34 E. W. Hopkins, 



heinous sins may be removed by great sacrifices (brahmaJiatya, for 

 example), so that it is scarcely an infringement on the moral per- 

 ception when it is admitted (or rather triumphantly proclaimed) 

 that, by the recitation of a verse of the Rig Veda, 9. 58. 3, goods 

 received from a person from whom goods ought not to be received 

 may be converted into goods acceptable and stainless to the re- 

 cipient.i 



Transfer of sin is an accepted doctrine. One takes upon himself 

 the sin (fault) of the sacrifice, if one blames it, 5. 5. 13 ; if one tells 

 the faults of those initiated one gets a third of their sin (another 

 third goes to the eater of the food, and another to the ants.\ 5. 

 6. 10. 



One rather curious view is also to be noticed. It is assumed 

 that the gods will take the same attitude toward a suspected person 

 that men take, or, as is said in the TS. (just as an inauspicious voice 

 follows a murderer), so " an unholy voice," aputa vac, seizes him 

 who is accused, though he has not really killed (TS. 2. 1. 10. 2). 

 Hence " the divinities avoid the man whom people falsely accuse," 

 18. 1. 10—12; but, it is shrewdly added, if he pays for a sacrifice, 

 the priest will make his food acceptable to the gods, and e\en men 

 may eat of it, when he or the food has thus been purified. Com- 

 pare 2. 17. 4, "impurity gets hold of him whom the 'inauspicious 

 voice ' gets hold of." Those who falsely accuse are the real sinners, 

 6. 10. 7 (explaining aravanaJi in RV. 9. 61. 25). Untruth, it is said 

 in another place, 8. 6. 13, is a "hole in the voice," which may be 

 filled (discounted) by the sacrificer adding a syllable to a verse ! 

 Wealth is a sure protection against sin if rightly efnplo3-ed in 

 sacrifice. " Even a sinner by means of wealth (i. e. gifts of cattle) 



^ This is tlie celebrated case of Taranta and Puriunlclha. following- 

 whose example one may convert received goods into '• not received," or, 

 in other words, enjoy the goods, but not as " accepted " from a person 

 who is revolting to the delicate feelings of the recipient, 13. 7. 12-13. 

 Compare the principle at 12. 3. 13 ; 6. 6. 'Qy the Saman one destroys sin, 

 kills ogres, and rivals, becomes better; and if a pure man becomes worse 

 he may make abound in himself all power, vigor, and manliness through 

 the Saman, 11. b. 11, etc. The words used above of CTausrd<:ti and Asva- 

 sukti are applied to Taranta and Purumidha in JB. 3. 139 ; cf. Sat. B., 

 bahu prntigvhya garaginiv {iva meuate)^ Oertel, JAOS. 18. 39. One may 

 even get back a realm, as in the case of the deposed (Rajanyarsi !) royal 

 seer Sindhuksit, 12. 12. 6. Cf. the same phrase, 15. 3. 25, in the history 

 of DTrghasravas, Rajanya-rsi ; and of Vitahavya Srayasa, £f. 1. 9 (15. 16. 

 3), not " became enlightened " (Saj'ana). 



