FOOTNOTES:

With these views and fictions, with the actual and legal consequences assigned to them, the system of castes was consistently developed and extended over the whole population. All modes of life, classes, and occupations were brought into its sphere; the remnant of the natives, the refractory tribes of the Aryas, received their position in the Brahman state; and the Çudras were followed by a long list of orders in a yet more degraded position.

From the contradictory views of the book on the connubium of the orders it follows clearly that the castes were not completely closed at the time when the book was finished; but they were closed, and, it would seem, not long after. When the advantage of blood has been once brought into such striking significance it must go on making further divisions; new circles, distinguished by descent or vocation, must be marked off from others as superior, and form an order; similar vocations, when the occupation has once been connected with the caste, and the vocation with descent, combine within the castes into new hereditary corporations. This tendency to make new separations is supported by the law when it arranges those tribes as new castes beside the four orders, and allots to them on a certain system the descendants of mixed marriages, thus creating a number of new castes by origin and descent. This was further increased by a division of vocations within the chief orders. The Brahmans, who also clung to the Veda and the worship, naturally regarded themselves as in a better and higher position than those who descended to the occupations of the Kshatriyas and Vaiçyas, and kept themselves apart. The opposition between the schools which inevitably grew up among the priestly Brahmans in course of time, gradually caused the adherents of oneschool to close their ranks against the adherents of another. The Kshatriyas, who remained warriors, stood apart from those who became husbandmen; among the Vaiçyas, the merchants, the handicraftsmen, and the husbandmen formed separate classes. Hence the different professions and schools of the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas: the merchants, smiths, carpenters, weavers, potters, etc. separated themselves each from the other as hereditary societies, and as they only married within the society, they became in turn subordinate castes, in reference to each other. And as in spite of all commands marriages took place outside the castes, those who were rejected in consequence of such marriages, and the children of them, could only rank with others in a similar position, and must form a new caste. If the marriage took place outside the main caste the descendants of the person thus excluded from his old caste must join the impure castes, which were, or were supposed to be, of similar origin. The hereditary professional societies within the four castes remained members of them in so far as they carried on occupations approved by the book of the law; but such members as pursued forbidden and impure trades and transmitted them to their descendants, stood outside and far below the main castes, like the castes arising out of mixtures, partly real and partly fictitious. At present the Brahmans are divided into twenty-five different societies, which do not intermarry, and in part refuse to eat with each other; the Kshatriyas are divided into thirty-six societies similarly closed; the pure and impure Vaiçyas, the better and worse Çudras, are divided into some hundred groups.[315]On a rough calculation it is assumed that now only about a tenth of the Brahmanic population of India carries on the occupationassigned in the law to the four great orders; the great majority in these castes has descended to the permitted vocations, and the greater part of the whole population belongs to the classes below the four chief orders.

We have already stated how closely the clans held together. The weight given by the caste system to pure blood did not suppress even among the Brahmans the pride in ancient and distinguished family descent. In the fourth centuryB.C.the Brahmans who continued to be occupied with the Veda and the sacred worship fell into forty-nine clans, which claimed to be derived from the saints of old time: Jamadagni, Gautama, Bharadvaja, Viçvamitra, Vasishtha, Kaçyapa, Atri, and Agastya. They were arranged in eight large tribes (gotra) named after these progenitors. At the consecration of the sacrificial fire the members of these clans invoked the series of their ancestors.[316]We may assume the same pride in descent among the Kshatriyas. We shall see how definitely the book of the law and the forms of ritual require that the ancestors should be mentioned up to the great-great-grandfather in the suit for any maiden, and at this day the wealthy families in all the castes are desirous to conclude alliances with houses of ancient origin for their children.

According to the law every man ought to marry; he must have a son who may one day pour for him the libations for the dead. Without sacrifice for the dead performed by a son, the soul of the father can never be liberated from a certain place in hell—fromPut. The law distinguishes various kinds of marriage, and promises greater or less blessings to the descendants according as the marriage celebrated is of a moreor less holy kind. The son born of the better kinds of marriage can purify a larger number of the members of the family upwards and downwards,i. e.of those already dead and those still to be born. If a father gives his daughter, bathed and adorned, to a husband learned in writing whom he has honourably invited and received into his house, the marriage is a Brahman-marriage. The son born of such a wife purifies ten members upwards and downwards both on the father's and the mother's side. When the father gives his daughter to the priest at the sacrifice it is a divine marriage; the son purifies seven members upwards and downwards on either side. If the father gives the daughter to the bridegroom with the words: "Fulfil ye all duties which devolve on you;" it is aprajapatimarriage, and the son purifies six members upwards and downwards. If the bridegroom has given a pair of cattle (a bull and cow) for religious objects, the marriage of the Rishis is celebrated; the son purifies three members upwards and downwards. These are the good forms of marriage, the four which follow are bad. Marriage from mutual inclination on either side is the marriage of the heavenly musicians, the Gandharvas. If the father has sold his daughter or taken gifts for her, it is the marriage of the Asuras, or evil spirits. Still worse is the marriage by abduction—the marriage of the Rakshasas; and the worst form of all is when the bride is previously intoxicated by drugs. This is the marriage of the blood-suckers (Piçacha). These kinds of marriages have no expiatory power for the ancestors or descendants; none but cruel, lying, and Veda-despising sons can spring from them.[317]To these rules on the form of marriagethe law adds that the younger sister is not to be married before the elder—nor can the younger brother marry before the elder—and advises that a wife be not taken from families too nearly related, such as those belonging to the same tribe (gotra); or from those which neglect the sacred rites, or those in which diseases prevail. A girl of eight years old is suitable for a husband of twenty-four; a girl of twelve for a husband of thirty. The later collections of laws repeat the rule that marriages are not to be celebrated with families which invoke the same ancestors.[318]

