40 DEATH Even as the Ejg Veda speoilates in various contrasting, even conflicting -ways about the process of creation, so too there is much variation in the speculations about death, and in the questions asked about death. There is evidence of diiferent ntuals - cremation (lo i6) or bunal (10.18), the latter, also underlying the image of the ‘house of clay’ in a hymn to Varuna (see 7 89). Several fates are suggested for the dead man- heaven (10.14), ^ O-cw body (10 16), revival (10.58), temcamation (10 16), and dispersal among various elements (10.16 3, 10.58). It IS also evident that there is a wide range of people that the dead man may hope to jom, wherever he goes (10.154), and so it is not surprismg that different groups of people are addressed, even withm a smgle hymn the fathers or dead ancestors in heaven (10.14), gods (10.16), particu- larly Yama (1014, 10.135), the dead man (10.14, 10.135), mourners (10.14 ^od 10.14.14, 10.18), mother earth and Death himseLF (10 18). Together, these hymns reveal a ■wodd in which death is regarded with great sadness but without terror, and life on earth is prcaously clung to, but heaven is regarded as a gende place, nch in friends and ntual oounshment, a world of hght and renewal.
10 14 Yapm and the V ethers This funeral hymn centres upon Yama, king of the dead, the first mortal to have reached the other world and the path- tnaker for all who came after him. Verses i and a address the mourners and describe this ancient path, 4 and 5 mvoke Yama to come to the funeral m order that he may lead the dead man to heaven Verses 3 and 6 mvoke famous ancestors already m the world beyond, 7, 8 and 10 speed the dead man on his way, and 9 speeds the evil spmts on tbeir way. Yama and his two dogs arc addressed m ii and 12, these dogs are regarded (hke many Vedic gods) as dangerous because they kill you (verses 10 and 12) but also as potentially benevolent, because they lead you to heaven (verse 1 1) Verses ^3-15 call upon the pnests to offer Somaa to Yama, and the final verse recapitulates the two mam themes. the farewell to the dead man on the path of Yama, and the offermgs of Soma and praise to Yama I The one who has passed beyond along the great, steep straits,® spymg out the path for many, the son of Viva- Evan,® the gatherer of men, Kmg Yama - honour him "With the oblation.
■2 Yama was the first to fiod-the-way-foc-us,-this-pasturc that sh^ not be taken away ^ Where our anaent fathers passed beyond, there everyone who is born follows, each on his own path 5 Matali® made strong by the Kavyas, and Yama by the Angirascs, and Bjh^pati by the RJkvans — both those whom the gods rnadc strong and those who strengthen the gods * some rejoice m tlie sacrificial call, others in the sacrificial drink.
4 Sit upon this strevn grass, O Yama, together with the Angirascs, tlie fatlicrs. Let tlie acrscs chanted by the poets carry you here. O King, rejoice m this oblation J Come, Yama, with the Angirascs wortliy of sacrifice: 45 THE RIG VEDA lejoice hei'e with the Vairupas,^ sitting on the sacred grass at this sacrifice. I will invoke Vivasvan, who is yotir father.
6 Our fathers, the Angirases, and the Navagvas, Atharyaos, and Brh^s,'^ all worthy of Soma — let us remain in favour with them, as they are worthy of sacrifice, an let them be helpful and kind.
7 [To the dead mani\ Go forth, go forth on those ancient paths on which our ancient fathers passed beyond. There you shall see the two kings, Yama and Varuna, rejoicing in the sacrificial drink.® y Unite with the fathers, wdth Yama, with the rewards of your sacrifices and good deeds,® in the highest heaven. Leaving behind all imperfections, go back home again; merge with a glorious body.
y [To demons:'] Go away, get away, crawl away from here. The fathers have prepared this place for Yama gives him a resting-place adorned by days, and waters, and nights.^ 10 [To the dead man:] Run on the right path, past the two brindled, four-eyed dogs, the sons of Sarama,!^^ and then approach the fathers, who are easy to reach and who rejoice at the same feast as Yama.
II 12 ^3 ^4 U Yama, give him over to your two guardian dogs, the four-eyed keepers of the path, who watch over men. O king, grant him happiness and health.
The two dark messengers of Yama with flaring nostrils wander among men, thirsting for the breath of life. Let them give back to us^^ a life of happiness here and today, so that we may see the sun.
For Yama press the Soma; to Yama offer the oblation; to Yama goes the well-prepared sacrifice, with Asni as its messenger. ° Offer to Yama the oblation rich in butter, and eo forth So may he mtemede for ua amoog the gods, so that we may live out a long life-span.^^ Offer to Yama. to the king, the ohiation most rich in 44 DEATH - honey. "We 'bo'w down before the sages bom in the anaent times, the anaent path-makers.
