higher, and the middle ones.' i8. The Apr! verses are * Agnir tnrityuA ' . . , ao. They then spread a red cloth, woven of kiim grass, for the Man to lie upon. 21. The Udgatr/ approaches the suffocated Man with (the chant of) a SAman to Yama (the god of death). — XVI, 13, 1. The Hotn' with (the recitation of) the Purusha NaLrdya^a (litany). 2. Then the officiating priests — Hot/7, Brahman, UdgAtn, Adhvaryu — approach him each with two verses of the hymn (on Yama and the Fathers) Rtg-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 Ajvamedha (cf. XIII, 5, 2, 1 seqq.), concluding with the Brahmavadya (brahmodya). — XVI, 14, i-«o. Details about chants, &c. ; the fourth (and last) day of the Purushamedha to be performed like the fifth of the Pr/sh/Aya-sha^aha.
Vait. S. XXXVII, 10. The Purushamedha (is performed) like the Ajvamedha ... 12. There are offerings to Agni Kama, DAtr/, and PathikrA. 13. He causes to be publicly proclaimed, *Let all that is subject to the Sacrificer as- semble together ! ' 14. The Sacrificer says, * Tcv 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 BriLhma;/a 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 Br^hma//a 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 PathyA Svasti, Aditi, and
' That is, as it wonld seem, with a view to dissuading her husband from offering himself as a victim.
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Anumati. ai. At the end of the year an animal offering to Indra-P(ishan. 22. The third day is a Mah&vrata. 23. When (the man ^) is bound to the post, he repeats the three verses, * Up shall rise' . . .; and when he is un- loosened, the utthcipani- verses. 24-26. When he is taken to the slaughtering-place (the priest repeats) the hari/n- verses ; 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 NAr^ya^^a) litany, and hymns to Yama and Sarasvatt. — XXXVIII, 1-9 treat of the subsequent ceremonies, including the recitation, by the Brahman, of hymns with the view of healing the Sacrificer.
Now, even a slight consideration of the ritual of the Purushamedha, as sketched out in these two works, must, I think, convince us that this form of human sacrifice cannot possibly be recognised — any more than the one propounded in the 5atapatha and Taittiriya Br^hmawas — as having formed part of the traditional sacrificial cere- monial ; and that> in fact, it is nothing more than what 5&nkhdyana appears to claim for it, viz. an adaptation, and that a comparatively modern adaptation, of the existing Ajvamjedha ritual. Indeed, it seems to me by no means unlikely that the two different schemes of the Puru- shamedha originated at about the same time, and that they were intended to fill up a gap in the sacrificial system which seemed to require for Man, as the chief sacrificial animal, a more definite and, so to speak, a more dignified place in the ceremonial than was up to that time accorded to him. The circumstance that the account of this sacrifice, as given in the 5&dkh«lyana-siitra, presents some of the ordinary features of Brahma«a diction, and that it is indeed actually assigned by the commentary to the Mah4-Kaushi- taka, should not be allowed to weigh with us, since this is most likely done for the very purpose of securing for this scheme some sort of authoritative sanction of respectable
^ Dr. Garbe, in his translation, makes this and the subsequent rules refer (erroneously I think) to the animal victims of rule 21.
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antiquity ^ For seeing that the older ritualistic works know nothing of it, it seems sufficiently evident that this human sacrifice could not possibly have been nV^ performed in 5^hkh^yana's time, since no proper priest — no genuine Adhvaryu and Udg^tr/, at all events — could have been found to perform it. And, indeed, it can scarcely be without significance that the Atharva-sOtra is the only other work which recognises the ceremony ; and that nearly all the hymns and verses used in connection with the immolation of the human victim are taken from the Atharvan and the tenth mawflfala of the jRik, Nay, the very fact that, in both SCitra works, this sacrifice is represented as being undertaken, not for the great object of winning immortal life, but for the healing of the Sacrificer's bodily infirmities, might seem sufficient to stamp the ceremony as one partaking more of the nature of the superstitious rites of the Atharvan priests than of that of the great sacrifices of the traditional 5rauta ritual.
If thus we find it impossible to recognise the Puru- shamedha as a genuine member of the sacrificial system, this is still more the case as regards the Sarvamedha, or all-sacrifice, a ten days' performance which includes amongst its component parts, not only the Purushamedha, but also the Ajvamedha, the V^g^peya, and the Vijva^t with all the Stomas and Pr/sh/Aas, — it thus being the very ceremonial performance that might seem calculated to fitly crown the edifice of the sacrificial theory. As regards the ritualistic treatment of this sacrifice, the number of autho- rities dealing with it shows a further diminution from that of the Purushamedha. For whilst the 5atapatha-br^hma«a agrees with the SkhkhkyanB, and Vaitina Siitras on the general features of its ritual — with the exception, of course, of the radical difference as to the character of the human sacrifice — the Taittiriya-br&hma^a, which gave at least the list of the symbolic victims of the Purushamedha, is alto- gether silent on the Sarvamedha ; this ceremony being,
/ On this and other passages referred to the Mahst-Kanshttaka, q>. Professor Auirecht*s judicious remarks, Ait. Br., p. v.
