When men lived by hunting and Ted more or less a nomadic life, fighting with less powerful tribes who opposed their march, the most natural thing for them was to bring the spoils of war and game -round a fire and enjoy them with the other members of the family or tribe. Thus gathered round the fire with their dear ones and friends, cracking jokes and singing songs while the cooking was in progress, they sometimes thought of the ancestors who had passed away and the gods who gave them strength and success. Before the meal was enjoyed, it became a: pious duty to offer a portion in the fire in the name of the departed ancestors and the unseen – powers. The Vedic sacrifices must have had their origin in this innocent custom common to all primitive peoples. Every householder gradually began to feel that it was his religious obligation to share his food with the departed spirits and the gods. The domestic sacrifice became a daily ceremony. When there was a fighting expedition in which many families took part, .the spoils were similarly brrought round a great fire and en joyed or divided among- all.
The elaborate Asvamedha Yajna horse-sacrifice) of later days served to a great extent the same purpose of solemnising a victory and divining the spoils. Such traditional observances became in course of time a part of the religion of the community.
In this way during the Rig-Vedic time, the small daily sacrifices and the larger special sacrifices had been established as the practical religion of the Aryas. We have seen that the glory and greatness of the Indo-Aryan kingdoms was the result of the hearty fusion of the Aryas and the Indians and the evolving of a new life and culture with many new features suited to a period of advancing refinement and intellectual speculation. In the building up of those powerful dynasties, kings and priests and the people worked as one homogeneous community without racial distinctions or caste restrictions. They-were one people. We also saw that peace and prosperity brought in their wake love of ease and enjoyment, laxity in morals, and considerable decline of the old simple religious spirit, particularly among-the ruling class. –
There is another dark side of the picture we have yet to see—the rise of a priestly caste called ” Brahmari.s ” and along with it all those superstitions, disintegration of society, cruel customs and soulless ritualism which have characterised priestly predominance in all countries, and which in India led ultimately to the loss of national freedom and the enslavement of the Hindu peoples. In the earlier period, every householder -was his own priest, and only kings employed professional men or servants to perform the sacrifices. When prosperity increased and peace gave plenty of leisure, kings and rich men took pride in frequently celebrating sacrifices with the aid of priests, and the latter, taking advantage of the vanity of their patrons, developed the simple sacrificial rites into a complex system of rituals with feasting,. music, drinking and other enjoyments, lasting sometimes for many days and months, and ‘,closing with the ostentatious presentation of rich gifts to the priests.
The Rishis who often acted as the palace priests of kings, cultivated the art of singing praises of their royal benefactors who in turn rewarded them with costly presents. Vasistha who sang about the great achievement of King Sudas vas given 200 COWS, 2 chariots, and 4 horses with golden trappings., The presents lavished on priests in later days when the Gangetic kingdoms were more opulent and powerful must have been correspondingly larger. Once King Janaka offered a prize of i,000 cows with ten padas of gold fastened to each pair of horns to the most learned man .of the assembly, and Yajnavalkya, Janaka’s court priest, carried off the reward. It soon became a fashion with rich people to’ display their status and wealth by performing sacrifices with the aid of priests. The number of sacrifices which a respectable householder had to perform as a religious duty was steadily increased by the priests. Thus. every Arya had to perform in addition to the daily offerings, the fortnightly Sthalipaka, the Seven Grihya Sansthas and other special sacrifices such as Shula-gava, those for the birth of a son, for preventing disease or famine and so forth. For the bigger household sacrifices sometimes as many as sixteen priests were required. Every sacrifice and ceremony was invariably to be accompanied by gifts to the priests.
In this way the priest’s vocation became the most lucrative profession of those days, and not unnaturally the priests began to form a separate class. They -wanted to keep the profits as far as possible in their own families and it became usual for the son to follow the father’s profession. A class of hereditary priests thus came into existence. In the years of peace and luxury when there was no fighting to engage the energies of the rich, the sacrifices degenerated into social festivals for the display of romp and wealth and priestly proficiency, not rarely accompanied by drunken revelry. “The priests took their seats on a beautiful swing; while it rocked, dancing girls paraded their art to which music contributed its charms. The sacrificer took his seat in a large pavilion splendidly decorated—it was called heaven. The animals and treasures of the family were paraded. Obscene dialogues were allowed. Women and even the wives of the sacrificer were discussed, Dice was played. Boasting and quarrels and threats to enemies were indulged in.” Priests made the sacrifies more and more demonstrative, complex and mystifying, and conducted classes to train pupils in sacrificial methods. The priests. multiplied, their influence increased and their importance in society stimulated youths to follow their pursuits. Kings and rich men encouraged them with their favours and thus paved the way for their aggrandisement and supremacy.