The views lying at the base of these regulations of the law about the various forms of marriage were transparent. Here, as everywhere, the Brahmans are, above all, to be favoured. The learned Brahman is to receive the girl from her father "adorned,"i. e., no doubt, well equipped. The Brahman, who officiates at the sacrifice, receives her as a gift; in this way the father and the daughter have the happy prospect of obtaining a blessing for ten or seven members of the family upwards and downwards. But other forms of marriage—by purchase, inclination, abduction—the law wishes to prevent, from which we may conclude that these forms of marriage were in existence, a fact sufficiently established by other evidence. The time, it is true, was long gone by when the Aryan brothers had only one wife; in the Epos only do we find traces of this custom. Draupadi is the wife of the five sons of Pandu; and in the Ramayana the brothers Rama and Lakshmana are attacked with the reproach—fictitious, it is true—that they have only one wife between them. The abduction of maidens and wives is more frequent in the Epos. In the Mahabharata, Bhishmacarries off the three daughters of the king of the Kaçis and marries the two younger to his step-brother Vijatravirya; Jayadaratha, the prince of the Indus, lifts Draupadi into his chariot and drives away with her, though her guardian cries out to him, that according to the custom of the Kshatriyas he cannot carry her off till he has conquered her husband in battle. It is skill in arms and strength which gains their wives for the heroes of the Epos. Arjuna wins Draupadi because he can bend the bow of her father, the king of the Panchalas (p. 87). Rama wins Sita by mastering the bow of Çiva. We also see in the Epos that princes allow their daughters the free choice of a husband, and the suitors appear on a definite day. Thus Kunti chooses Pandu for her husband; Damayanti, in her father's hall, places the garland of flowers on Nala's neck, and declares that he is her husband. The Greeks tell us that among the Cathæans, a tribe of the Panjab, young men and maidens chose each other for marriage. The purchase of brides is also mentioned in the Epos. Bhishma purchases the daughter of the prince of the Madras for Pandu with gold and precious stones. In ancient times, we can hardly doubt, purchase of the bride was the rule, except in the case of princes, and those who carried off their wives or gained them in battle.[319]The children, according to the conceptions peculiar to primitive conditions, belong to the father; he must be recompensed for the loss, and receive some return for the services which his daughter can no longer render him. If the law declares that form of marriage to be permissible in which a pair of cattle (a bull and a cow) are given—it is true with the addition, "for religious objects"—we may conclude that this was the customary price,and the law attempts to embody the custom into its system by the additional proviso, that the price is to be given "for religious objects." But the turn thus given in the law to the purchase of the bride was slow in being carried out, and was never carried out thoroughly. The Greeks at one time maintain that among the Indians the bridegroom gave the father a yoke of oxen; at another, that in contracting a marriage nothing was given or taken.[320]The custom of giving a pair of oxen for the bride follows from the rites of marriage still in existence,[321]and even now it is found in some regions of India. Marriage from inclination is also not regarded with favour in the law; such marriages might easily endanger the order of the castes, and introduce mixed connections. Still as the law allows the purchase of the bride under a very slight cover, so it allows the girl the free choice of a husband in exceptional cases. It is a father's duty to have his daughter married, for in the order of things she is intended to be a mother. If in three years after the daughter is of age for marriage the father makes no provision for giving her to a proper husband, she may choose a husband for herself out of the men of her caste; neither she nor the husband thus chosen are guilty in this matter. But the ornaments which she has received from her father, mother, and brothers she may not, in this case, carry into her new home; in doing so she would commit a theft. On the other hand, the husband whom she chooses has not to make any presents; the father has lost his right over his daughter by keeping her back beyond the time at which she could be a mother.[322]

It was precisely in this sphere that the old customs and poetry, the worship of the old gods, the old delight in life, were retained under the law and the Brahmanic system, or even in spite of it. Not the least proof of this is found in the prayers, formulas, and blessings in use at marriages. These occur for the most part in the Atharvaveda. The Grihya-sutras of Açvalayana from the middle of the fourth centuryB.C.give the ritual which must be observed on these occasions.[323]The playmates of a girl, who desire a husband for her, must, according to the Atharvaveda, speak thus: "O Agni, may the suitor come to this maid to our delight; may happiness come to her quickly by a husband; may Savitar bring to you the man who answers to your wishes! There comes the bridegroom, with hair-knot loosed in front. She was weary, O bridegroom, of going to the marriage of other maidens."[324]According to the sutras the man who desired a woman in marriage sent two of his friends to her father to ask for her. Then the family assembles and sits down opposite the two envoys, with their faces to the east. The envoys extol the family of the suitor, enumerate his forefathers, and ask for the bride. If the request is granted, "a bowl filled with fruits and gold is placed on the head of the bride, and the envoys say: 'We honour Aryaman, the kind friend, who brings the husband. I set thee (the bride) free from this place (the house of her father) as the gourd from the stem, not from thence.'" Then the bride is prepared for the arrival of the bridegroom by consecration and the bath. Marriage ought to take placein the autumn or the winter, but never when the moon is waning. At the bathing of the bride, the water is drawn with blessings; after it she is clad in the bridal garments with the following words: "May the goddesses, who spun and wove it, stretched it and folded the ends round about, clothe thee even to old age. Put on this garment, and long be thy years. Whatever charm there is in dice or wine, whatever charm in oxen, whatever charm in beauty—with this, ye Açvins, adorn her. So do we deck this wife for her husband; Indra, Agni, Varuna, Bhaga, Soma, may they enrich her with children." Then the bridegroom, accompanied by his friends, comes to the house of the bride, where he is courteously received by the father, and entertained with a draught of milk and honey. The bridegroom hands over the bridal gift (at this day garments and mantles are indispensable for this purpose), and when the family of the bride have placed a dark-red neck-band adorned with three precious stones on her, the Brahman unlooses two locks of hair and says: "I loose thee now from the bands of Varuna, with which the sublime Savitar bound thee. I loose thee from this place (the house of her father), not from thence, that she may, O Indra, giver of blessings, be rich in sons and prosperity." When the bands, which connect the bride with the house of her father, have thus been loosed, the father with his face turned to the north, with kuça-grass, water, and grain in his hand, hands over the maid to the bridegroom with these words: "To thee, the son, grandson, and great-grandson, of such and such a man, I give this maiden of this family and this race," and then he places her hand on the right hand of the bridegroom. The bridegroom has previously placed a stone on the ground, not far from the sacrificial fire; when receiving the hand of the bride he says: "For health and prosperity I take thy hand here. Bhaga, Aryaman, Pushan, Savitar, the gods give thee to me to govern my house." When the father has sprinkled the bride with melted butter, the bridegroom leads her to the stone, causes her to place the tip of her right foot on it, and says: "This sure and faithful stone I lay down for thy children on the lap of the divine earth; step on it with joy and looks of gladness. As Agni has taken the right hand of this earth, so did I take thy right hand. Fail not, united with me, in prosperity and progeny. Bhaga took thy right hand here, and Savitar. Thou art now my lawful wife; I am thy lord. Rich in children, live with me as thy husband for the space of a hundred autumns."[325]When the bride has thrown corn into the fire, the marriage contract is sealed by the "seven steps" which she makes, led by the bridegroom, towards the right, round the fire. At each step he recites the proper sentence. With the seventh the marriage is completed; and the Brahman sprinkles the youthful pair with lustral water.[326]After a festival, at which young men and girls dance and sing for three days, the husband conducts his wife to the car yoked with a pair of oxen, which is to carry her to her new house.[327]When ascending the chariot, the bride is thus addressed: "Ascend the gay, well-furnished car, the place of delight, and make the journey a glad one for thy husband. Viçvavasa (the spirit of virginity) depart from hence, for she has now a husband; let the husband and wife unite. May Pushan (p. 47) lead thee hence by the hand; may the Açvins conduct thee with the chariot; go hence tothe house, to be the lady therein. Lift her up (upon the chariot); beat away the Rakshasas; let king Bhaga advance. Whatever diseases follow after the glad bridal procession, may the holy gods send them back whence they came; may the robbers who lie in wait for the wedded pair fail to find them; may they go on a secure path and escape danger. This wife is here beautifully adorned. Come all, and look on her. Give her your blessing, and then disperse to your homes."[328]In the house of the bridegroom his family awaited the youthful pair, and then prayed: "Kind to the brother, the cattle, and her husband, O Indra, bring her rich in sons to us here, O Savitar. Stay not the maid on her way, O divinely-planted pair of pillars (the posts of the door of the house). May this wife enter the house for good, for the good of all two-footed and four-footed creatures. Look with no evil eye, slay not the husband, be gracious, powerful, gentle with the people of the house and propitious. Harm not thy relations by marriage, nor thy husband. Be bright, and of cheerful spirit; bring forth sons that are heroes; love the gods, and with friendly spirit tend the fire of this house. Make her, Indra, rich in sons; place ten sons in her. May ye never separate; enjoy your whole lives playing with sons and grandsons, rejoicing in your house." When the young wife has entered the house, her husband leads her to the dung-heap in the court, then round the fire of the new hearth, which is either kindled by friction, or taken from a fire which has last been used for sacrifice, and there causes her to offer the first sacrifice, at which she receives the courteous greeting of the assembledfamily of her husband. When ascending the marriage bed, the bride is thus addressed: "Ascend the bridal bed with joy. Wise and prudent as Indrani (Indra's wife) and careful, wake with the first beams of morning." On the following morning the married pair give away their bridal garments; the bridegroom's friend puts on a woollen garment, saying: "Whatever evil deed, whatever thing requiring expiation, has been done at this marriage, or on the journey, we cast it on the robe of the bridegroom's friend." When dressing himself the young husband says: "Freshly clad, I rise up to the beaming day; as the bird leaves the egg, so I slip from all guilt of sin." Then both husband and wife are thus addressed: "Waking up from happy union, rich in cows, sons, and gear, may ye live through many beaming dawns."

