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latter being described as the daughter of Virupakkha, regent of the western quarter.1 Thus religion sought through its mythology to create various types of Graces and to present them through poetry and art for the improvement of female types in society. Manimekhala, the female angel of the sea, saving the sailing ships from wrecks, was a new but beautiful creation of the later age. She belonged to the realm of the four Mahārājas.2
On the sacrificial side, the same religion is said to have consisted in various forms of sacrifice involving the slaughter of cows, bulls, buffaloes, elephants, horses, goats, rams, etc.3 The Asvamedha (horse sacrifice) and Vajapeya, (soma sacrifice), associated with secular Brahmanism, were two forms of sacrifice having a political significance. The Purisamedha (human sacrifice) is also associated with the Vedic religion. These sacrifices are said to have been insisted on by the Purohitas and the Mahāsāla class of Brahmins. These were attended with big feasts, offering of gifts and distribution of charities. The performance of great sacrifices
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RELIGION
1 Barua, Barhut, Bk. II, p. 73.
2 Jātaka, iv, p. 17; vi, p. 35; S. K. Aiyangar, The Buddhism of Manimekhalai. (Buddhistic Studies) p. lf.
1
a Sutta-nipata, Brāhmaṇadhammika Sutta; Digha, i, Kutadanta Sutta.
^
4 Samyutta, i, p. 76; Anguttara, ii, p. 423 Sutta-nipātu, v, 303. 5 Ibid.
