Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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The Incipient Stage 57
of the cows or to designate the starry heaven after the term gāvaḥ.? 'Again and again in the songs and invocations to the gods the prayer for cattle and horses occurs. Also the strife amongst hostile aboriginal inhabitants turns on the possession of cattle. Therefore, too, the old word for 'war' or 'battle' is originally desire for the cattle (gavişți). In most extravagant expressions, cows and bullocks are praised as the most precious possessions.'3
The religion of the Rgveda is therefore patriarchal, a reflection of the society of the pastoral warriors. The pastoral tribes require greater courage and hardihood than the agricultural, and also an efficient leadership to protect the cattle. So the cult of the heroes and ancestors attains its highest degree of development among the pastorals. The herder in his nomadic life has to live under the scorching heat of the sun, the dreadful thunders, the devastating storms. So his religion is mainly connected with the sky, in which astral and nature myths, often personified in secondary gods and godlings, make their appearance. The Supreme Being of the pastoral religion is generally identified with the sky-god who rules over other deities like the headman of a patriarchal joint family. This was also a new religion which was gradually adopted by the Vedic tribes in their pastoral stage of development. But still they could not give up the religious practices of their pre-pastoral life. In fact, they propitiated the deities of the pastoral religion with pre-pastoral rituals, of which animal sacrifice was obviously the most important. Two of the Rgvedic hymns, later used to be recited in the Aśvamedha sacrifices, show the real nature of the early Vedic rituals. The animal, to be killed, was identified with some deities. It was anointed and then cut to pieces. Its flesh was cooked and a lump was offered to fire. Then it was eaten up by the participants of the sacrifice in the midst of such utterings as aghu, yājyā, vașațkära.
The Vedic tribes found it hard to vanquish the existing nonVedic tribes whom they used to call Daitya, Dānava, Asura, Piśāca, Rākşasa, Barbara, Dasyu, etc. The contact with these non-Vedic peoples, living mainly on agriculture, brought some significant changes in the religious outlook of the Vedic tribes, traces of which are found
IVII. 32.22; 106.1; 1X. 2.2.2; etc. 21. 154.6; VII. 36.1. Winternitz, HIL, I, 64-65. 'I, 162-63.