The law impresses on wives the greatest devotion and subjection to their husbands. Never, we are told, is the woman independent. In her childhood she depends on her father, then on her husband, and if he dies, on her sons. The sister is in the tutelage and power of the brother. So long as the husband lives, the wife is in a condition of subjection to him day and night; neither in his life nor after his death must she do anything displeasing to him, even though he is not irreproachable in his life, and gives himself to other loves; she must be good-tempered, careful and thrifty for house and home. She must honour her husband as a god; if she honours him on earth, she will herself be honoured in heaven; if she has kept her body, thoughts, and life pure, she receives one abode with him in heaven. The Epos presents beautiful and touching pictures of Indian wives, who follow their husbands into the wilderness, and when in the power of the enemy keep their faith totheir husbands, and without doubt possess the qualities of devotion and self-sacrifice, which, inherent in the disposition of the Aryas, were so greatly developed in the Brahmanic system, and found in India their most beautiful realisation in the character of women, to which indeed they chiefly belong. Though in the law the husband is beyond question the master in the house,—in case of resistance on the part of the wife, she may be punished even with blows of the bamboo,—he is nevertheless bound on his part to reverence and honour his wife; he must make her presents that she may adorn herself; and he must not vex her, for where the wife is vexed, the fire on the hearth soon goes out (it was quenched at the death of the wife), and when the wife curses a house it will soon fall to ruin.[329]

Adultery is in some cases threatened with very heavy penalties by the law. But here also the Brahman, when guilty, escapes with the least punishment, and the severest threats are directed against the members of the lower castes who have seduced a Brahman wife. If a Brahman commits adultery of the kind, which in the members of other castes is punished with death, he is to be shaven as a mark of disgrace, and the king must banish him out of the land; but his property is not to be taken from him; he may depart unharmed beyond the borders. But if Kshatriyas and Vaiçyas commit adultery with a Brahman woman of good family, they are to be burnt, and the woman is to be torn to pieces by dogs in a public place. As in these rules for punishment two views are intermixed, we can only ascertain that the later conception permits milder punishment in the case of wives who are not watched. If a Brahman has acriminal connection with a wife that is watched with her consent he must pay 500 panas, if against her consent, 1000 panas. If a Kshatriya has a similar connection with a Brahman woman who is watched, he is to be drenched with the urine of asses and pay 1000 panas. A Vaiçya is to be imprisoned for a year, and lose his whole property. If the wife was not watched, the Kshatriya pays 1000 panas, the Vaiçya 500 panas.[330]The Çudra who is guilty of adultery with the wife of a Dvija must die, if she was watched; if not, he loses his sexual organs.

Every approach to the wife of another man is looked on as equivalent to an adulterous inclination. Secret conversations in pleasure-gardens or in the forest, the sending of flowers and perfumes, and still more any touching of a married woman, or suffering oneself to be touched by her, or joking or playing with her, are proofs of adulterous love. Even the man who speaks with the wife of another, if a beggar, minstrel, sacrificer, cook, or artisan, is to be fined. The violation of a virgin, and the attempt on the part of a man of lower caste to seduce a virgin belonging to a higher caste are to be punished with death.

It has been already remarked that the hymns of the Rigveda speak of more than one wife among the princes of the Aryas. In one of these poems we find that Svanaya, who reigned on the bank of the Indus (p. 34), gave his ten daughters in marriage to the minstrel Kakshivat. But in the hymns of burial we hear of one wife only. In the Epos, Daçaratha, king of Ayodhya, has three wives, Pandu has two, and Vijitravirya has also two. In Manu's law also, as the rules already quoted show (p. 245), husbands are allowed to marry more than one wife. Still, not tomention the fact that this was only possible for men of fortune, the book states very distinctly that one only is the proper legitimate wife, that she alone can offer the sacrifice of the house with her husband; more plainly still does the law require that the king shall marry a wife from his own caste; his other wives are merely concubines.[331]The ritual observed at marriage recognises one wife only. If monogamy is not so strictly insisted on in the law, the reason is that the attempted removal of connubium between the three upper orders was made more possible by allowing several wives; for in this way it became more possible to insist that the first or legitimate wife, at any rate, should be taken from a similar caste, even by those whose obedience could not otherwise be gained. But the chief reason was that a son must necessarily be born to the father to offer libations for the dead to him. If the legitimate wife was barren, or brought forth daughters only, the defect must be remedied by a second wife. Even now, Hindoo wives, in a similar case, are urgent with their husbands to associate a second wife with them, in order that they may not die without male issue. How strongly the necessity was felt in ancient times is shown by an indication of the Rigveda, where the childless widow summons her brother-in-law to her bed,[332]and by the narrative in the Epos of the widows of the king who died without a son, for whom children are raised up by a relation, and these children pass for the issue of the dead king (p. 85, 101). The law shows that such a custom did exist, and is not a poetic invention. It permits a son to be begotten by the brother of the husband, or the nearest of kin after him; in any caseby a man of the same race (gotra), even in the lifetime of the husband with his consent. After the death of the husband this can be done by his younger brother, but at all times it must be without carnal desire and only in the sacred wish to raise up a male descendant for his relation. When a son is born any further commerce is forbidden under pain of losing caste. It is remarked, however, that learned Brahmans disapproved of this custom. It might be omitted when there was a daughter's son in existence, who could offer the funeral cakes for his maternal grandfather; the younger son of another father could also be adopted, but he must be entirely separated from his own family. At present the old custom only exists among the Çudras and the classes below these; among the Dvijas adoption takes place.[333]

