SmartSurat  #  Hinduism

Yajna

The whole fulcrum of Vedic religion was the sacrificial ritual known as yajna. There were two kinds of sacrificial ritual: the official srauta sacrifice which was attended by many priests and the domestic sacrifice of the home which was attended by only one priest, the purohit. Fire was central to sacrificial ritual and animal sacrifice was immensely important. At some of the major yajna ceremonies such as the asvamedha sacrifice, hundreds of animals were sacrificed; indeed, the greater the number the more powerful and efficacious the ritual. Human sacrifice also played a part in the rituals. The whole point of yajna was to propitiate the gods in order that they would gratify the needs of the worshippers. As long as the gods were happy, they would reward the worshippers with what they needed most in life - cows in milk, progeny, victory in war and longevity. For the first time the cow became important in this period, not sacred in any way, as in later Hinduism, bu't the symbol of wealth. For the Vedic man cows were `the "real life" substratum of the goods of life'. It is therefore evident that on one level the gods were seen as the providers of material good fortune, something reflected in the goal of artha in the second asrama, the life of the householder, in later Hinduism. Organ rather aptly says that:        The Vedic devas are givers; they are used as the source of the goods of  life rather than adored for their intrinsic worth.        Yet there is evidence of some deeper meanings behind this purely. mercenary approach to the deities. The very fact of heightened religious experience through partaking of soma should suggest that there were higher levels to yajna. Danielou makes the point that yajna served the function of `bringing man into contact with the higher states of being, the deities', and this is an important point, for people, priests and gods attended the yajnas together, it was a participatory ritual. It was also participatory in another sense, particularly as the Vedic period proceeded. The sacrifice of Purusa, recorded in the tenth mandala of the Rg Veda, and which had given rise to the four classes and all creation, came to be recreated by the priests in the sense of a ritualistic re-participation in the original creative process. The creative energies necessary for existence and the prevalence of Aryan society were renewed and continued by the yajnas. through the ritual the powers that maintained life in that original sacrifice were recharged. The priests, then, participated in an ongoing creation through yajna. Important, too, is the fact that by personifying the fundamental powers of human and cosmic existence, the deities enabled the Aryans to make sense of those forces and elements in life, giving meaning to them in daily life - and this shifts the emphasis slightly from the purely propitiatory aspect of the religion. It was the emphasis on priestly involvement in yajna which initiated the real rise of Brahmanism. In the process of time the yajnas became more and more elaborate and, given the crucial role of replenishing creation on the one hand and the propitiation of the gods for the wealth and stability of Aryan life on the other, the rituals had to be performed to perfection. Many priests were involved: the hotr `reciter' priests were those who recited the hymns of the Rg Veda; the udgatr `chanter' priests were those who specialized in the chants from the Sama Veda; the adhvaryu `officiater' priests were those who took care of the ritualistic aspects in association with the Yajur Veda. It was the Brahmin priests who came to be associated with the Atharva Veda but they were also responsible for overseeing the whole ritual and therefore had knowledge of all its aspects. They had to make certain that everything was correctly done, otherwise the replenishing of creation and the propitiation of the gods could go hopelessly wrong and the results for Aryan life would have been disastrous. It was believed that the sun itself could not rise without the appropriate, correct religious ritual. It was these Brahmin priests who emerged as the most powerful priestly element becoming indispensable to correct ritual performance. Indeed, brahmans were originally `magically potent formulas' but the Brahmin priests themselves became the medium for magical manipulation - hence their association with the incantational aspects of the Atharva veda. The priestly practices set down in the Brahmanas, the priestly commentaries on Rg Vedic ceremony, reflect the complexity of ritual and the rigid conformity to precise action (karman). Some forms of yajna became so elaborate that the ceremony took as long as a year. The Brahmins were conceived of as the only agents who were able to manipulate the gods, and if they could have this effect on divine forces they could also manipulate their enemies in the same way. Their power, thus, became largely unchecked and they were feared as much for their effective power over Vedic society - from king down to the most servile - as for their religious powers.