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Ritualistic Brahmanism

The Ritualistic Brahmanism phase of the Brahmanical system has for its special bible the sacred treatises called Brahmanas, added to the Mantra or Hymn portion of each Veda (for example, the Aitareya, Satapatha, Tandya, and Gopatha Brahmanas added to the Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva Vedas respectively). They consist of a series of rambling prose compositions, the oldest of which may have been written seven or eight centuries BC. Their relationship to the Vedic hymns resembles in some respects that of the book of Leviticus to the Psalms. They are an integral portion of the Veda, and are supposed to contain that portion of divine knowledge or revelation particularly adapted to serve as a directory for the Brahmans in the conduct of the complicated sacrificial ceremonies. For if it was deemed necessary in the early Vedic period to propitiate and maintain the energies of nature by means of invigorating offerings of food, it was not likely that such offerings would be dispensed with when these same energies were personalized as divine manifestations of the one Spirit.

All this involved the elaboration of a complicated ritual, and the organization of a regularly constituted hierarchy. To institute a sacrificial rite (such as the Asvamedha, Jyotishtoma, Agnishtoma, Aptoryama, Vajapeya, 'strengthening drink'), and to secure its being carefully conducted with the proper repetition and intonation of innumerable hymns and texts from the Veda, and the accurate observance of every detail of an intricate ritual by a full complement of perhaps sixteen different classes of priests, every one of whom received adequate gifts, was the great object of every pious Hindu's highest ambition. The whole course of prayer, praise, ritual, and oblation—sometimes lasting for weeks and even years— though called, as in Vedic times, Yajfia, 'sacrifice,' was very inadequately expressed by that term. It was a protracted religious service which could only be compared to an intricate piece of mechanism.

Indeed it is eyident that human sacrifice was once part of the Brahmanical system. The Aitareya-brahmana (VII. 13) has a well-known story—the story of Hariscandra and Sunahsepa— which points to its prevalence. The same Brahmana records the substitution of the sacrifice of four kinds of animals—horses, oxen, sheep, and goats—for that of men. Sometimes immense numbers of animals were tied to sacrificial posts (yupa), some being killed and some liberated at the end of the ceremony. One of the most noteworthy ideas to be found in the Brahmanas-is that the gods were merely mortal till they conquered Death by sacrifices. Death is thereupon alarmed lest men should also be victorious over him and deprive him of all his rights; but the gods promise that those who perform sacrifices should not become immortal without first offering him their bodies, and that all who omit to sacrifice should be born again, and present him their bodies in innumerable successive births.