In the burial hymns in the Rigveda the marriage is declared to be at an end, when the widow has accompanied the corpse of her dead husband to the place of rest; after the funeral was over, the widow was required to "elevate herself to the world of life." The law ordains that the widow shall not marry again after the death of her husband, even though she has had no children by him. If she does marry, she falls into contempt in this world, and in the next will be excluded from the abode of her husband. The widow is to remain alone, and not to utter the name of another man. She is to starve herself, living only on flowers, roots, and fruits; if in addition to this she avoids all sensual pleasure to the end of her life, pardons every injustice, and performs pious works and expiations, she ascends after death to heaven, even though she has never borne a child.[334]These are thesimple rules of the law concerning widowhood. The Dvija, whose wife dies before him, is to bury her, if she has lived virtuously according to rule, with sacred fire and suitable sacrifice. When the funeral is over he is permitted by the law to marry again and kindle the marriage fire.[335]

On children the law impresses the greatest reverence towards parents; and this respect is carried to a great extent in the Epos, where it appears in that exaggerated and caricatured form into which the good elements in the Indian character were driven by the victory of the Brahmans. Rama, "who conquers his parents by obedience, and turns them in the right way," greets his father and mother by falling down before them, and kissing their feet; he then places himself with folded hands at their side, in order to listen to what they have to say.[336]He practises obedience with the utmost punctiliousness, as well as the renunciation in which Brahmans saw the summit of all virtue. Even in the law the pupil kneels before the Brahman and his wife; and the Buddhist legends show us the sons lying at the feet of their fathers in order to greet them. The younger brother must kneel before the elder if he would give him a solemn salutation.[337]

The old legal customs of the Aryas knew only of the family property as undivided and in the possession of the father. Wife, sons, daughters, and slaves have no property; they are in fact themselves pieces of property.[338]If the father dies, his place is taken by the eldest son, at the head of the house; and if the mother is alive, she is in his tutelage. That the right of theperson to share in the property was already felt against this old custom is shown in the book of the law by the regulation that the sons, after the death of the father, are not to share during the lifetime of the mother. Even when both parents are dead it is best for the sons not to divide the property, but to live together under the eldest as the head of the family. The doctrines of the law in favour of maintaining the old custom of a family property were not, as it seems, without results. In the sutras of the Buddhists the fathers urge their sons not to divide the property after their decease. That when a division did take place, custom gave a pre-eminence to the eldest son[339]is clear from the rule given in the law: the eldest son can only demand the best piece when he is more learned and virtuous than the rest; otherwise it must not be divided. Another view expressed in the law, which militated against the connubium of the three orders, attempts in this case also to bring in the division of castes: if the father has several wives of different castes, the sons of those who belong to the higher castes have the advantage. If, for instance, a Brahman has wives from all the four castes the inheritance is to be divided into ten parts: the son of the Brahman woman receives four parts, the son of the Kshatriya three, the son of the Vaiçya two, of the Çudra only one.[340]Landed property in India is inherited and always has been by males only; but if there are no sons, a daughter may be put in as heir. In other cases women have only a claim to maintenance outof the family property. The distinction between inherited and acquired property is first recognised in the later law of India, but even now the father has only the right of disposal over the latter when he divides it in his own lifetime among his children. At present the unmarried daughters, and quite recently widows, have a right to a son's portion instead of maintenance out of the family property.[341]

In India, family life has in all essentials healthily developed and maintained itself on the basis which we can detect in the sentences of the marriage ceremony. The fortunate birth of a child, purification after child-bed, and naming of the child—according to the law the name of a boy ought to express among the Brahmans some helpful greeting, among the Kshatriyas power, among the Vaiçyas wealth, among the Çudras subjection[342]—the first cutting of the hair, the investiture of the sons with the sacred girdle, the birthdays, betrothals, and marriages are great festivals among the families, kept with considerable expense. The Indians love their children; their maintenance and marriage form at present the chief care of wealthy parents. The law allows a man to give his daughter even to the poorest husband of his own caste; but now the main effort of the family is not indeed to obtain the wealthiest husband for a daughter, but to obtain one of at least equal wealth with their own, and whenever possible of better descent. The claims of the priestly Brahmans belonging to those eight tribes which carried back their origin to the great saints, tribes existing in the fourth centuryB.C., are in existence still;[343]but the number of the clans has increased. The ceremonies at marriages are still essentially those of the old ritual.Before walking round the fire the hands of the bride and bridegroom are united with kuça-grass, and the points of their garments tied together. It has long been a custom and a rule that the bride should be equipped by her father, and the splendour with which marriages are celebrated makes the wedding of a daughter a heavy burden on families that are not wealthy. The Kshatriyas more especially suffer in this respect, since they are peculiarly apt to seek after connections with ancient families. In families of this caste it sometimes happens that daughters are exposed or otherwise put out of the way in order to escape the cost of their future equipment and marriage.[344]

