Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 402

14. JAINA CRITICISM OF VEDIO SACRIFICES
383
Puruşamedha is a relic of a barbaric age, but the statement is vague, and there are no reliable data which might enable us to determine the limits of
'barbaric age'. The evidence of the Satapatha Brahmana, a far more ancient text, is of greater value than that of the two Sūtra texts, and the fact remains that as early as the age of the Satapatha Brāhmaņa no human victims were sacrificed in the Puruşamedha. More generally speaking, the legend of Sunaḥsepa "is enough to show that human sacrifice was for the Brāhmana period a horror beyond words”. It is also noteworthy that the Puruşamedha is not mentioned at all in the Samhitās of the Black Yajurveda: the Taittiriya, the Maitrāyani and the Kāthaka nor in the comprehensive Baudhāyana Srauta Sutra.
Another misleading statement made by Somadeva in Yasastilaka, Book IV, concerns the Gosava sacrifice. He opines that this rite was devised to sanction incest with one's mother and sister. The Gosava was an ekāha or one-day sacrifice and usually performed by a man of position of the Vaisya caste, who might be honoured by the king and the pe who performed the Gosava was therafter called Sthapati, an honorific term. According to some, this rite was exclusively meant for the Vaiśya caste, and one of its important features was that fresh milk was poured over the Sacrificer while seated on the bare ground to the south of the Ahavaniya fire. This is roughly the account of the Gosava given in the Kātyāyana Srauta Sūtra XXII. u. 6-11. The prescribed sacrificial fee of a myriad oxen shows that the rite was performed by a wealthy man, and according to the Sāńkhāyana Srauta Sūtra XVI. 15. 1 it should be undertaken by one who desires cattle. The Taittiriya Brāhmana II. 7. 6 and Tāndya Brāhmaņa XIX. 13. 1 connect the Gosava with Svārājya or supremacy as the promised goal, and in any case the rite was meant for a leading man of the community as marking the culminating point in his social rank and position. As pointed out by Hillebrandt, there were certain special sacrifices for particular classes of men, e. g. the Rājasūya for the Kșatriyas, the Bșhaspatisava for the Brāhmaṇas and the Sūta., Sthapati-, Grāmaņi-, and Go-sava for the other orders of society. Now, the Gosava had a particular connection with the bovine species. The Taittiriya Brāhmana (op. cit.) observes that the ox is Supremacy, and the Sacrificer acts like an ox. Sāyaṇa's interpretation
1 Ritual-Litteratur, p. 153. 2 Keith: Taittiriya Sanhita (op. cit.), p. cxl., 3 Ibid., p. cxxxviii. 4 'acie-te ac a dagi TATT HITTA forgalta Sur HraTHIR FARAR 1 Books IV
and VII, and section 30. 5 Ritwal-Litteratur, p. 143. 6 'स्वाराज्यं गौरेव गौरिव भवति । य एतेन यजते।'