140 



Miscella ne&. 



man. The bridegroom prays to Agni and Gandharva to cede 

 the bride to him, and afterwards declares that Agni has 

 given up his right of possession. These singular expressions 

 are explained by Gobhilaputra, the author of the Grihya- 

 samgraha, Samvarta, and Atri as allegorical. The girl is said 

 to fall into the power of Soma when inguen pube contegitur, 

 into the power of Gandharva when mammae ejus intumescunt, 

 and into that of Agni when she has her Kara^riviaroTrpoiTov. 



This explanation, which is confirmed by modern researches 

 on Vedic mythology, proves beyond doubt that, at least when 

 these mantras were composed and introduced into the Brah- 

 manic liturgy, every bride must have attained puberty. 

 Hence it is evident that in the Vedic age, and perhaps even 

 later, the custom of early marriages was unknown (a). Dr. 

 Buhler concluded his paper by pointing out that according 

 to the best authorities on Smarta subjects, a law given by 

 Smarta writers which is contrary to the words of the Veda 

 Qruti, is not absolutely binding, and that either the Smrti 

 or Cruti rule may be followed. 



I II. — The unpHmitivenessofthe Hindu veneration of Cows. 



WE take the following passages from the second volume 

 M. Pictet's Origincs Indo-Eurojpe'ennes. Paris 1863, pp. 

 45, 46, 62. In Sanskrit the guest is called goghna ' he who 

 kills the ox or cow,' or according to Panini, ' he for whom 

 they kill a cow (yasmai gam ghnantl, Bohtlingk — Roth. II. 

 794) which answers to the biblical expression 'to kill the 

 fatted calf.' It is doubtless to this usage that allusion is 

 made in a passage of the Rigveda (I. 31. 15) Svadukshadma 

 yo vasatau syonakrjjivayajram yajate sopama divah, i.e., ac- 

 cording to Rosen, Dulci cibo instructus, qui domi (hospitibus) 

 oblectamenta parans, vivam hostiam mactat, is est similis 

 coelo. It is evident that this custom could only have pre- 

 vailed in India in the most remote periods, and that the cow 



(a) This note (the greater part of which is taken from the Bombay 

 Saturday Review) only shows that the marriage of girls before puberty has 

 not the sanction of antiquity. As to the male sex consider the following 

 passage from H. H. Wilson's Essays II, 58, 59. " The Vedas then did not 

 sanction the marriage of children. In fact, it was impossible for a man to 

 marry before maturity, as nine years are specified as the shortest term of 

 his studentship, until the expiration of which he was not allowed to 

 marry. He did not enter his studentship till he was seven or eight:, 

 and therefore at the earliest, he could not have been married before seven- 

 teen; an early age enough, in our estimation, but absolute manhood, as 

 compared with the age of nine or ten, at which Hindu boys are, according 

 to the present practice, husbands." — Ed. 