FOOTNOTES:[294]e. g."Ramayana," 1, 13, 72, ed. Schlegel.[295]Manu, 8, 380, 381.[296]Manu, 2, 127.[297]Lassen, "Ind. Alterth." 2, 80.[298]Manu, 9, 322.[299]Manu, 10, 80-117.[300]Burnouf, "Introduction," p. 139.[301]Manu, 3, 12-15, 44; 9, 22-24, 85-87.[302]Manu, 3, 16-19; 10, 5, 6.[303]Manu, 10, 15.[304]Manu, 10, 46.[305]Manu, 10, 48.[306]Manu, 10, 8.[307]Lassen, "Ind. Alterth." 1, 820,n.2.[308]Manu, 10, 49.[309]Manu, 10, 48.[310]Manu, 10, 15; (above, p. 15).[311]Manu, 10, 51-56; (above, p. 168).[312]Manu, 10, 67.[313]Manu, 10, 43-45.[314]Lassen, "Ind. Alterth." 1, 396, 439, 534.[315]Sherring, "Hindu Castes and Tribes," 7-9; 120, 247.[316]"Açvalayana Çrauta-Sutra," book 12, in M. Müller, "Hist. of Sanskrit Lit." p. 381.[317]Manu, 3, 27-38, 160, 171; 9, 100, 127 ff. The analogous series in the Açvalayana in A. Weber, "Indische Studien," 5, 284.[318]Açvalayana, Yajnavalkya, Apastamba in M. Müller,loc. cit.p. 378 ff.[319]A. Weber, "Indische Studien," 5, 343, 400, 407.[320]Strabo, p. 709. Arrian, "Ind." 17.[321]"Açvalayana," 1, 63, in A. Weber,loc. cit.[322]Manu, 9, 88-96.[323]Açvalayana says: "There are many different customs in different districts and towns; we only give what is common." Haas and A. Weber in the "Indische Studien," 5, 281.[324]Weber,loc. cit.5, 219, 236.[325]A. Weber,loc. cit.5, 201.[326]Haas,loc. cit.5, 322, cp. however, p. 358.[327]A. Weber,loc. cit.5, 214.[328]The first part of the sentence is from the latest part of the Rigveda (10, 184), the second from the Atharvaveda, 2, 30; 5, 25. in A. Weber, "Ind. Studien," 5, 218, 227, 234.[329]Manu, 9, 147-149; 3, 6-11; 55-62; 9, 2-7, 77-83.[330]Manu, 8, 371-376.[331]Manu, 7, 77, 78.[332]Rigveda, 10, 40 in Aurel Mayr, "Indisches Erbrecht," s. 79.[333]Manu, 9, 59-69, 144-146. Aurel Mayr,loc. cit.3, 104.[334]Manu, 5, 157-162.[335]Manu, 5, 167-169.[336]e. g."Ramayana," ed. Schlegel, 2, 3, 31.[337]Burnouf, "Introduction," p. 238.[338]Aurel Mayr, "Indisches Erbrecht," s. 160 ff.[339]Aurel Mayr,loc. cit.s. 56.[340]Manu, 9, 104-220. Burnouf, "Introduction," p. 239. In the sutras we are told of a division in a merchant's family, after the brothers have united; in this the oldest retains the house and lands, the other the shops, the third the stock, beside land. Burnouf,loc. cit.p. 242.[341]Aurel Mayr,loc. cit.3, 167, ff.[342]Manu, 2, 29-34.[343]Above, p. 252. M. Müller, "Hist. of Anc. Sanskrit Lit." p. 380, ff.[344]Sherring,loc. cit.p. 122.

[294]e. g."Ramayana," 1, 13, 72, ed. Schlegel.

[295]Manu, 8, 380, 381.

[296]Manu, 2, 127.

[297]Lassen, "Ind. Alterth." 2, 80.

[298]Manu, 9, 322.

[299]Manu, 10, 80-117.

[300]Burnouf, "Introduction," p. 139.

[301]Manu, 3, 12-15, 44; 9, 22-24, 85-87.

[302]Manu, 3, 16-19; 10, 5, 6.

[303]Manu, 10, 15.

[304]Manu, 10, 46.

[305]Manu, 10, 48.

[306]Manu, 10, 8.

[307]Lassen, "Ind. Alterth." 1, 820,n.2.

[308]Manu, 10, 49.

[309]Manu, 10, 48.

[310]Manu, 10, 15; (above, p. 15).

[311]Manu, 10, 51-56; (above, p. 168).

[312]Manu, 10, 67.

[313]Manu, 10, 43-45.

[314]Lassen, "Ind. Alterth." 1, 396, 439, 534.

[315]Sherring, "Hindu Castes and Tribes," 7-9; 120, 247.

[316]"Açvalayana Çrauta-Sutra," book 12, in M. Müller, "Hist. of Sanskrit Lit." p. 381.

[317]Manu, 3, 27-38, 160, 171; 9, 100, 127 ff. The analogous series in the Açvalayana in A. Weber, "Indische Studien," 5, 284.

[318]Açvalayana, Yajnavalkya, Apastamba in M. Müller,loc. cit.p. 378 ff.

[319]A. Weber, "Indische Studien," 5, 343, 400, 407.

[320]Strabo, p. 709. Arrian, "Ind." 17.

[321]"Açvalayana," 1, 63, in A. Weber,loc. cit.

[322]Manu, 9, 88-96.

[323]Açvalayana says: "There are many different customs in different districts and towns; we only give what is common." Haas and A. Weber in the "Indische Studien," 5, 281.

[324]Weber,loc. cit.5, 219, 236.

[325]A. Weber,loc. cit.5, 201.

[326]Haas,loc. cit.5, 322, cp. however, p. 358.

[327]A. Weber,loc. cit.5, 214.

[328]The first part of the sentence is from the latest part of the Rigveda (10, 184), the second from the Atharvaveda, 2, 30; 5, 25. in A. Weber, "Ind. Studien," 5, 218, 227, 234.

[329]Manu, 9, 147-149; 3, 6-11; 55-62; 9, 2-7, 77-83.

[330]Manu, 8, 371-376.

[331]Manu, 7, 77, 78.

[332]Rigveda, 10, 40 in Aurel Mayr, "Indisches Erbrecht," s. 79.

[333]Manu, 9, 59-69, 144-146. Aurel Mayr,loc. cit.3, 104.

[334]Manu, 5, 157-162.

[335]Manu, 5, 167-169.

[336]e. g."Ramayana," ed. Schlegel, 2, 3, 31.

[337]Burnouf, "Introduction," p. 238.

[338]Aurel Mayr, "Indisches Erbrecht," s. 160 ff.

[339]Aurel Mayr,loc. cit.s. 56.

[340]Manu, 9, 104-220. Burnouf, "Introduction," p. 239. In the sutras we are told of a division in a merchant's family, after the brothers have united; in this the oldest retains the house and lands, the other the shops, the third the stock, beside land. Burnouf,loc. cit.p. 242.

[341]Aurel Mayr,loc. cit.3, 167, ff.

[342]Manu, 2, 29-34.

[343]Above, p. 252. M. Müller, "Hist. of Anc. Sanskrit Lit." p. 380, ff.

[344]Sherring,loc. cit.p. 122.

The unity in regard to law and morals, which the book of the law sought to establish throughout all the regions of India, between the Vindhyas and Himalayas, was never carried out to this extent. Indeed, the book itself is wanting in unity owing to the gradual accumulation of different strata in it, and the various rules which it contains for the same circle of life. Nor did it even attempt to remove the usages of Brahmavarta, or the customs of "the good" in general. In other points its requirements were pitched much too high, and were too ideal for princes and judges to feel bound by them, directly and immediately, or to guide their conduct by such rules, though on the whole they regarded the book as a standard. Even on the Ganges some districts resisted the law of the Brahmans, and took their law from their old customs,[345]while on the other hand, in the land of the Indus, only a few regions followed the development attained in the life of the emigrants on the Yamuna and the Ganges; in these the elevation of the priestly order, the reform of religion, and the exclusiveness of the castes were very fitfully carried out. They clung obstinately to the older forms of Indian life, and submitted but partiallyto the reaction which the land of the Ganges exercised on the ancient home of the race.

