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THE FUNERAL CEREMONIES
and what penance ought to be performed for neglect of duty. The duties and rights of kings and magistrates, civil rights, and even rules of social politeness, are determined by them in great detail. They are the principal source of the latter lawbooks', and are considered as sacred and indirectly revealed, because, according to the notions of the Brahmans, no law can derive its sanction except from a divine authority.
“All these Sútras have come down to us, not as one single code, to be acknowledged as such by every Brahman, but in the form of various collections which are represented as the traditional property of some of the most prominent families or communities of India. The ceremonies described in these different collections of Sútras, are almost identical in their general bearing. With regard to the Srauta sacrifices, there are different collections of Sútras for the different classes of priests, who have peculiar parts to perform at each sacrifice, and employ respectively the hymns as collected in the Rig-veda, Sáma-veda, or Yajur-vedasanhitá. However, each class of priests has again not one, but several collections of Sútras, coinciding in many places almost literally, and kept distinct only by the authority of the name of their first collectors. The Grihya ceremonies, though they are less affected by the differences of the three or four classes of priests employed at the great sacrifices, are yet described in
of
Indian
Cases, Introduction,
See Morley's Digest page cxcvI.
