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206 INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS
by the Vedic ascetics in the three regions of Gayākhetta was a notable annual function eagerly awaited by all the inhabitants of Anga and Magadha. Similar sacrifices were performed in other parts of the country where the Brahmins of these classes lived or had influence.
On the ritualistic side, the Vedic religion or secular Brahmanism consisted, as we are told, in Aggihutta or oblations to fire, and diverse other kinds of koma.
The Buddhist and Jaina texts do not at all exaggerate the state of things whon they inform us that secular Brahmanism consisted in spells, charms, incantations, exorcism, witchcraft, goccultism, interpretation of dreams, signs, and cries of beasts and birds as foreshadowing coming events, soothsayings, etc. They correctly refer, to the Atharva Veda as the scriptural source of the Brahmins from which followed the development and intermingling of popular occultism and science. It was indeed through the Atharvanic process that an alliance between secular Brahmanism and all primitive cults was possible, an alliance or blending from which even Hinduism of the 20th century is not free. Anyhow, as the books bear'ample evidence, the Purohita and Yājaka classes of Brahmins fully utilised it in guiding the course of daily life of the
1 Barua, Gayā and Buddhaqapjá, p. 110.