In other nations and ages the priests have turned their attention to the past history of their states, and have recorded their fortunes, but on the Ganges the victory of the priests threw the past entirely aside, and established the Brahmanic system as the religion existing from the beginning. Why should the Brahmans trouble themselves with the deeds of ancient kings and heroes? These could only attract their attention in so far as the action of the gods was seen in them, or when they could be asked to prove that the power of the Brahmans had been from the first greater than the power of the kings and the Kshatriyas. Or need the Brahmans write the history of their own order? From this point of view that order had always been what it now was; it formed no organised corporation, no centralised system; the only points that could come into question were the acts of the great saints, the ancestors of the Brahman class, or the claim and advantage of being descended from this or that priest of the old time. Ought the Brahmans to inquire into the laws of nature? In their view the life of nature was as little independent, as little founded on laws of its own, as the life and actions of men. Nature was absorbed into the world-soul; the efficacy of sacrifices and penalties could, in the opinion of the Brahmans, remove the laws of nature at any moment. Where the order of the moral and physical world is broken and subdued at will by the supernatural, no account can be made of the actions of men, or the facts of nature, of history or natural science; theology and things divine are the only possible subjects of study.

The Brahmans occupied themselves very earnestly with the study of revelation, with the Veda, and withmeditation on the highest being. If the first was the peculiar task of the schools of the Brahmans, the second was the essential duty of the anchorites in the forest. Moreover, it was advantageous for the teaching of the people to interpolate the new religion into the old Epos, and there also to exalt the acts of the great saints above the acts of the ancient heroes. We have already referred to the contradiction existing between the new doctrine and the Veda, on which it was founded, and which it set forth as a divine revelation. The invocations and prayers of the Veda arose out of the circle of different tribes, and from different dates; in their origin and tradition they proceeded from distinct races of priests. They were due to a conception wholly at variance with that of the Brahmans. How could these contradictions be removed? The contradiction between old and new was aggravated by numerous differences in the ritual. Along with the Veda the Brahmans regarded the sayings and conduct of the holy men of old, the great saints, as sufficient authorities. But the ritual was not the same in all the races of the Brahmans; and even customs and tradition had, as we have seen, a claim in the eyes of the Brahmans. Every priestly school, or family, appealed in its ritual to the custom or word of the supposed progenitor, or to some other great saint. In order to fix the correct ceremonial of the sacrifice, the true ritual for purification, expiation, and penance, amid such varieties of practice, it was necessary to go back to the Veda. But in the Veda nothing was found on the greater part of the questions at issue, and only contradictory statements on others. Which was the true ritual, the form pleasing to the gods and therefore efficacious? Which were the decisive passages in the Veda, and what was their true explanation?To the difficult task of bringing the Veda into harmony with the idea of Brahman, and the system of castes, and finding a proof for both in the Veda, in which castes and Brahman as the world-soul were unknown, was added the further difficulty of establishing the ritual so securely, as to leave no doubt about the practice of it, and to make it quite certain what liturgy was to be applied in each case, at every act. Owing to the Indian belief in the mystic power of the sacrifice and each single operation in it, this question was of very great importance. The sacrifice was invalid unless the ritual given by revelation or by the great priests of ancient times was used in it. From these questions and investigations rose commentaries on the Vedas;—the Brahmanas, which in part are still preserved to our times, the first compositions of the Indians in prose. They are reflections and rules of a liturgical and theological nature, and proceed on a plan somewhat of the following kind. After mentioning the rite and the sacrifice in question, the meaning of the words in the Veda which are supposed to refer to it is given, generally in a singular form; the various modes of performing the sacrifice are then mentioned, the sayings of the ancient saints in favour of this or that form are quoted; and then follows a regular solution, supported by legends from the history of the saints. We see from the rules of the Brahmanas that offerings, consecrations, and sacrifices were not diminished but rather increased by the idea of Brahman, and the number of the sacrificing priests was greater; a fourth priest was added to the Hotar, Udgatar, and Adhvaryu of the older period, whose duty it was to superintend the whole sacrifice, to guard against mistakes, and remedy them when made; at the greater sacrificessixteen or seventeen priests officiated, besides those who were required for the supplementary duties; and beside the three daily sacrifices at morning, midday, and evening, the sacrifices of the new moon and full moon, the sacrifices to the ancestors, to fire, and the Soma, there were rites which lasted from two to eleven days, and others which occupied fourteen to one hundred days.[346]The Brahmanas fix the object and operation of every sacrifice; they show how the place of sacrifice is to be prepared and measured; how the altar is to be erected; how the vessels and instruments of sacrifice were to be prepared; what sort of wood and water is required, and the length of the pieces of wood which are to be placed on the fire. Then follow the invocations and the sentences at the use of the instruments of sacrifice, the paces and functions incumbent on the four classes of priests, what one has to say and another to answer. Not only each word but even the tone and gesture is given formally at great length. An incorrect word, a false intonation may destroy the efficacy of the entire sacrifice. For this reason the rules for the great sacrifice, especially for the sacrifice of horses, fill up whole books of the Brahmanas.

