DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0034
22 Rihialistic Brahmanism.
offerings would be dispensed with when these same energies
were personalized as divine manifestations of the one Spirit.
In fact the necessity for sacrificial acts (karman) to secure
the favour of the gods became ingrained in the whole Brah-
manical system. Not even Jewish literature contains so
many words relating to sacrifice as the literature of the Brah-
mans. The due presentation of sacrificial offerings formed
the very kernel of all religious service. Hymn, praise, and
prayer, preaching, teaching, and repetition of the sacred
words of scripture were only subsidiary to this act. Every
man throughout his whole life rested his whole hopes on con-
tinually offering oblations of some kind to the gods in fire,
and the burning of his body at death was held to be the
last offering of himself in fire (antya ishti or antyeshti).
But the idea of the great efficacy of sacrifice was developed
gradually. In the Brahmanical, as in the earlier system, the
first aim of sacrifice was to present a simple thank-offering.
The second great aim was to nourish the gods with the
essence of the offered food, and so strengthen them for their
daily duty of maintaining the continuity of the universe.
The next idea was that of making these oblations of food
the means of wresting boons from the invigorated and grati-
fied deities, and so accomplishing some specific earthly object,
such, for example, as the birth of a son. A still more am-
bitious idea was that of employing sacrifice as an instrument
for the attainment of superhuman powers and even exaltation
to heaven.
All this involved the elaboration of a complicated ritual,
and the organization of a regularly constituted hierarchy.
To institute a sacrificial rite (such as the Asvamedha, Jyoti-
shtoma, Agnishtoma, Aptoryama, Vajapeya, ' strengthening
drink'), and to secure its being carefully conducted with the
proper repetition and intonation of innumerable hymns and
texts from the Veda, and the accurate observance of every
detail of an intricate ritual by a full complement of perhaps
offerings would be dispensed with when these same energies
were personalized as divine manifestations of the one Spirit.
In fact the necessity for sacrificial acts (karman) to secure
the favour of the gods became ingrained in the whole Brah-
manical system. Not even Jewish literature contains so
many words relating to sacrifice as the literature of the Brah-
mans. The due presentation of sacrificial offerings formed
the very kernel of all religious service. Hymn, praise, and
prayer, preaching, teaching, and repetition of the sacred
words of scripture were only subsidiary to this act. Every
man throughout his whole life rested his whole hopes on con-
tinually offering oblations of some kind to the gods in fire,
and the burning of his body at death was held to be the
last offering of himself in fire (antya ishti or antyeshti).
But the idea of the great efficacy of sacrifice was developed
gradually. In the Brahmanical, as in the earlier system, the
first aim of sacrifice was to present a simple thank-offering.
The second great aim was to nourish the gods with the
essence of the offered food, and so strengthen them for their
daily duty of maintaining the continuity of the universe.
The next idea was that of making these oblations of food
the means of wresting boons from the invigorated and grati-
fied deities, and so accomplishing some specific earthly object,
such, for example, as the birth of a son. A still more am-
bitious idea was that of employing sacrifice as an instrument
for the attainment of superhuman powers and even exaltation
to heaven.
All this involved the elaboration of a complicated ritual,
and the organization of a regularly constituted hierarchy.
To institute a sacrificial rite (such as the Asvamedha, Jyoti-
shtoma, Agnishtoma, Aptoryama, Vajapeya, ' strengthening
drink'), and to secure its being carefully conducted with the
proper repetition and intonation of innumerable hymns and
texts from the Veda, and the accurate observance of every
detail of an intricate ritual by a full complement of perhaps