212 The Tdstu Tdga. [No. 3, 



Nairta and Varuna Pavan Cuvera and Siva and Sesha with 

 brahmans and dikpalas ever purify you. May all the assem- 

 bled gods bless you with reputation and fame, wealth, me- 

 mory, reasoning, health, veneration and mercy, ingenuity, modesty, 

 bodily comfort, quietude, and loveliness. May the planets, the sun, 

 the moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn, all the 

 planets, together with Rdlvu and Ketu propitiated, purify you. May 

 devas, danavas, gandharvas, yakskas, rakshas, serpents, rishis, 

 munis, cows, devamatas also deva-patnis, adhvraas, snakes, daityas 

 and apsaras, weapons, all S'astras, rajas and carriers and medicines, 

 jewels and the degrees of time, lakes, seas, mountains, holy places, 

 clouds, rivers, prepare you towards the attainment of piety, 

 desires and wealth ! Om, Svasti." 



The Tdstu ydga, described above, is evidently a sacrifice invented 

 by the ancient Aryan conquerors with a view to propitiate the 

 aborigines or primeval owners of the land. Such a practice is not 

 uncommon in Hindu theosophy. Everything that has a place in 

 a ceremony, is worshipped or propitiated. The earth is pacified 

 before lighting up a sacrificial fire, and is appeased after the homa 

 is over. The tree from which faggots are collected is worshipped, 

 and is propitiated by mantras. The sacrificial goat even is first ad- 

 dressed with a proper prayer to the effect " that beasts were created 

 by Brahma for sacrifice, and killing in a Yajna is therefore no killing 

 (rr*BT«T ^ra" ^TS^^TJ I )■" Again, " Indra, Soma, and other gods, for the 

 sake of sacrifice became beasts and so forth." Indeed, without a pre- 

 liminary archan'i (worship), no offering is deemed fit for presentation 

 and no god is prepared to receive any without it. The Vetdlas and 

 Pisachas (the gods of the aborigines) are first propitiated, they have 

 the precedence in all ceremonies. In days of yore, such ceremonies 

 were very frequently interrupted by the dasyus and daityas, and 

 the holy sages who celebrated them, were often obliged to ask for 

 assistance from princes and warriors for protecting them against 

 such depredations. In the Ramayana, Visvamitra carries with him 

 young Eamachandra and Lakshmana to protect his sacrifice. In the 

 performance of a srdddha, the first offering is made to the Bhusvdmi, 

 the lord of the soil, and the Smirtis teach us that it is not lawful 

 to perform any ceremony on another man's soil without satisfying 