Like the Arians of Iran, and the Germans, the Arians on the Indus sacrificed horses to the gods. "May Mitra, Aryaman, Indra and the Maruts," so we read in the Rigveda, "not rebuke us because we shall proclaim at the sacrifice the virtues of the swift horse, sprung from the gods, when the spotted goat is led before the horse adorned with ornaments of pure gold. If thrice at the proper seasons men lead around the sacrificial horse, which goes to the gods,—the goat, Pushan's share, goes first (p. 47). She goesalong the path which Indra and Pushan love, and announces the sacrifice to the gods. May ye, O Hotar, Adhvaryu—the names of the remaining officiating priests follow—fill the streams (round the altar) with a well-prepared and well-accomplished sacrifice! They who cut the sacrificial post, and they who make the ring for the post of the horse, may their work be with us. My prayer has been well performed: the bright-backed horse goes to the regions of the gods, where poets celebrate him, and we have won a good friend among the gods. The halter of the swift one, the heel-ropes of the horse, the girdle, the bridle, and even the grass that has been put into his mouth, may all these which belong to thee be with the gods. The ordure that runs from the belly, and the smallest particle of raw flesh, may the immolators well prepare all this, and dress the sacrifice till it is well cooked. The juice that flows from thy roasted limb on the spit after thou hast been killed, may it not run on the earth or the grass; may it be given to the gods who desire it. They who examine the horse when it is roasted, they who say 'It smells well, take it away;' they who serve the distribution of the meat, may their work also be with us. The ladle of the pot where the meat is cooked, and the vessels for sprinkling the juice, the covers of the vessels, the shears, and the knives, they adorn the horse. Where he walks, where he stands, where he lies, what he drinks, and what he eats, may all these which belong to thee, be with the gods. May not the fire with smoky smell make thee hiss, may not the glowing cauldron swell and burst. The gods accept the horse if it is offered to them in due form. The cover which they stretch over the horse and the golden ornaments, the head-ropes of the horse, and the foot-ropes, all these which are dear to the gods,they offer to them. If some one strike thee with the heel or the whip that thou mayest lie down, and thou art shouting with all thy might, then I purify all this with my prayer, as with a spoon of clarified butter at the sacrifices. The axe approaches the thirty-four ribs of the quick horse, beloved of the gods. Do you wisely keep the limbs whole; find out each joint and ligament. One strikes the horse, two hold it; this is the custom. May the axe not stick to thy body; may no greedy and unskilful immolator, missing with the sword, throw thy mangled limbs together. May not thy dear soul burn thee while thou art coming near. Indeed thou diest not, thou sufferest not, thou goest to the gods on easy paths. May this horse give us cattle and horses, men, progeny, and all-sustaining wealth. May the horse of this sacrifice give us strength."[347]This was the foundation on which the Brahmanas construct an endless ritual for the sacrifice of horses, "the king of sacrifices," as the book of the law calls it. At the sacrifice of the horse, so we are told in the Çatapatha-Brahmana, the Adhvaryu on the first day calls on the players on the flute to celebrate the king who offers the sacrifice, and with him the virtuous princes of ancient days. The priest narrates the history begun by Manu Vaivasvata. On the second day he narrates the history begun by Yama Vaivasvata, and on the third day that begun by Varuna Aditya (p. 124); on the fourth day he narrates that begun by Soma Vaishnava, etc.; on the tenth day that begun by Dharma Indra, and sings the Soma,i. e.the hymns of the Samaveda.[348]In the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira, after ascending the throne of Hastinapura,offers a sacrifice of horses, in order to assuage his grief at the loss of his heroes, and to extend his dominion. The Brahman Vyasa tells the king that this sacrifice is very difficult; that he must sleep the whole year through on the ground, with his wife at his side, and a naked sword between them; if he does not keep his desires in subjection during the whole of this time, the entire efficacy of the sacrifice is lost. The horse with the necessary marks is found and brought forward. According to the poem it must be as white as the moon, with a yellow tail, and the right ear must be black; the horse can also be entirely black. On a certain day, determined by the moon, the horse is let loose. It bears a gold plate on its forehead with the name of the king to whom it belongs, and the announcement that an army is following it, and any one who detains the horse, or leads it astray, will be compelled by force of arms to set it at liberty, and after the end of the year to appear at the sacrifice of the horse. Arjuna overcomes all the princes who would retain the horse. Then the princes who have submitted or been conquered assemble at Hastinapura; Yudhishthira and Draupadi take a bath for purification; the king ploughs the place of sacrifice with a golden plough; Draupadi sows it to the accompaniment of the prayers of the Brahmans; then the midst of the space is covered with four hundred golden tiles, and round about these are set up eight posts, eight trenches for the preparation of the curdled milk, clarified butter, and soma, and provided with eight great spoons, in order to bring the sacrificial gifts into the fire. Yudhishthira takes his place on the throne of gold and sandal-wood; twenty-four princes and rishis go to the Ganges in order to bring water for the sacrifice in pitchers on their heads. When the king has been purified by thiswater, the horse is brought, and it also is purified by having the water poured upon it. Then the priests pressed the ear of the horse, and as milk ran out from it, it was proved that the horse was pure; so Bhima smote off the head with his sword. Then the priest held the flesh in the spoon over the fire, and made Homa out of it, and the flesh smelt of camphor, and he cried, "Indra, receive this flesh which has become camphor." To each of the Brahmans who had officiated at the sacrifice Yudhishthira gave a chariot, an elephant, ten horses, one hundred milch-cows, and slaves and gold and pearls, and had them entertained. In the Ramayana, king Daçaratha of Ayodhya offers a sacrifice of horses to obtain a son. At the appointed time the horse was set at liberty for a year; and a Brahman accompanied it. All the preparatory sacrifices were offered; the place was made ready on the northern banks of the Sarayu; twenty-one sacrificial posts were set up, and decked with flowers and ornaments, and twenty-one trenches were dug when the horse returned. The Brahmans kindle the sacred fire, the horse is led round it, and slain with the consecrated sword, while the Udgatar recites the sentences. The Hotar and the Ritvij bring the pieces of the horse according to the custom to the fire, and the Ritvij pronounces the sentences while placing the flesh in the fire. Then the first and second wives of the king are brought to the horse and pass the night near it.[349]Rama offers a horse sacrifice for another reason; he wishes to make atonement for the offence which he has committed by the slaughter of the great giant Ravana of Lanka, who was a descendant of the holy Agastya, and consequently a Brahman. According to the narratives of the Vishnu-Purana, king Pushpamitra,who sat on the throne of Magadha in the first half of the second centuryB.C., offered a horse sacrifice. The horse when set at liberty was carried off on the right bank of the Indus by an army of the Yavanas (Greeks), but was again liberated by the attendants. As a fact the land of the Indus as well as the Panjab was at that time under the dominion of the Greek princes of Bactria. From the period of the dynasty of the Guptas, who acquired the throne of Magadha about the year 140B.C., a coin has been preserved to our time, relating to the efficacy of the horse sacrifice; it depicts an unsaddled horse before an altar.[350]