1 6 All through the three Soma days,^® he^’ flies to the six broad spaces i® and the one great one. Tn?tubh, Gayatrl, the metres - all these are placed in Yama.
HOTE8 1. Soma is the sacrifiaal drmk pressed &om the Soma plant; it IS the ambtosial food offered to the gods to make them immortal.
2. These arc the paths leading to the highest heaven, where Yama dwells, they may be the watercourses at the end of the world..
3 A name of the sun, father of Yama 4- The meaning is either that everyone gets to heaven or that, once there, you never leave (i e. that there is no rebirth).
5* A name of a god or demi-god.who appears only here in the Veda, 6. This verse contrasts two groups of individuals to be encoun- tered in the world beyond (an expansion of the ‘ancient fathers’ mentioned m the previous verse). MataU, Yama, and Bfhaspati ate here regarded as semi-divine figures, who are made strong by other gods and by the sacrificial drink, the Svadha, here — and elsewhere - a name for Soma. The Kavyas, Angirascs, and pjevans are families of ancient poets, priests, and singers who make the gods strong and who rejoice in the sacrificial call, the sound SvahS’ that they make to call the gods and the fathers to receive the offering.
7. Other priestly clans related to the Angirascs 8. Not merely the dead man’s own good deeds but those which ate done on his behalf in the funeral ceremonies 9 The dead man takes on a new, jicrfcct body in place of the old one burnt in the fire (sec lo i6); he ‘goes back home’ to heaven or to earth 10 The flcsh-catmg ghouls who live in the burning-ground may contest the dead rnan’s right to enter the w odd of heaven, or per- haps, as in later Hinduism, they merely v ish to eat the corpse It. The waters may be the rains (that fall from heaven) or the cool, refreshing waters that arc so often described as a feature of heaven, where the days and nights rotate as on earth Yet another 45 THE RIG VEDA possible interpretation of the ‘resting-place’ would be a burning* place on earth, purified by water.
12. Yama’s two dogs are the descendants of Sarama, the bit of Indra (cf. 10.108), who guard the doorway to the other worlds like Cerberus in Greece. They may be four-eyed in the sense^ sharp-signed or in reference to the fgirnd~spots'Titn5ted~'a^v^ fBei£_e^s. ~ 13. The dogs are asked to give back to the mourners the that was endangered while they were in the shadow of death.
14. That is, back into the world of the living.
15. Here Yama is asked to give life back to the mourners "who are not yet reidy to die, to keep them among the living who wor- ship the gods, and not to lead them to the dead fathers.
16. 'Hie fire that burns during the three days of the Soma cere- mony is directly connected with and foUows immediately upon the cremation fire.
V*. wanders for three days after death before arriving in heaven.
18. Either the ^ree earths and three heavens (cf. 1.164.6, and . 4,9) or t^ of each of the three worlds (earth, air, and sky; top of the sky, where Tbe 'Funeral Fire wh?<S2theS?l ^ He is the cremation fire, gently but not too much ’to temn as Renou puts it) and to send if to destroy it. In the second pa« ° carry the oblation to the gods and m “ Yama. Thus the first fire is associated 4th A the fathers, and the second fire is associated and the gods. In the third part (w i? t t-i, oblation extinguished. ^ * "3 14), the funeral fire is The recurrent epithet ‘Knower of creatures’ n- j ^ is usually said to apply only to the auspicionn^^^7^. ^ bearing form of Agni; but here it is also used to^^oke' 46 DEATH bethaps eupliemistically, the cotpse-eating Agtd as ■well (vv.
, 2, 4, and 5). The two fires interact in other "ways, too: in rerse 5, ■when the corpse is siijEfiaently ‘cooked’ and has indergone purification after its funeral pollution, the first, :orp5e-buming fire is dismissed to serve the gods and to carry the body to the fathers; at this time, a new, pure fire is summoned (liidled) to carry the oblation to the fathers and to carry to the gods whatever is laid upon it. But the first fire, now purified, is also sent to the sacrifice of the fathers, thus taking on a function similar to that of the second, pristme fire (partiapation m sacrifice) while retaining its onginal association with the fathers (in contrast ■with the gods, the masters of the second fire). This is a transformation, rather than a confusion, for m verse 9 the one fire becomes the other; os both are forms of Agm, he is merely asked to stop bummg the corpse and to start carrying the oblation (a role prefigured by the reference to the ‘gentle forms’ in verse 4). In verse 1 1, both forms of Agm umte, and in verse j the corpse itself becomes the oblation.
