rank in the body politic ; when they sought to perpetuate their social ascendancy by strictly defining the privileges and duties of the several classes, and assigning to them their respective places in the gradated scale of the Brahma- nical community. The period during which the main body of theVedic hymns was composed, in the land of the seven rivers, seems to have been followed by a time of wars and conquests. From the literary products of the succeeding period we can see that the centre of the Aryan civilisation had in the meantime shifted from the region of the Sindhu (Indus) to that of the Yamuna (Jumna) and Gahga. As the conquered districts were no doubt mainly occupied by aboriginal tribes, which had either to retire before their Aryan conquerors, or else to submit to them as 5udras, or serfs, it seems not unnatural to suppose that it was from a sense of the danger with which the purity of the Brahma- nical faith was threatened from the idolatrous practices of the aboriginal subjects, that the necessity of raising an insurmountable barrier between the Ar>^an freeman and the man of the servile class first suggested itself to the Brahmans. As religious interests would be largely involved in this kind of class legislation, it would naturally call into play the ingenuity of the priestly order ; and would create among them that tendency towards regulating the mutual relations of all classes of the community which ultimately found its legal expression, towards the close of this period, in the Dharma-sutras, the prototypes of the Hindu codes of law.
The struggle for social ascendancy between the priesthood and the ruling military class must, in the nature of things, have been of long duration. In the chief literary documents of this period which have come down to us, viz. the Ya^ur-veda, the Brahma;/as, and the hymns of the Atharva-veda some of which perhaps go back to the time of the later hymns of the Rik, we meet with numerous passages in which the ambitious claims of the Brahmans are put forward with singular frankness. The powerful personal influence exer- cised by the Purohitas, as has already been indicated, seems to have largely contributed to the final success of the
XIV ^ATAPATHA-BRAHMAiVA.
sacerdotal order. Thus we read in the Aitareya-brahma;/a VIII, 24-25, 'Verily, the gods do not eat the food offered by the king who is without a Purohita : wherefore let the king, who wishes to sacrifice, place a Brahman at the head (puro adhita). . . .' ' Now Agni Vaijvanara, who is pos- sessed of five destructive weapons, is the same as the Purohita. With them he constantly surrounds (protects) the king, even as the ocean surrounds the earth : the king- dom of such a ruler is undisturbed. His vital breath deserts him not before the (full term of) life, but he lives to old age, and attains to the full measure of life : he dies not (and is not born) again, whosoever possesses such a wise Brahman for his Purohita, for the guardian of his realm.' And again, in the Atharva-veda III, 19, 'May this prayer of mine be accomplished ; may perfect vigour and strength, may perfect, unceasing, and victorious power accrue to those whose Purohita I am. I perfect their kingdom, their might, their vigour, their strength. With this oblation I cut off the arms of their enemies .... Go forth, ye men, and conquer ; may your arms be terrible ! ye sharp-shafted, smite the weak-bowed ; ye of terrible weapons and terrible arms, (smite) the feeble ! when discharged, fly forth, O arrow, sped by prayer ; vanquish the enemies ; rush forward and slay all the best of them ; let not one of them escape^.'
The question as to how the Brahmans ultimately succeeded in overcoming the resistance of the ruling class receives but little light from the contemporaneous records. Later legendary accounts of sanguinary struggles between the two classes, and the final overthrow, and even annihilation, of the Kshatriyas can hardly deserve much credence. At best they seem to contain some small kernel of historical fact. Perseverance and tenacity of purpose were probably the chief means by which the Brahmans gained their ends. Not unfrequently, too, kings may have lent their countenance to the aspirations of the priesthood, as calculated to counter- act the unruly spirit and ambitious designs of the military order. We certainly meet with not a few instances of kings
' Cf. J. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, I, p. 283.
Introduction. Xv
figuring as the patrons of learned Brahmans. As the old
hymns were gradually assuming the character of divinely
inspired utterances, additional matter might occasionally
find its way into them, almost unconsciously, which more
adequately expressed the actual scope of the aspirations
of their priestly depositaries. That many such additions
must have been made to the old hymns, prior to the age
of diaskeuasts and exegetes, cannot be doubted.
Another, even more important, source of strength to the sacerdotal order was the sacrifice. The more complicated the ceremonial, the greater the dependence of the lay wor- shipper on the professional skill of the priests ; and the greater the number of priests required for the proper per- formance of these ceremonies, the larger the gains derived by the priesthood generally from this kind of occupation. What more natural, therefore, than that the highest importance should have been ascribed to these performances, and an ever-increasing attention bestowed on the elaboration of the ceremonial. From clear indications in not a few hymns of the Rig-veda it appears, as has already been remarked, that a distribution of the sacrificial functions among different classes of priests had taken place before the final redaction of that collection. As to the time when such a step may have become necessary for the due performance of sacri- fices, this is a question which will probably never be decided. The sacrifice is an old Indo-Iranian, if not Indo- Germanic, institution. Some of the chief Indian sacrifices undoubtedly go back, in some form or other, to the common Indo-Iranian period, notably the Soma-sacrifice, and, if we may judge from the coincidence of name between the apri -hymns ^ and the af ri-gan of the Parsi ritual, the animal sacrifice.
As regards the third great division of Indian sacrifices, the havirya^was (or offerings of milk, butter, grain-food, and similar materials), of which the present volume treats, we have hardly any evidence to fall back upon. It is,
* See Hang's Essays, p. 241 ; Max Miiller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 463 seq.
