There are many allegations against the ancient Vedic rituals
or Yajña-s, that they are useless and contain rather primitive contents such as
animal sacrifices, obscene rites etc. Animal sacrifices, fertility rites etc
were not unique to the ancient Vedic culture. We could see them in many parts
of the ancient world. Before the civilizations evolved, all of humanity lived
as primitive hunter-gatherers who hunted animals for food and other needs.
Vedic rituals being among the oldest surviving ritual of mankind dating back to the bronze age and having it's roots in further
antiquity would obviously contain elements which would be considered primitive
or trangressive according to modern notions. For example Aśvamedha or horse sacrifice involved the queen lying
beside and mimicking copulation with the sacrificed horse, and Puruṣamedha or
human sacrifice would have also originally involved similar rite, with horse
replaced by human victim. Few variations of another ritual named Gosava grants
sacrificer the right to answer nature's call anywhere he wishes and also
cohabit with any women including his own mother, sister and women from his own
clan, which is otherwise strictly forbidden according to Vedic laws.
These may
sound bizarre, but if we look at the details of the rituals, it becomes clear
that some aspects of these rituals are quite complicated to perform. For
example in Aśvamedha, the horse is sacrificed only after it is safely returned
from all the neighbouring kingdoms where it roamed for an year representing the
king. If any of the neighbouring kingdoms capture the horse, then it is a sign
of war. But if the horse returned safely from the neighbouring kingdoms, then
it would mean that the neighbouring kingdoms accepted the supremacy of the king
represented by the horse. Thus the ritual could only be conducted by powerful
kings. After the horse is returned safely to the hosting kingdom, it is offered
to deities. It is said that along with horse, many other animals are also
offered in the sacrifice. These animals are enumerated in texts like Vājasaneyi
Saṃhitā book 24 of Śukla or White Yajur Veda and Taittirīya Saṃhitā 5.5.11-24 of Kr̥ṣṇa or Black Yajur
Veda. If we look at the animals in the list, we can see that it includes tiny
ones like flies, bees, worms etc to bigger ones like rhinoceroses, tigers,
lions, crocodiles, elephants etc! Though the wild animals in the list are to be
released later, all of the victims in the list must be tied to the sacrificial
posts or Yūpa. This huge list of animals are of course next to impossible to be
used in rituals. In similar lines, Puruṣamedha also follows same theme with
horse replaced by human victim. It also has a list of several other victims who
are to be tied in sacrificial posts. These victims are not animals as in Aśvamedha
, but humans of various castes, tribes, professions, characteristics etc as
numerated in Vājasaneyi Saṃhita book 30. This large list of victims also
appears to be impossible to gather just like the Aśvamedha list, and making Puruṣamedha
an extremely complex rite as well. Texts like Śatapata Brāhmaṇa 13.6.2.13 already treats Puruṣamedha as
symbolic sacrifice and even certain hymns of Ṛg Veda like 5.2.7, 1.24.13 etc
echoes the tale of Śunaḥśepa or the boy who was chosen as victim of human
sacrifice and was later released by the blessings of deities. This story could
be viewed as abandonment of human sacrifice in general. But the human
sacrifices continued to exist in post Vedic times, though they were extremely
rare. A ritual named Agnicayana also involved burying the heads of several
animals and also a human head on the ground before building the fire altar,
which was later replaced with replica heads. In Gosava ritual, the sacrificer
must behave like a bovine by kneeling down to eat and drink, graze on grass etc
just like bovines. Though this is just one version of Gosava found in texts
like Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa 2.113, while
other versions found in texts like Pañchaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa 19.13 do not mention any transgressive acts.
It is possible that the transgressive version is a modification of simpler
version or vice versa. It is also said in Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa that the king Janaka refused to perform the
transgressive rite and another king Puṇyakeśa after halting the performance of
the rite declared the performance of rite as being limited to old men. The
trick here was to limit the performance of this transgressive rite as much as
possible, since old men won't have much potency to perform this extremely
complicated rite. Thus these complicated ritual performances would have been
extremely rare and would most likely had modifications and or symbolic
performances.
The ritual interpretations also varied from one Vedic text to
another as mentioned above, so this indicates that the different authors
modified and interpreted the rituals. Vedic rituals are open for modifications
and exceptions according to circumstances . For example when Vedic culture
expanded from its heartland in north-west India into other regions, the
original sacred Soma plant used in rituals was replaced with other plants due
to unavailability of the original Soma in new regions where the Vedic culture
expanded. Also according to the tradition, the Vedic rituals are only to be
conducted in the lands where kr̥ṣṇamrga or blackbucks live as stated in texts
like Manu Smriti 2.23. But when Vedic culture historically expanded beyond
India into new regions like south-east Asia, the Vedic rituals were also
conducted in these regions. Blackbucks do not live in regions like south-east
Asia and they are mostly found in India (though they are facing extinction
today). Clearly, here the ritualists made exceptions to the rule which is
applied in mainland India or Bhāratavarṣa and performed Vedic rituals in other
regions like South-East Asia. In later periods, the animal sacrifices which are
part of many Vedic rituals were also substituted by offerings of grain cakes or
Puroḍāśa. Śatapata Brāhmaṇa 1.2.3.6-7
narrates a story of how sacrificial essence from humans and animals finally got
into grains. Śatapata Brāhmaṇa 1.2.3.5
also states that it is as an animal sacrifice the cake is offered, and Śatapata
Brāhmaṇa 1.2.3.8 also associates
different characteristics of the cake with that of different parts of animals.
