Indian Antiquary Vol 54

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 23

JANUARY, 1925)
THE COUSIN IN VEDIC RITUAL
Secondly, there is the comparative method. It is a well known fact that customs may survive in out of the way places for thousands of years after they have disappeared in their country of origin. Egyptologists have given us instances of such persistence which would have been thought incredible a few decades ago. We may, therefore, have good hopes of finding the Vedio theory of sacrifice surviving in the backwaters of India, Indo-China, and Indonesia, and I appeal to all students of those regions to take down carefully verbatim descriptions of sacrifices, to note the kinship system, and to note the functions of the various relations in all ceremonies, whether they are obviously religious or apparently secular.
We come very near the evidence required in Fiji and in South Africa, where the man who is sister's son and cross cousin to the tribe seizes the offering and is beaten by the cross cousins. Among the Thonga we are told distinctly that he does so as representative of the gods. It must however be remembered that both among the Fijians and the Thonga the distinction between gods, demons, manos, ghosts, has disappeared or almost so, and all of them are commonly spoken of under the same generio term.4
Let us see who appears as bhratrvya in Vedic ritual : there is Vrtra6 and there is Namuci, both demons. But we must first of all get it firmly implanted in our minds that the word 'demon 'is a purely conventional and somewhat misleading translation of asura; demon to us means a wicked being, but an asura is nothing of that kind; he is a rival of the gods, but he can be very good, and even a saint, 88 for instance Bali in the myth of Vishnu's Three Steps. True, Vetra is spoken of as wicked,''sinful,' but on the other hand he is identified with Soma, the plant which yields the sacred beverage of Vedic sacrifices, and Soma is such a kind god that he has given rise to an adjective saumya, ' agreeable, pleasant, auspicious.' Indeed, it appears to be a sin to slay Soma, as they do when they crush him in order to prepare the sacrificial draught; therefore they crush him with stones to restore his body and bring him to life. Soma is also the moon, and therefore Vstra is the moon; and the moon is not evil, in fact many families in India boast of their descent from the moon. Namuci seems to be but a variant of Vftra : he too is Soma, and is thus a mixture of good and evil.9
It is obvious that the hostility between the sacrificer and the demons cannot be a real one, one infused with hatred. No doubt texts will be quoted in which expressions of hate or contempt occur, but it does not follow that they are real. In Fiji one tribe goes out of its way in the midst of a kava formula, (which corresponds to the Indian Soma chant ?), to call their cross cousing10 fools; yet the relations between the two tribes are most friendly, boisterously friendly, and if they meet they will make a point of insulting one another, "You cad, you body fit to be cooked," and so on without the least bit of ill feeling. They will cheat one another, just as the Kathaka Samhita prescribes should be done to a bhrdtyvya, and think it a great joke which binds them all the closer together.
But if bhrátyvya is a cross cousin, how do demons come to be called cross cousins ?
Over and over again the Satapatha Brahmana informs us that the sacrificer is the god Indra ;11 if the sacrificer can impersonate the sun god, why should not his cousin represent the Moon god? Whether the cross-cousin was actually present or not, the following
. On the meaning of the Fijian word. Kalou,' Journ. Roy. Anthro. Inst., 1912, p. 437. 5 Satapatha Brahmana, I, 2. 4. 3.
Ibid., III, 4. 3. 13. 1 Ibid., III, 9:4. 2.
8 Ibid., I, 6. 4. 12f. Toid., XII, 7, 3. C. I, 6. 3. 17.
20. tapod. 11 Ibid., II, 3. 3. 10; III, 4, 3, 16 d passim.