The ambiguous nature of Agm m this hymn finds a parallel in the ambiguities surroundmg the body of the dead man. Verse 3 states that the body ■will disperse mto sky, earth, and water, while the eye, breath, and limbs go to their cosmic equivalences: sun, wmd, and plants. The -waters are often identified -with the air, the nuddle realm of space between^ sky and earth; this would mean that the body dismtegrates into the three worlds. But it is not clear whether the body is dispersed into all three places or whether one may choose one or the other; parts of the body (eye, breath, limbs) are specifically distributed, while the dead man himself is said to go into the three worlds.
This might imply that the soul of the dead man goes to these worlds, while his physical parts arc distributed elsewhere. But the verse says that the limbs go to the pLonts, the place to vhicli the soul is consigned in the Upanisarls, where the doctrine of transmigration is first expounded. Moreover, the breath (often idcnuficd with the soul m tlic Upanisadt, and here 47 THE RIG VEPA j * the caUed the mrnn, the word that came to designaw migrating soul) is here said to disperse of wind. Indeed, it seems to be the body, not the dead man Aat Agni is asked to lead to he^v^j the fathers, and to the gods, the body tliat is the^ of entire hymn. It would thus appear that here, as m the more speculative creation hymns, the poet out various, perhaps conflicting, views- of ^ ^ These views overlap in the liminal figures of the y Yama and the fathers are both mortals and immort pure and impure, the ones who receive the corpse bn ones who receive the oblation and the Soma; moreov ^ dead man himself begins as an impure corpse but beco the end of the hymn, himself one of the fathers to w oro oblation is sent. gs These problems are compounded by verse 5, wnic that the dead man will get a new body (cf. 10.14.8) m or to reach his descendants. This latter word, HteraUy "rem ing’ (/esa)^ has provoked several interpretations that to circumvent the paradox. Sayana suggests that it refers to tn body that remains after cremation (i.e. the bones); or it refer to the survivors of the dead man, i.e. the mourners, or to those who have been buried before, i.e. the ancestors -whoni the dead man -will join. But it more likely means the posterity of the dead roan, i.e, the people that he has begotten or beget with his new life and his new body. Is this body to exist in heaven or on earth? A few verses of the RJg Vtda (and more detailed passages in tlie Brahmanas) give ample evi- dence for the concept of the new body in heaven, depicting the afterlife as an improved repHca of life on earth a place where one raises cliildren and watches them grow up. But Idea of a new body on earth is supported by the BraLnana funeral ccrcmomes, the iraddho offerings in which a man's descendants create for him, ritually, a new body in which he is reborn on earth. If tins is the meaning of the verse it is an early prefignration of the doctrine of reincarnation ’ Finally, if the dead man is to have a new body anyway, what 48 DEATH IS the motivation for the desire to keep the old body from being burnt too much (a concept that conflicts paradoxically "With the idea of cremating the body in the first place) and to keep It from being destroyed by unclean animals (m verse 6, ■which may m fact refer to damage done to the hve body m the past as ■well as to the corpse; cf. 10,14.8, where apparently natural ‘imperfections’ of the body are to be removed)?
It would appear that Agm cooks the corpse, a functiou regarded as the opposite of eatmg it (as he usually does); cookmg raises it to a higher state (fit for heaven), while eat- mg reduces it to a lower state (fit for animals). The ■wild beasts who would eat the corpse are kept away, as is the ommvorous Agm; instead, the corpse is to be cooked to prepare it for the gods, like frie prepared Soma. And Soma, the healer, is asked to assist Agm m cleansmg and healing the t Do not burn him entirely, Agni, or engulf him in your flames. Do not consume his skin or his flesh. When you have cooked him perfectly, O knower of creatures, only dicn send him forth to the fathers a When you cook him perfectly, O knower of creatures, then give him over to the fathers. When he goes on the path that leads away the breath of life, then he ■will be led by the wdl of the gods 3 [To the dead man ] May your eye go to the sun, your life’s breath to the wind Go to the sky or to earth, as is your nature;! or go to the ■waters, if that is your fate Take root in the plants with your limbs.
■4 [To ] The goat is your share; bum him "with your heat.* Let your bnlhant hght and flame bum him. With your gentle forms, O knower of creatures, carry this man to the world of those who have done good deeds ^ / Set him free again to go to the fathers, Agnt, v hen he has been olTcrcd as an oblation in you and wanders with the sacrificial dnnk.* Let him reach his own descendants.
49 'rnii lUG vj:da dressing himself in a lifc'-span. O Jrnower of creatures, “ him join with n body.