Further Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa 3.2.8.8 explicitly states that the rice cakes
are substitutes of animal victims and Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa 3.2.8.9 also associates the cake with the
sacrificer himself, hinting at the notion of self sacrifice or the sacrificer
offering himself up as the animal victims represented by the cakes. It is
important to note that the method of sacrificing actual animal was also quite
sophisticated. Most of the time It involved suffocating or smothering the
victim rather than butchering it as stated in Śatapata Brāhmaṇa 3.8.1.15. Before the victim is sacrificed, the
ritualists symbolically asks permission from the victim's family to sacrifice
the victim and makes the victim sacrificially pure as narrated in Śatapata Brāhmaṇa
3.7.4.5,
Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa 3.6.6.1 etc. The language used in ritual is
also quite toned down, and the victim is stated to be ‘quieted or ‘passed away’
instead of being killed. While the victim is being sacrificed, the priests
would not look at the process either. The sacrificing is done by an assistant
called Śamitṛ. Also narrated in Śatapata Brāhmaṇa 3.8.1.10, that the sacrifice was not
considered as killing at all, since the sacrifice which is a divine act could
not be equated with death. After the sacrifice, the sacrificed victim would
also be symbolically cleansed and revived as said in Śatapata Brāhmaṇa 3.8.2.4-11. Thus we see elements of non
violence in animal sacrifices, which later led to substitution of animals with
cake and other vegetarian offerings. Hence we do not need to view Ahimsa or non
violence and vegetarianism as a post Vedic Buddhist or Jain influence, it was a
gradual development which happened within the Vedic tradition during later
Vedic period. However, many ritualists would have still utilized actual animals
in the rituals, while the ones who preferred non violent rituals would have
used the substitute offerings. To sum up, we see an innovation or evolution of
practices in the Vedic rituals and modifications or exceptions can be made in
the Vedic rituals according to circumstances, but without altering the core
performance itself. Even in the Uttarakāṇḍa section of Rāmāyaṇa, we read that Śri
Rāma performed Aśvamedha using golden
image of Sīta Devi since she was not present during the performance of the ritual.
As noted earlier, the role of queen was significant in the performance of the
horse sacrifice.
Also, no matter how primitive the Vedic rituals may may sound,
the ritual acts does have internal meaning and symbolism. For example Aśvamedha
revolves the sacred cosmic horse, who is
praised in Ṛg Veda 1.161-162. This divine horse symbolizes the fertile and
ruling power and represents the Sun. The queen would embrace the divine horse
unto herself as part of the sacrifice and it is clear from texts like Śatapata Brāhmaṇa
13.5.2.2 that this union has a
cosmological background since the pairing is said to take place in heaven. If Aśvamedha
revolves about divine horse, then Puruṣamedha revolves around Puruṣa Nārāyaṇa
of Puruṣa Sukta from Ṛg Veda 10.90. Puruṣa Nārāyaṇa represents the whole
universe personified and the human victim used in the ritual symbolizes this Puruṣa.
As for the transgressive rites seen in certain versions of Gosava, these rites
technically represents the notion of transcending human limitations, by living
like an animal and having total freedom and liberation just like in heaven.
Thus all ritual acts, even the so called primitive practices seems to have an
internal meaning. Also in the Vedic sense, the place where the ritual is
conducted is viewed as a divine space, for example Ṛg Veda 1.164.5 states the
ritual is the center of the whole world. Whatever done in this divine space
which are guided by the Vedic Mantras would be considered as divine, including
the so called transgressive acts.
Another thing is that the transgressive
practices continued to exist even in post Vedic era when Tāntric or Āgamic (i.e
temple and image based ) mode of worship evolved. Some of the heterodox Tāntric
sects practicing the transgressive rites exist even today. It is also important
to note that many of the mainstream orthodox Tāntric-Āgamic practices are also
derived from Vedic ritual practices. For example Śatapata Brāhmaṇa 7.4.1.25-32 speaks of worshiping a gold image
of a man symbolizing Puruṣa or the whole universe personified. This might've
given rise to early image worship which later became popular in Tāntric-Āgamic
tradition. The Pradakṣiṇa or Parikrama, the circumambulation of temples can be
compared to the practice mentioned in Śatapata Brāhmaṇa 9.1.2.6-8 where the ritualist has to
circumambulate the fire altar used in Vedic rituals. The practice of Homa or havana,
the offerings made in fire altar which is done in many temples are also
obviously derived from ancient Vedic fire rituals. Another practice mentioned
in Śatapata Brāhmaṇa 1.2.2.13 in which
an object is purified using fire can also be compared with later ritual of Ārati.
So many of the later Tāntric-Āgamic practices which are still practiced widely
can also be traced back to ancient Vedic practices.
Apart from this, the
ancient Vedic rituals contributed to many of the early knowledge. The
calculation and measurement of bricks to build the fire altars of different
shapes gave rise to the ancient geometry and mathematics, the observation of stars
and seasons to conduct rituals gave rise to astronomy, the speculations
surrounding the sacrificial myths, goals, fruits of sacrifices etc gave rise to
ancient philosophy, the strict emphasize on the use of Mantras and chanting in
Vedic rituals must have given rise to the early linguistic thoughts, the acts,
dialogues, dance, music etc which are part of many rituals like Aśvamedha, Mahāvrata
etc would have contributed to the growth of early theatrical and dramatic
tradition, the anatomy of sacrificial victims would have contributed to early surgical
tradition and so on. So before calling
rituals as useless or primitive, one must remember about contribution of
rituals to the civilization. These ancient rituals and also festivities are
part of our civilization and they must be practiced to express or celebrate the
ancient culture and heritage of our civilization.