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268
place. Hence Mr. Colebrooke concluded that the Purusha-medha, or sacrifice of a man, was never anything but typical; and the ceremony as enjoined in the Satapatha Brahmana of the Yajush, on which his opinion was founded, is evidently of that character. In this, one hundred and eighty-five men of various specified tribes, characters, and professions, are bound to cleven yúpas, or posts, and after recitation of a hymn celebrating the allegorical immolation of Náráyana, they are liberated unhurt, and oblations of butter are offered on the sacrificial fire". Hence Mr. Colebrooke** concludes that human sacrifices were not authorized by the Veda itself, but were either then abrogated and an emblematical ceremony substituted in their place, or they were introduced in later times by the authors of such works as the Káliká Purána, for instance, in which minute directions are given for the offering of a human victim to Kálí, whom it is said his blood satisfies for a thousand years.
That human offerings to the dark forms of Siva *** and Durga were sometimes perpetrated in later times, we know from various original sources, particularly from that very effective scene in the drama of Mádhava and Málatí, in which Aghoraghańta is represented as about to sacrifice Málatí to Chámundá, when she is
it
**
ON HUMAN SACRIFICES IN THE
***
[White Yajurveda c. 30 & 31.]
[Essays, p. 35.]
[India three thousand years ago, by Dr. J. Wilson. Bombay: 1858, p. 68, Note.]
