like the fifth of the Przsh¢kya-shadaha. Vait. S. XX XVII, 10. The Purushamedha (is performed) like the Asvamedha... 12. There are offerings to Agni Kama, Datr#, and Pathikrét. 13. He causes to be publicly proclaimed, ‘Let all that is subject to the Sacrificer assemble together!’ 14. The Sacrificer says, ‘To whom shall I give a thousand (cows) and a hundred horses to be the property of his relatives? Through whom shall I gain my object?’ 15. If a Brahmawa or a Kshatriya comes forward, they say, ‘ The transaction is completed.’ 16. If no one comes forward, let him conquer his nearest enemy, and perform the sacrifice with him. 17. To that (chosen man) he shall give that (price) for his relatives. 18. Let him make it be publicly known that, if any one’s wife were to speak !, he will seize that man’s whole property, and kill herself, if she be not a Brahmaza woman. 19. When, after being bathed and adorned, he (the man) is set free, he (the priest) recites the hymns A.V. XIX,6; X, 2.—20. For a year (daily) offerings to Pathyd Svasti, Aditi, and ' That is, as it would seem, with a view to dissuading her husband from offering himself as a victim. xliv SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA, ~ Anumati. 21. At the end of the year an animal offering to Indra-Pfishan. 22. The third day is a Mahvrata. 23. When (the man’) is bound to the post, he repeats the three verses, ‘Up shall rise’ . ..; and when he is unloosened, the utth4pani-verses. 24-26. When he is taken to the slaughtering-place (the priest repeats) the hariziverses; when he is made to lie down, the two verses, ‘ Be thou soft for him, O Earth’; and when he has been suffocated, (he repeats) the Sahasrabahu (or Purusha N4rayaza) litany, and hymns to Yama and Sarasvati — XXXVIII, 1-9 treat of the subsequent ceremonies, including the recitation, by the Brahman, of hymns with the view of healing the Sacrificer.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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