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1876.] Kajendralala Mitra— On Human Sacrifices in Ancient India. 103 



Neither Xpastambha nor Sayana has a word to say about the hu- 

 man victims being symbolical. The word used by A'pastamba is Updkrita, 

 which may mean consecration before a sacrifice or slaughter ; and ac- 

 cording to Jaimini, the highest authority on sacrifices, and his commentator 

 Savara Svami, the sacrificial operations " of consecration, of bringing the 

 animal to the place of sacrifice, fettering it, tying it to the post, 

 slaughtering, and cutting the careass open for the distribution of the flesh 

 among the priests, are all implied when sacrifice is meant," and the latter adds 

 that " all the different acts should be understood when sacrifices are or- 

 dained, except when special instructions are given."* Now no special excep- 

 tion has been made in the text about the human victims, and consequently 

 the only conclusion to be arrived at is — that, the Taittiriyas did not look 

 upon the rite as symbolical, though in the case of sacrifices under Nos. 172 

 to 176, the actual slaughtering of the airs, &c, would be rather awkward. 

 It must be added, however, that A'pastamba is very brief and obscure in 

 his remarks, and it would be hazardous to draw a positive conclusion from 

 the insufficient data supplied by him, particularly as the S'atapatha Brahmana 

 is positive on the subject of the human victims being let off after conse- 

 cration ; though the fact of that Brahmana being much later than the 

 Taittiriya Brahmana, may justify the assumption that the practice of the 

 Kanva school can be no guide to the followers of the Taittiriyaka. 



The S'atapatha refers to the Purushamedha in several places ; and 

 the following is the full description of the rite given in it : 



1. " Verily the great male, Narayana, willed : ' I shall abide over all 

 living beings ; verily I shall become all this (creation).' He perceived this 

 penta-diurnal sacrificial rite Purushamedha. He collected it. With it he per- 

 formed a sacrifice. Performing a sacrifice with it, he abided over all living 

 beings, and became all this (creation). He abides over all living beings 

 and becomes all this, who performs a Purushamedha, as also he who knows all 

 this.f 



2. " Of that rite there are twenty-three initiations {dilcslid), twelve 

 benefactions (upasada), and five lustrations (sutya), making altogether forty 



* \3*TT*RT*PT ^qTSre^ra ^^^T^^T, "W f^T«H^T ^pTTO faiWHT 

 *jf^ SJefR;^ f^^T if *R"cI I Mimansa Darsana p. 373. 



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