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however, dealt with in some of the Sdtra works connected with the Black Ya^s.
The concluding chapter of the thirteenth \ikndz, contains a valuable and interesting account of the preparation of the burial-place or sepulchral mound, and the interment of the charred bones previously preserved, in an urn or jar, for some indefinite period since the burning of the dead body. Of especial interest, in this account, is the statement that the bones, when committed to the grave, are to be arranged in accordance with their natural position, the spaces between them being then filled up with bricks in such a way as to present, as in the case of the fire-altar, a fancied resemblance to the shape of a bird. It is difficult to see what explanation could be offered for this feature of the obsequies, except a vague belief in some form of future resurrection.
The fourteenth kA«rfa, up to the beginning of the BWhad- &ra«yaka, is entirely taken up with the exposition of the Pravargya, an important, though optional and subsidiary, ceremony performed on the Upasad-days ofSoma-sacrifices. Whilst the central feature of this sacrificial performance consists of a ceremony of an apparently simple and un- pretending character, viz. the preparation of a hot draught of milk and ghee, the Gharma, which the Sacrificer has to take, after oblations have been made thereof to various deities, the whole rite is treated with a considerable amount of mystic solemnity calculated to impart to it an air of unusual significance. A special importance is, however, attached to the rough clay pot, used for boiling the draught, and manufactured and baked in the course of the perform- ance itself; it is called Mahivfra, i.e. the great man or hero, and Szvarkg, or sovereign lord, and is made the object of fervid adoration as though it were a veritable deity of well-nigh paramount power.
Although the history of this ceremony is somewhat obscure, the place assigned to it in the Soma-ritual would lead one to suppose that its introduction must have taken place at a time when the main procedure of the Soma- sacrifice had already been definitely settled. This con-
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(to my mind) somewhat suspicious passage on which this theory is based.
Now, as regards the rival theory underlying the exposition of the Pravargya, as given in the 5atapatha-brahma«a, it makes the Mah^vira pot a symbol of the sun, whilst the hot milk draught represents the divine flood of life and light with which the performer of the ceremony becomes imbued. These symbolic interpretations, whatever we may think of them otherwise, certainly adapt themselves admirably to the general sacrificial imagery. As the sun is the head of the universe — or, in figurative language, the head of Pra^pati, the world-man — so its earthly, and earthen, counterpart, the MahAvira pot, is the head of Vish;/u, the sacrificial man, and the Sacrificer ; and this ceremony is thus performed in order to complete the universe and sacrifice, as well as the divine body of the Sacrificer, by supplying them with their head, their crowning-piece, so to speak ; and to imbue them with the divine essence of life and light. For this purpose the theory rather ingeniously avails itself of certain myths vaguely alluded to in the Rig-vedsL, according to which (X, 171, 2) Indra cut off the head of Makha (here identified with Vish;/u, the sacrifice and the sun-god); and (I, 116, la; 117, 20,; 119, 9) Dadhya»>fe, the son of Atharvan, was fitted by the Ajvins with a horse's head, and this hippocephalous creature then communicated to them the Madhu, or sweet thing, — that is, as would appear, the sweet doctrine of the Soma, the drink of immortality. This symbolism readily explains some points connected with the Pravargya ceremony, for which no obvious reason seems otherwise to suggest itself. For one thing, it accounts for the deep reverence shown to the Gharma vessel, which, in fact, is no other than the giver of light and life himself; whilst the optional character of the ceremony explains itself from the fact that the Soma-cup, of which the Sacrificer will subsequently partake, might of itself be expected to supply him with the blessings which he hopes to derive from the Pravargya. And, finally, it also becomes clear why the Pravargya must not form part of a man s first performance of a Soma-
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sacrifice. For the Pravargya,as we have seen, is performed on the preliminary days of the Soma-sacrifice, before the pressing of the Soma has taken place ; and it obviously is only after he has actually partaken of the Soma-drink, and has thereby potentially ' put on immortality/ that he can partake of the Gharma^ and thus become imbued with the celestial light ^ The dogmatical explanation of this ceremony thus puts, as it were, the finishing touch to that strange allegory by which the Indian theologians sought to make the sacrificial ceremonial a practical illustration of that unity of the All which speculation had been striving to compass since the days when the emptiness of the Vedic pantheon had dawned upon the thinking mind, and when critically inclined bards ventured to sing of the national god ^ : ' Not for a single day hast thou fought, nor hast thou any enemy, O Maghavan : illusion is what they say con- cerning thy battles ; no foe hast thou fought either to-day or aforetime.'
As regards the optional and somewhat recondite character of the Pravargya ceremony, it is probably not without significance that the section dealing therewith is combined with the speculative Br/had^ra;fyaka so as to make up with it the last book of the BrAhma«a, — the Ara//yaka-kS;i//a, or forest section. Such, at least, is the case in the M^dhyandina text, where the Pravargya section occupies the first three adhyiiyas of the last (four- teenth) book; whilst the KA;iva text presents a slight difficulty in this respect. What passes generally as the seventeenth (and last) Vknddi of that version, consists of the Br/had&ra/^yaka ; whilst the sixteenth Vknd^ begins with the section on funeral rites, corresponding to the last
