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the fifty who were his juniors said, "We accede to whatever our father considers right. We all give thee, Sunaksepha, precedence, and acknowledge ourselves to be subordinate to thee." Viśwámitra, therefore, much pleased with them, said, "Your sons shall be affluent in cattle and possessed of offspring."
The latter circumstances told by the Aitareya Bráhmana of the descent of barbarous tribes from the sons of Viswamitra, although suggestive of inquiry, are foreign to our present purpose, and need not be further noticed. The main purport of the quotation, the actual sacrifice of a human victim, is fully established, at least at the period of the compilation of the Brahmana: how far that expresses the practice of the Veda period may admit of question.
It is the received opinion of Hindu writers that the Brahmanas are an integral part of the Veda. Thus Sayana, the great scholiast on the Vedas, in the introductory discussion on these writings prefixed to his explanation of the text of the Rich, observes upon the authority of Ápastamba, "Veda is the denomination of the Mantras and the Brahmanas *." By the Mantras are meant the hymns and prayers; and the Brahmanas, say the Mímánsakas, are intended to elucidate and, as it were, individualize the objects which are only generally adverted to in the hymns, as where it is said in the Súkta, or hymn, "give abundantly," the Brahmana explains it, "give or offer
*
ANCIENT RELIGION OF INDIA.
[Rig-V. ed. M. Müller, I, p. 4.]
17.
