Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/208

162 Period, in the khila or supplementary portion of the White Yajur-Veda, in the Brahmana of the Black Yajur-Veda, in the Aitareya Brahmana of the Big-Veda, and the last book but one of the Satapatha Brahmana, that we have accounts of human sacrifice. Is it possible to postulate the existence of a custom in India which had passed from the memory of men before the composition and compilation of the Rig-Veda, in the Sama-Veda, in the Black or White Yajur-Veda, but which suddenly revived after a thousand years in the supplements and Brahmanas of the Vedas? Is it not far more natural to suppose that all the allusions to human sacrifice in the later compositions of the Epic Period are the speculations of priests, just as there are speculations about the sacrifice of the Supreme Being himself? If the priests needed any suggestion, the customs of the non-Aryan tribes with whom they became familiar in the Epic Period would give them their cue.

We will now give a brief account of the principal sacrifices which were performed in this ancient age, especially since we know from the Yajur-Veda what these sacrifices were.

The Darsa-purnamasa was performed on the first day after the full and new moon, and Hindus down to the present time consider these days as sacred. The Pindapitri-yajna was a sacrifice to the departed ancestors and is one of the few ancient sacrifices which are performed to this day. The Agnihotra was the daily libation of milk to the sacred fire, performed morning and evening, and the Chaturmasya was a sacrifice which