

112 Eajendralala Mitra— On Human Sacrifices in Ancient India, [Ho. 1 



The object of this story is to point out the necessity of slaughtering 

 one hundred and eighty animals of different kinds at this sacrifice to 

 liberate Prajapati from his confinement, and the first victim ordained is a 

 man. " He (the institutor of the sacrifice) immolates a man ; (the form of) 

 a man is (like that of) Virat, the type of the animated creation. By the 

 immolation of the man is Virat immolated. Now Virat is food, and there- 

 fore through Virat food is obtained."^ The horse, the cow, the goat 

 and other animals are ordained to be immolated in almost the same words • 

 everywhere using the verb dlahhate. The details of the Asvamedha would 

 require more space than what I can spare here, so I must reserve them 

 for a separate paper. 



Apart from the Purushamedha and the Asvamedha, the S'atapatha Brah- 

 mana, in adverting to the offering of animal sacrifice generally, and enu- 

 merating separately the horse, the cow, the goat, &c, has a verse which is 

 remarkable for the manner in which a human victim is therein referred to. 

 It says " Let a fire-offering be made with the head of a man. The offering 

 is the rite itself (yajna) ; therefore does it make a man a part of the 

 sacrificial animals ; and hence it is that among animals man is included as a 

 sacrifice. Whoever offers an oblation with the head, to him the head gives 

 vigour."f The commentator explains that by the term purusha sirsa "man's 

 head", a man is understood, a part being, by a figure of speech, taken as 

 equivalent to the whole. 



Passing from the Brahmanas to the Itihasas, we have ample evidence 

 to show that the rite of Purushamedha was not unknown to their authors. 

 The Institutes of Manu affords the same evidence, but it would seem that 

 when it came into currency, the rite was looked upon with horror, and so 

 it was prohibited as unfit to be performed in the present age. The Puranas 

 followed the Institutes, and the prohibition included along with it the Asva- 

 medha, suicide by drowning one's self in the sea, procreation of children on 

 an elder brother's widow, and a variety of other reprehensible and odious 

 rites, ceremonies and customs, J showing clearly that the rite originally was 

 not so innocent as the supposition of its being emblematic would make it ; 

 for had the offering been limited to the mere repetition of a few mantras 



t Beef in Ancient India, ante XLI, p. 194. 



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