es are recited.
Besides these there was the animal sacrifice, and still more important
the Soma[160] sacrifice. This ceremony is very ancient and goes back to
the time when the Hindus and Iranians were not divided. In India the
sacrifice lasted at least five days and, even in its simpler forms, was
far more complicated than any ceremony known to the Greeks, Romans or
Jews. Only professional priests could perform it and as a rule a priest
did not attempt to master more than one branch and to be for instance
either a reciter (Hotri) or singer (Udgatri). But the five-day
sacrifices are little more than the rudiments of the sacrificial art and
lead on to the Ahinas or sacrifices comprising from two to twelve days
of Soma pressing which last not more than a month. The Ahinas again can
be combined into sacrificial sessions lasting a year or more[161], and
it would seem that rites of this length were really performed, though
when we read of such sessions extending over a hundred years, we may
hope that they are creations of a fancy like that of the hymn-writer who
celebrated the state

Where congregations ne'er break up And Sabbaths never end.

The ritual literature of India is enormous and much of it has been
edited and translated by European scholars with a care that merited a
better object. It is a mine of information respecting curious beliefs
and practices of considerable historical interest, but it does not
represent the main current of religious ideas in post-Buddhist times.
The Brahmans indeed never ceased to give the sacrificial system their
theoretical and, when possible, their practical approval, for it
embodies a principle most dear to them, namely, that the other castes
can obtain success and heaven only under the guidance of Brahmans and by
rites which only Brahmans can perform. But for this very reason it
incurred the hostility not only of philosophers and morally earnest men,
but of the military caste and it never really recovered from the blow
dealt it by Buddhism, the religion of that caste. But with every
Brahmanic revival it came to the front and the performance of the
Asvamedha or horse sacrifice[162] was long the culminating glory of an
orthodox king.

CHAPTER V

ASCETICISM AND KNOWLEDGE

1

As sacrifice and ceremonial are the material accompaniments of prayer,
so are asceticism and discipline those of thought. This is less
conspicuous in other countries, but in India it is habitually assu