Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/463

* BRAHMANISM. 409 BRAHMANISM. bride from lier home to his own, the tire whieli has been used for the marri;ii:e ceremony goes with the new couple, to serve ;is their domestic fire; and it has to lie kept up perpetually day and night, liv either themselves or their children, or, if the man be a teacher, by his pupils. If it should become extinguished by neglect or other- wise, the guilt thereby incurred nuist be atoned for by an act of expiation. The domestic fire serves the family for preparing their food, for making the fire necessary daily for occasional otferings, and for performing sacramental rites. No food should be eaten that has not been duly consecrated by a portion of it being offered to the gods, the goblins, and the miutcs. The do- mestic observances, many of which must he con- sidered as ancient Aryan family customs, sur- rounded by the Hindus with a certain amoimt of adventitious ceremonial, were generally per- formed by the householder himself, with the assistance of his wife. There is, however, another class of sacrificial ceremonies of a more pretentious and expensive kind, called ^rauta rites, or rites based on revela- tion, the performance of which, though not indis- pensable, was yet considered obligator3- under cer- tain circumstances. They formed a powerful weapon in the hands of the priesthood, and were one of the chief sources of their subsistence. Ow- ing to the complicated nature of these sacrifices, and the great amount of ritualistic formulas and ^exts recited during their performance, they re- quired the employment of a number of profes- sional Brahmans, freciuently as many as sixteen, who had to be well rewarded for their services. Priests who refuse money for their services are eulogized by Brahmanical writers, but such vir- tue was rare. The manuals pf the Vedic rit- uals generally enumerated three of these rites: ishlis, or oblations of milk, curds, clarified but- ter, rice, grain; seasonal and annual offerings; and libations of soma. The soma, which is an intoxicating drink prepared from the Juice of a kind of milkweed, sometimes called the moon- plant, nnist have played an important part in the ancient worship, at least as early as the Indo-Persian period. It is continually alluded to both in the Avesta and the Rigveda. In the latter work the hymns of a whole book are ad- dressed to it, either in the shape of a mighty god, or in its original form, as a kind of ambrosia endowed with wonderfully exhilarating powers. In late Vedic mythology soma has liecome identi- fied with the lunar deity, to whom it seems to have had some relatnm from the beginning. Among the Vedie rites the .soma sacrifices are. the most solemn and complicated, and those to which the greatest efficacy is ascribed in remit- ting sin. conferring offspring and even immortal- ity. They require the attendance of sixteen priests, and are divided into three groups, ac- cording as the actual pressing and offering of the .<ioma occupies only one day, or between one and twelve days. The performance of all Nratita sac- rifices requires two other fires besides that used for domestic rites. The act of first placing the fires in their respective receptacles, after due con- secration of the ground, constitutes the essential part of the first duty, which the householder should have perfonned by four Brahmans imme- diately after the wedding. To the same class of sacrificial ceremonies belong those p<Tformed on the days of the new and full moon, the oblation at tlic commencement of the three seasons, the offerings of first-fruits, and other periodical rites. Besides these regular sacrifices, the Sraiita cere- monial includes a number of most solemn rit«8, which, on account of the objects for which they are instituted, and the enormous expenditure they involve, could be performed only on rare occasions, and by powerful princes. Of these the most important are the inaugural ceremony of a monarch who claims supreme rule, and the horse sacrifice, one of great antiquity, enjoined by the Brahmanical ritual upon kings desirous of attaining universal sovereignty. Human sac- rifices were also performed in the early jieriod, and are recommended as late as the epic. They come into prominence again in the later form of Brahmanism known as Hinduism, in which new gods are recognized. See Saivas. 'hen the householder is advanced in years, when he sees his skin become wrinkled and his hair gray, when he sees the son of his son. the time is said to have come for him to enter the third stage of lifj. He should now disengage himself from all family ties — except that his wife may accompany him if she choose — and re- pair to a lonely wood, taking with him his sacred fires and the implements required for the daily and periodical offering. Clad in a deer's skin, or in a single piece of cloth, or in a bark garment, with his hair and nails uncut, the hermit is to subsist exclusively on food growling wild in the forest, such as roots, green herbs, fruits, wild rice, and grain. He must not accept gifts from any one, except what may be absolutely neces- sary to maintain him; but with his own little hoard he should, on the contrary, honor to the best of his ability those who visit his hermitage. His time must be spent in reading the met,aphysi- cal treatises of the Veda, in making oblations, and in undergoing various kinds of privations and austerities, with a view to mortifying his passions and producing in his mind an entire in- difference to worldly objects. Having by these means succeeded in overcoming all sensual affec- tions and desires, and in acquiring perfect equa- nimity toward everything around him. the licnnit has fitted himself for the fin.al and most exalted order, that of the devotee or religious mendicant. As such he has no further need of either niorti- ficati<ms or religious observances; but 'with the sacrificial fires deposited in his mind' he may devote the remainder of his daj's to nu'ditating on the divinity. Taking up his abode at the foot of a tree in total solitude, 'with no companion but his own soul,' clad in a coarse garment, he should carefully avoid injuring any creature or giving offense to any human being that may hap- pen to come near him. Once in a day, in the evening, 'when the charcoal fire is exting^uished and the smoke no longer issues from the fire- place, when the pestle is at rest, when the people have taken their meats and the dishes are re- moved,' he should go near the habitations of men in order to beg the little food that may suffice to sustain his fci'bic frame. Kver pure of mind, he should thus bide his time, 'as a servant ex- peeteth his wages,' wishing neither for death nor for life, until at last his soul is freed from its fetters and absorbed in the eternal .spirit, the im- personal, self-existent Brahma. The study of the ancient Hindu literature has taught us that some practices which have liith- erto, or until recently. j)revailed in India, and