Not long after the time when the commentaries on the Vedas, or Brahmanas, arose in the schools of the Brahmans, a fourth Veda was added to the three collections of sacred songs and prayers already in existence. Ancient poems were preserved which had not been received into the Rigveda. These were not songs of praise or thanksgiving, prayers or sentences intended to accompany the sacrificial acts, but charms to avert evil, danger, sickness, or death, formulæ relating to life in the house and family, bringing blessing or a curse. When the fourth superintending priest was added to the three already officiating, and the latter was charged with the office of avoiding the mistakes which might be committed in it, and atoning for those which had been committed by counter-charms and acts of expiation—a collection of the sentences required, a book of prayers, seems to have been given to this priest also, just as the Hotar had his Rigveda, the Udgatar his Samaveda, the Adhvaryu his Yajurveda. Thus the sentences of this kind already living in tradition may have beencollected together, so as to form a fourth Veda. That some of the exorcisms and incantations belonging to this collection are also found in the Rigveda, that meditative hymns of later date are received into the fourth Veda together with pieces of very great antiquity, may count rather for than against this mode of origin. The new collection was called the Atharvaveda after the ancient priest Atharvan, who is said first to have enticed the fire from the pieces of wood.[351]The Atharvaveda contains a number of ancient charms against sickness and death. It is the healing powers of waters and plants which are first invoked for assistance. In the Rigveda also all remedies are found in waters and plants, both of which come from the sky.[352]"May the waters of Himavat be blessed for thee," so we are told in the Atharvaveda; "the waters of the springs, the waters of the rain, the waters of the steppe, the waters of the cisterns, the waters of the pitchers. We bless the best healers, the waters. The waters should heal thee when pain overcomes thee; they should drive out thy sickness."[353]Plants are not less efficacious. They pass into the limbs of the sick, they expel the sickness victoriously from the body, they unite with their king Soma in order to fight against the sickness; they obey the voice of the priest, rescue the sick person from pain, and set free the footof man from the toils of Yama.[354]The Atharvaveda emphasises the peculiar healing power of a plant against the Rakshasas (the evil spirits); with this Kaçiapa, Kanva, Agastya, and the son of Atharvan had defeated the Rakshasas. "Liberate," so the priest says to it, "liberate this man from the spirits of the Rakshasas; lead him back into the company of the living."[355]In other sentences of this Veda we are told: "With this sacrificial butter I liberate thee, so that thou mayest live; when the captor has seized him, do ye set him free, Indra and Agni. If his life is failing I draw him back from the brink of destruction unharmed for a hundred autumns" (p. 62). If the sickness is a punishment from the gods, the offence must be wiped out by sacrifice, prayer, and expiations; if it is the result of a charm, it must be driven into another creature by a counter-charm. The Atharvaveda gives us the following sentence against the demon Takman, who brings fever: "May refusal meet Takman, who has glowing weapons. O Takman, go to the Mujavant or further. Attack the Çudra woman, the teeming one; shake her, O Takman. The Gandharas, the Angas, the Magadhas, we give over to Takman as servants, or a treasure."[356]The ague is banished into the frog, the jaundice into yellow birds. In the Rigveda the jaundice is put away into parrots and thrushes; consumption is to fly away with the blue jay. The custom of supporting the exorcism by laying down a leaf or a herb, which is taught in the Atharvaveda, is notunknown to the Rigveda.[357]The Atharva-veda also supplies charms against sprains, worms, and other evils.[358]

The Brahmanas of the various schools of priests were not merely rules for ritual, but also exegetical and dogmatic commentaries on the separate Vedas, each destined for one of the three classes of priests who were allotted to the Rigveda, Samaveda, and Yajurveda. Of these commentaries on the Rigveda, two, differing in their arrangement, have been preserved to us; the Aitareya-Brahmana, and the Kaushitaki-Brahmana,i. e.the commentaries of the schools of Aitareya and Kaushitaka: for the Samaveda we have the Chandoga-Brahmana, and the Tandya-Brahmana; for the Yajurveda the Taittiriya-Brahmana and the Çatapatha-Brahmana,i. e.the commentaries of the schools of Tittiri and Vajasaneya. In one or two of these Brahmanas we have additions at the end of a speculative character. The compressed and difficult language of these books, the abstruse dogmatism, the abundance of examples and legends, made the Brahmanas so difficult to understand that explanations of them were soon written in a more synoptical arrangement, an easier style, and shorter form. These explanations were called sutras,i. e.clues. If they were intended to explain the Veda,i. e.revelation, they were known as Çrauta-sutras; if they collected in a synoptical form the rules for the ritual given in the Brahmanas, they were known as Kalpa-sutras. The oldest sutras of this kind, which have come down to us, are supposed to have been written about the year 400B.C.[359]From the duty of properly intoning andpronouncing the prescribed words of the Veda, marking the metre, correctly understanding the ancient Vedic language which had subsequently taken the form of Sanskrit, and gone through other changes in the mouth of the people, and fixing the correct time for the sacrifice, there grew up among the schools of the Brahmans the beginnings of metrical, grammatical, etymological, and astronomical inquiries. As the people in the land of the Ganges had ceased to understand Sanskrit in the sixth centuryB.C., while the Brahmans were compelled to preserve it for the Vedas and the Brahmanas, and as a learned and theological language, it became necessary to learn it from teachers. The sutras of the Buddhists speak of a grammar of Indra, which is also mentioned by the Chinese Hiuan-Thsang as the earliest Indian grammar; from the fourth centuryB.C.we have the grammatical rules of Panini remaining, which, based on the previous Çrauta-sutras, present us with a complete grammatical system, provided with an artificial terminology.[360]

The desire to offer sacrifices to the gods at the correct and acceptable time did not permit the Brahmans entirely to neglect the observation of the heavens. Their attention was directed principally to the moon, to the courses of the planets they paid no particular regard. According to the advance of the moon in the heavens they distinguished twenty-seven, and at a later period twenty-eight stations in the sky (nakshatra). "The moon," we are told, "follows the course of the Nakshatras." The year of the Indians was divided into twelve months of thirty days; the month was divided into two halves of fifteen days each, and the day into 30 hours (muhurta). In order to bring thisyear of 360 days into harmony with the natural time, the Brahmans established a quinquennial cycle of 1860 lunar days. Three years had 12 months of 30 lunar days; the third and fifth year of the cycle had thirteen months of the same number of days. The Brahmans do not seem to have perceived that by this arrangement the cycle contained almost four days in excess of the astronomical time; and indeed they were not very skilful astronomers. Twelve quinquennial cycles were united into a greater period (yuga) of sixty years.[361]It was an old belief of the Indians that sacrifices and important affairs in domestic and family life should only be engaged in when the position of the sky was favourable—when the moon was waxing,or the sun moving to the north. At a later time it was also believed that the constellation, under which a child saw the light, was of good or evil influence on his fortunes. Charms are preserved, which are supposed to avert evil influences of this kind.[362]Some time after the seventh century the Brahmans began to foretell the fortunes of children from the position of the stars of their parents, to look for the marks of good and bad fortune on the human body as well as in the sky, and to question the stars about the favourable hours for the transactions or festivals of the house, and the labours of the field, voyages and travels. Though the book of the law declares astrology to be a wicked occupation,[363]it was carried on to a considerable extent in the fifth and fourth centuries. But this astrological superstition has nevertheless remained without effect in advancing the astronomy of the Brahmans; further advance was due to the foreign help gained by closer contact with the kingdom of the Seleucids, and the influence of the Græco-Bactrian kingdom, which extended its power to the east beyond the Indus, and the Græco-Indian kingdom which succeeded it in the second century.[364]The result of their grammatical and astronomicalstudies were collected by the Brahmans as auxiliary sciences to the explanation and interpretation of the Veda; and they termed them the members of the Veda (Vedanga). They enumerated six of such members; the doctrine of pronunciation and intonation, the doctrine of metres, grammar, etymology, the ritual, and astronomy. The two first were declared to be indispensable for the reading of the Veda, the third and fourth for understanding the Veda, the fifth and sixth for the performance of sacrifice.[365]

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