When the larger sacrifices became a fashion and an obligation, the priests got a permanent place in society and influence in the life of the community, which they began to exploit without any scruples for their own advantage. Rules were soon promulgated making the employment of priests necessary and depriving the householder and the king of the right they had from immemorial days of sacrificing without a priest. The sacrificial ground became the legislative chamber from where the priests issued their sacrificial dicta and social laws. Priests began to-claim for themselves and their rituals and Mantra superhuman powers competent to control the gods and bring down their grace. The superstitions of the people gave the priests ample opportunities to-exploit them in numerous subtle and unscrupulous ways. “In the priest rests the whole sacrifice and the sacrificer in the sacrifice.” The fate of the sacritficer was thus said to be absolutely in the hands of the priests.
*Pages 193-195, Vicissitudes of Aryan Civilisation in India, by 1. MKunte.
?Aitreya Brahniana, II, 32.
In another portion of the same Brahmana, the power of the priest and the necessity of propitiating. him by bathing, clothing and feeding him and placing the women of the harem at – his disposal are described thus :—”Now about the office of a priest (Purohita). The gods do not eat the food offered by a king who has no house-priest. Hence, the king even when not intending to bring a sacrifice should appoint a Brahman to the office of the house-priest. The Purohita (house-priest) who is deified as Agni Vaishvanara is possessed of five destructive fires;. one of them is in his speech, one in his feet, one in his skin, one in his heart, and one in the organ of generation. With these powers which are burning and blazing, he attacks the king….” By saying, “Where, master, has thou been residing (for so long a time) ; the servants bring grass to him to sit, the king propitiates the destructive power which is in his speech. When they bring water for washing the feet, then the king propitiates the destructive power which is in his feet. When they adorn him, he propitiates by it, the destructive fire which is in his skin; when they satiate him with food, then the king propitiates the destructive fire’ which is in his heart. When he lives unrestrained in the king’s premises,, then he propitiates the destructive power which is in his organ of generation. If all the destructive powers which are in his body have been propitiated and he is pleased by the king’s wish for sacrificing, be conveys him to the heaven-world and grants him royal dignity, bravery, a kingdom and subjects over whom he might rule. But should the king not do so, he will be deprived of all these gifts.”*
The kings themselves had degenerated considerably and could not have felt any great difficulty in allowing the monstrous demands of the priests who thus got a permanent footing in. the palace with
*Page 212 (Aitreya Brahman, VIII, 24 )aid-, M. M. Kunte.
power to control all religious ceremonies and free access to the harem. ‘With the king and his wives in their pockets it was easy for them .to dictate to the people., It was laid down that sacrificial gifts to the priests should be invariably of gold and never of silver, and the writers of the Brahmanas invented a story to justify their cupidity. Once when the Devas demanded from Agni (fire) the offerings deposited with him, he felt sad and shed tears, and the tears :became silver. So if silver is given as Da spina (gift) there will be weeping in the house. The priestly rules went to the extent of prescribing the portions of the slaughtered animals which the priests and others were entitled to get. The Purohita’ was to obtain the tongue, the neck and the shoulder of the cow or goat or horse as the case might be and plenty of liquor to drink.
The insidious ways in which the priests threw their nets over the people may again be seen in the Satapatha Brahmana 5-2-20) where the method of procuring confessions from the lady of the house regarding her misconduct with people other than her husband is described. “Thereupon the Prathiprastari returns (to the place where the sacrificer’s wife is seated). When he is about to lead the wife away, he asks her, with whom holdest thou intercourse?’ Now when a woman who belongs to one man carries on intercourse with another, she undoubtedly commits a sin against Varuna. He, therefore, asks her lest she should sacrifice with -a secret pang in her mind; for when confessed, the sin he-tomes less, since it becomes truth, this is why he thus asks her. And whatever connections she confesses not, that indeed will turn out injurious to the relatives. *
The Atharva Veda containing the Secret Mantras
*Page 262, History of Civilisation in Ancient India, Volume II, R. C. Dutt.
and methods of sorcery and black-magic had been composed and had to be kept a perfect secret to be practiced only by the priest initiated into the mysteries of the growing system of unscrupulous priest-craft. These were some of the reasons, attractions and temptations which induced young men to take up the profession of the Purohit, cling to it with zeal, .clothe it with mystery and awe, develop it to a fine art of moral and intellectual exploitation of king and people alike, and in the end make it the secret mono-poly, the exclusive privilege of a hereditary caste.
