Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/145

 132 THE ETOIAN ANTIQU AEY. [May. 1875. all ; and the uninvested youth became an oat- cast, degraded from tlio gayatri&nd despised ; for the second birth, or peculiar stamp, of the superior race consisted in this institution (p- 25, 68) by force of an ordinance of revealed law (p. 39, 172). " The young man is on a level with a &udra before his new birth from the revealed scripture." Women secured their second birth in a similar manner. " The same ceremonies," says Manu (p. 25, 66), " must be duly perform- ed for women at the same age and in the same order, that the body may be made perfect ; but, without any texts from the Veda, the nuptial ceremony is considered as the complete institution of women, ordained for them iu the Veda, together with reverence to their husbauds, dwelling firfct in their father's family, the busi- ness of the house, and attention to sacred fire." Kulliika's gloss excepts from the ceremonies for women " that of the sacrificial thread," and probably this exception corresponded with an increased inferiority in the situation of women subsequently to the time when the original passage was written. The omission of the Vedic texts was the natural consequence of the exclusion of women from the direct application of the revealed scripture- The observance of this rite seems to be historic, or rather memorial, in its inlrinsic characteristics. It is analogous in this respect to the Passover of the Jews ; and we are carried back by it to a time when the Aryan entered the land a stranger or new-comer, with his loins girt and stafF in hand, clad in leathern jacket, the pioneer of a new civilization. How or v, hen the rite sprang into being, or grew into pi and religious importance, we have not li rials in Mann v, herefrom to form a judgment* But it is possibly not without significance iliat in the leading passages which describe the ccrc- mony wc find the three classes spoken of or referred to quite as often as priest, soldier, and merchant as Brahman, Ks h atriy a, and V a i s y a. In the time of the writer they could scarcely have been viewed as the subjects of separate creation. Funeral ceremonies and feasts receive most elaborate lent in the Dkarum. (p. 67, p. 80, 22<;) and we thus become ace, edwith the surprising extent to which pria • I uimcfha t= it little more than £'. 1 teththo—ii". was earned, and the great hold upon the people which the Brahman class succeeded in ob- taining by reason of their practical monopoly of learning and education. The people in general must have been ex- ceedingly credulous and superstitious *, for the authors of the Hsdgtra themselves give sanction to many ignorant beliefs. They taught (p- - ' 30) that there were fortunate and unfortunate days of the moon, lucky and unlucky hours, and that the stare exercised good or bad in- fluences according to their qualities. Also thai an auspicious name was valuable (p. 21, 33, p. 52, y and 10). To sacred texts and to gems of certain kiuds extraordinary virtues were as- cribed (p. 27, 76 to 85), They were prescribed as charms (p. 187, 217 and 218) and as anti- dotes to poison. Thunder and lightning were looked upon as portents (p. 103, 115, p. Signs and omens were to he regarded- On the appearance of a beast used in agriculture* a frog, a cat, a dog, a snake, an ichnenmon, or a rat, the reading of !| Veda must be inter- mitted for a day aud a night (p. 106, 26} i and much more of the like kind. Strangely enough, any one who observed a rainbow in the sky was forbidden to draw the attention of any other person to it ! There is little or nothing which deserves the name of natural science in the j ■ : an interpolation in the narrative of the creation (p. 6, 43 to 49) pretends to be a general c ix of animals and vegetables, but it is of a very crude character and betrays no real ration of fact. Gold and silver were supposed to be products of fire and water com- bined (p. 137, 113). The celestial phenomena go almost without notice. The only exo is to bo found in the following remarkable pas- sage, which occurs seemingly as an interpol in Bhrign's preface (p. 9, 64 el eeq.) : tt eighteen jti„t>;x/'ti6* are one kashtiuis, thirty kashthas one kula, thirty Jcalaa one I . and just bo many ywhwias let mankind consider as the duration of their day and night. The snn a the distribution of day and night both divine and human : night being for the repose of beings, and day for their i virion. A month is a day and a night of the Pitris, and the division being into equal halves ; the half beginning from the t l-aia = l}'. 1 »tu/iurfu = -} of an hoar.