XVI ^-ATAPATHA-BRAHMAiVA.
however, highly probable that these sacrifices also reach at all events far back into the Vedic antiquity. Perhaps the careful preservation of the pravara-lists\ or lists of ancestors required at the ish^i, the normal form of offering which underlies the havirya^/7as, might he adduced in favour of the antiquity of the latter. This, however, is a point which requires further investigation. Neither has the last word been spoken regarding the traditional arrange- ments of the hymns. It is well known that the majority of the single collections of which the first seven Ma;/^alas (and to some extent those of the tenth) are made up, begin with hymns addressed to Agni, which, as a rule, are followed by hymns addressed to Indra. These, again, are in many cases followed by hymns to the Yisve Deva// (and Maruts)^. Now, in the later dogmatic literature we find the three Aryan castes, the Brahman, the Kshatra, and the Vis, identified with Agni, Indra, and the Vij've Devak (all the gods, or, as a special class, the All-Gods)^ respectively. This identification is a very natural one. Agni, the sacrificial fire, the bearer of oblations and caller of the gods, is, like the priest, the legitimate mediator between God and man. Penetrating brilliance (te^as) and holy lustre (var/^as) are the common attributes of the Brahman. Again, Indra, the valiant hero, for ever battling with the dark powers of the sky, is a not less appropriate representative of the knightly order. According to Professor Roth, this truly national deity of the Vedic Aryans would seem to have superseded
' See the present volume, p. 115 note.
^ See Max Miiller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 461 seq.
3 See especially Taitt. S. VII, i, i, 4. 5 ; Weber, Ind. Stud. X, pp. 8, 26. In Szt. Br. II, 4, 3, 6. 7, Indra and AgTii are identified with the Kshatra (? power in general) and the Visvc DevaA with the Vis. Sometimes Br/haspati or Brah- ma«aspati, the lord of prayer or worship, takes the place of Agni, as the representative of the priestly dignity (especially Taitt. S. IV, 3, 10, 1-3 ; Va^. S. 14, 28-30) ; and in several passages of the Rik this god appears to be identical with, or at least kindred to, Agni, the purohita and priest (see Max Miiller, Translation of Rig-veda, I, 77 ; J. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, V, p. 272 seq.) In Rig-veda X, 68, 9, where BWhaspati is said to have found (avindat) the dawn, the sky, and the fire (agni), and to have chased away darkness with his light (arka, sun), he seems rather to represent the element of light and fire generally (das Ur-licht, cf. Va^. S. IX, 10-12). In the second
INTRODUCTION. XVll
the older Indo-Iranian god Trita^, and to have gradually- encroached on the province of Varuwa, who perhaps was originally one of the highest deities of the Aryan (Indo-Germanic) pantheon. The warlike chiefs and clans- men evidently saw in Indra a more congenial object of their adoration. It can scarcely be without significance that of all the Vedic T^zshis, Vasish///a, the priest par excellence^ has ascribed to him by far the greatest number of hymns addressed to Varuwa (and Mitra-Varuwa), while there is not a single hymn to Varu;m in the family collection of the royal j??/shi Vij-vamitra, whose religious enthusiasm is divided almost exclusively between Agni, Indra, and the Vijve Deva//. Lastly, the identification of the common people with a whole class of comparatively inferior deities would naturally suggest itself. Hence we also find the Maruts'-, the constant companions and help- mates of Indra, the divine ruler, employed in a similar
Mawcfala the hymns to Bnhaspati are placed immediately after those to Agni and Indra. Though the abstract conception represented by this deity may seem a comparatively modern one, it will by no means be easy to prove from the text of the hymns addressed to him, that these are modern. It would almost seem as if two different tendencies of adoration had existed side by side from olden times; the one, a more popular and sensuous one, which, in Vedic times, found its chief expression in Indra and his circle of deities ; and the other, a more spiritual one, represented originally by Varuna (Mitra, &c. ; cf., however, .S'at. Br. IV, r, 4, 1-4), and in Vedic times, when the sacerdotal element more and more asserted itself, by Br/haspati, aid especially by Agni. The identi- fication of this god with the priestly office was as happy as it was natural ; for Agni, the genial inmate of every household, is indeed vaisvanara, the friend of all men. Shadowy conceptions, such as Br/haspati and Brahman, on the other hand, could evoke no feelings of sympathy in the hearts of the people generally. Of peculiar interest, in this respect, are the hymns in which Agni is associated with Indra (see Max Mliller's Science of Language, Second Series, p. 495 ; J. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, V. pp. 219, 220), and the passages in which Agni has ascribed to him functions which legitimately belong to Indra ; viz. the slaying of Vntra and destruction of the enemies' cities. The mutual relation of Indra and Varuwa has been well discussed in Dr. Hillebrandt's treatise 'Va- ru«a and Mitra,' p. 97 seq. It is most concisely expressed by Vasish/Aa, Rig-veda VII, 83, 9, ' The one (Indra) slays the enemies in battles ; the other (Varuwa) ever defends the ordinances.'
^ See the present volume, p. 48 note ; R. Roth, Zeitsch. der D. M. G , VI, p. 7,^ seq.
^ The Maruts are identified with the visaA, or clans, in S'at. Br. II, 5. i, 12 ; 2, 24 ; 27 ; 35, etc. In .S"ankh. 16. 17, 2-4 the heaven of the Maruts is assigned to the Vaii)'a (^Ind, Stud. X, p. 26).
XVlll SATAPATHA-BRAHMAiVA.
sense. The identification of the Vis with the Vij-ve Deva./i, which ultimately obtained; was probably determined chiefly by etymological considerations.