The really great Rishis were not the originators of this movement, but the large number of professional men to whom priestcraft had become a means of livelihood, of procuring wealth and power in society. For it is said the highest knowledge was not known to the Brahmans but only to the Kshatriyas from whom they learnt. A Brahman priest came to the assembly of the Panchala King and there had a discussion with King Jaivali. The Brahman was defeated and came with protestations of sorrow and humility to learn the truth from the king: The king explained the truth and said, “This knowledge did not go to any Brahman before you, and therefore this teaching belonged in all the world to the Kshatriya class alone.” The Bhagavad Gita also says that the teaching was known only to Raja Rishis (Chap. IV-2).
It is clear therefore that the motive of the priests in forming an exclusive caste was not any consideration of a religious -or spiritual or racial nature but one of sheer greed for wealth, women and wine. The ridiculous extent to which they went on advocating their own unimpeachable divine greatness even so late as IOO A. D. may be seen in the Mann Sinriti:
“A Brahman is born to fulfil Dharma. Whatever exists in the world is the property of the Brahman. On account of the excellence of his origin, he is entitled to all. The Brahman eats but his own food, wears but his own clothes. All mortals subsist through the benevolence of the Brahman.”
“Let a Brahman be ignorant or learned, still he is a great deity. To Brahman, the three worlds and the gods owe their existence. Thus though Brahmans employ themselves in all mean occupations they must be honoured in every way, for each of them is a great deity.”
“Let the king after rising early in the morning worship Brahmans who are, well-versed in the threefold sacred sciences and learned in policy and accept their advice.” (VII, 37).
“Brahman is the root of sacred law.. By his origin alone he is a deity even for the gods and his word is authoritative for men.” (XI, 85)*
“When a learned Brahman has found treasure deposited in former times he may talc- even the whole of it, for ‘he is master of everything. When the king finds treasure of old concealed in the ground, let him give one-half to Brahmans and place the other half in his treasury.” (VIII, 35, 39)
“Brahmans should not be taxed and should he maintained by the state.” (VII, 133.)
A Brahman is allowed to marry four wives, a Kshatriya three wives,. a Vaishya two wives and a sudra one wife only, according to Manu,
“The Brahmans are ready to take gifts, thirsty after drinking Soma, hungry of eating food and ready to roam about everywhere according to their pleasure. They formed a fraternity.” They
*Kelkar’s History of Caste.
Aitreya. Brahman-L, VII, 29, page 201 ,vide M. M. Kunte.
formed a secret society perfecting plans to enslave the people in the coils of ritualism and superstition, practicing deceptions, concocting tales and leading a life of indulgence in defiance of all decorum and morality. That was the beginning of the caste system among the Indo-Aryans. The person presiding at the sacrifice was usually called the Brahman, and the priests established themselves as a hereditary community of Brahmans.
This move of the Brahmans to establish a close corporation based on heredity could not have created any sensation at that time. Kingship had already become hereditary and probably some of the arts and crafts themselves were followed from father, to son for generations. Nobody could foresee the tremendous consequences that followed the formation of “caste”, of which they had no knowledge before. The kings could not anticipate that the Brahmans would soon become a rival political power and their machinations would lead to the destruction of the Kshatriya ‘kingdoms, nor could the people see any danger to their own social independence in the priests’ manoeuvres. The priests themselves were proceeding step by step from one successful effort to another encouraged by the advantages they derived by the working out of their plans.
There was also another strong motive in pro-pounding the caste rules. The rising power of the Indians was a menace to the priests as well as the Aryan monarchs. Under the influence of the :cultural contact- with the Aryas, the Indian com-munities had derived a new impetus to porgress and were beginning to distinguish themselves in philosophy, priest craft and political influen’ce. They had produced great Rishis and experts in Vedic lore and sacrifices. Independent rulers like Ravana and Bali were rivalling in their fame and power even the greatest of Indo-Aryan kings. Aryanised Indian
