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INTRODUCTION.
the ancestor of kings. Thus a Mantra, recited at the Abhisheka of a king !, asserts that Pragàpati formerly anointed Indra, Soma, Varuna, Yama, and Manu, and among the mythical kings Saryâta is called Manu's son?, while Purûravas is the offspring of Manu's daughter, Idà or Ila. In later times this ancient idea, which makes Manu the first king of men and the ancestor of kings, has led to his being placed at the head of mythical and of partly historical genealogies. From him springs Ikshvåku, the first king of the solar dynasty and the historical Kalukya, and Kola kings name Manu as the founder of their families.
Much more frequently the Veda alludes to, or explicitly mentions, Manu as the inventor of sacrificial rites. The Rig-veda contains a very large number of passages which speak of Manu's sacrifices, and of his having kindled the sacred fire, or invoked the gods to accept the offerings of the Rishis just as they accepted those of Manu. The same assertions are repeated in the Yagur-veda, and the Satapatha-brâhmana (1, 5, 1-7) says very explicitly, 'Manu, indeed, worshipped with sacrifices in the beginning; imitating that, this progeny (of his now) sacrifices. In addition to the fire-worship, Manu is also said to have invented the Sraddhas or funeral sacrifices. The chief passage bearing on this point occurs in Apastamba's Dharma-sútra II, 18, 1, where it is stated that the gods went to heaven in reward of their sacrifices, and that Manu, seeing men left behind, revealed this ceremony, which is designated by the word Sraddha. Though this passage is not marked as a quotation, its style clearly shows that it has either been borrowed from a Brâhmana, or that it gives a summary of
1 Ait. Br. VIII, 8, 1.
* Sat. Br. IV, 1, 5, 2; compare also Ait. Br. IV, 32; VIII, 21, where the name is Saryata.
* RV. I, 31, 4; X, 95; and Sat. Br. XI, 5, 1, 1. In the first passage I take manave in the sense of månavåya.
See Bergaigne, Religion Védique, 1, 62-70, where, it seems to me, a great many difficult passages have been explained more successfully than in the translations of other Vedists, who take the word manu too freely in the sense of man.
* See e. g. Taitt. Samh. I, 7, 1, 3; II, 5, 9, 1; III, 3, 2, 1; V, 4, 10, 5.
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