Hinduism / by Monier Williams.

  • Monier Monier-Williams
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hinduism / by Monier Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    234/254 page 226
    No recompense for acts ; the Agnihotra, The triple Veda, triple self-command,6 And all the dust and ashes of repentance— These yield a means of livelihood for men Devoid of intellect and manliness. If victims slaughtered at a sacrifice Are raised to heavenly mansions,1 2 why should not The sacrificer immolate his father ? If offerings of food can satisfy 3 Hungry departed spirits, why supply The man who goes a journey with provisions ? His friends at home can feed him with oblations. If those abiding in celestial spheres Are filled with food presented upon earth, Why should not those who live in upper stories Be nourished by a meal spread out below ? While life endures, let life be spent in ease And merriment ;4 let a man borrow money From all his friends and feast on melted butter. How can this body when reduced to dust Revisit earth ? and if a ghost can pass To other worlds, tVhy does not strong affection For those he leaves behind attract him back ? The costly rites enjoined for those who die Are a mere means of livelihood devised By sacerdotal cunning—nothing more. The three composers of the triple Veda Were rogues, or evil spirits, or buffoons. The recitation of mysterious words And jabber5 of the priests is simple nonsense. 1 Tri-danda, * control over thoughts, words, and actions, de- noted by the three Dandas or staves carried by ascetics.’ See Manu, XII. io, ii. 2 See Manu, V. 42, and p. 3S of this volume. Cf. Mahii- bharata, Asvamedhika-parvan 793, &c. 3 This is a hit at the S'raddha, when (as we have explained at p. 66) oblations of cakes and libations of water arc made to the spirits of deceased fathers, grandfathers, and progenitors. 4 ‘ Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die’ (1 Cor. xv. 32). Compare such Iloratian preceptsjis Epod. xiii. 3, &c. 5 Two curious Vcdic words, jarbhari and turphan, are given in the text as specimens of what I suppose modern scoffers might call ‘ Vedic slang. They occur in Rig-veda X. 106, 6, and
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