[ <? fjc dead man /] Wfl^atcvcr the black bird Jias peeked out snake, or even a beast of prey, wI-iJn ] things make it whole, and Soma ^Vho has entered tlicBrahmins.s yourself with the limbs of the cow as an armour that h ^ yourself with fat and suet, so in liJo ^ embrace you with his impetuous heat dear frt ♦•v. ^ do not overturn this cup^ that is sods to 'hose who love Soma, fit for the carouse tom, a cup in which the irmnoftal gods ^ iho°st f“t away. Let him go to those B«Iet tha?oLr'^!’,.“''T’“S ='"^5' ^ impurities, and carry the oTiT ’ ' ^ower of creatures, come here ■^ay in advance gods, since he knows the desh-eating fire hac be sees there the u Y^nx house, though god away to knower of creatures; I take ^ Agni to the &rthest dwelling-place to the fathers who are str ^ '^bo gives sacrifi proclaim the oblation by tmth - let hi tS Joyouslv fathers.
c^^^ba.u~,vety one you hav 50 DEATH NOTES 1 Literally, your dbarma. Sayana links this with karma, inter- preting It to mean that the dead man will be reborn according to his good works, to enjoy their fruits In heaven, it may have a more general meaning, according to the way the worlds are arranged in general But the stmplest idea would be ‘ accordmg to your natural affim ties’ 2 This refers to the practice of placmg the limbs of a scapegoat over the dead man, so that Agni would consume them and not the corpse with his violent flames 3 Cf 10 14.8 and 10 154 for joining with good deeds and the doers of good deeds m heaven 4. The Svadha ofiered to the gods at the funeral Cf 10143.
5. Soma appears here in his capacity of god or plant (cf. the coolmg plants in the final verses), or simply as the Soma juice inside the priests.
6 This refers to the limbs and caul (inner membrane of the embryo) or skin of a dead cow which would be used in addition to or in place of the scapegoat, while the corpse would be anomted with fat and suet 7 A wooden cup that the dead man had used in life to make Soma offerings to the gods and to ‘those who love Soma’ (1 c the fathers) was placed at the corpse’s head, filled with melted butter 8. The fathers 9. This could be a sacrifice by the fathers to the gods, or, more likely, a sacrifice to the fathers 10 The hot oblation for the fathers, who either come to the sacrifice (brought by the non-flcsh-eating Agni) or have Agni bring them the drink 11. The plants in verses 13 and 14, some called by obscure names, others by descriptive epithets (‘cool one*), are water plants These verses accompany the ntual of dousing the fire with water so thoroughly that it produces n marsh where water-plants and frogs may thrive In later rituals, these items were actually used, here they are merely metaphorically invoked The female frog, in particular, is n symbol of rain and fertility (cf 7.103) Thus new life sprouts at the end of the funeral.
txiu VEDA 7 . imnal Hjmn gcsmrcsUintmavn'vfn^^^^*^*”^ stn'cral references to symbolic to those known t ^ Accompanied by rituals similar ^tunian concerns oftl ^^om Inter Vcdic literature. But the ever the ritual may have nccessiblc to uSj what- Go away, denth u, different from tl * ^ Jioother path that is your own, eyes, who have’l'^! j ^ say to you who have tnen. ^^.rs. do nor injure our children or our ^ When youi death,2 stretchW 'wiping away the footprint of become nure lengthening span of pollen with off<?Mr; ^ worthy of sacrifice, ^ J^ese who arc StlT ead. Our invitation f from those who are oday. have o-on° B^ods has become auspicious stretching fkrther ouTo to dance and Jaugh, ^ them will i^each thi ^ so that no one else t As and burv d P^fot. Let them live a hundred days foPo^ ^ diis hilU order seasons succession, as seasons husbands - ie, «= not wfd anoint thair eyes*'®?*'= pr’^’ '^ho have vood ^«sed let them ‘®»rs. ““S buttS to np, woman t w f^h into the Wetness we» DEATH You were the "wife of this man wlio took your hand and desired to have you.
p I take the bow from the hand of the dead man,® to be our supremacy and glory and power, and I say, ‘You are there; we are here. Let us as great heroes conquer all envious attacks ’ 10 Creep away to this broad, vast earth, the mother that is kind and gentle. She is a young girl, soft as wool to anyone who makes oSermgs;® let her guard you from the lap of DestructiotL'^® rr Open up, earth; do not crush him. Be easy for him to enter and to burrow in. Earth, wrap him up as a mother wraps a son m the edge of her skirt.
ra Let the earth as she opens up stay firm, for a thousand pillars must be set up.^ Let them be houses drippmg with butter for him, and let them be a refuge for him here for all his days.
1 shore up the earth all around you;“ let me not injure you as I lay down this clod of eanh. Let the fathers hold up this pillar for you, let Yama build a house for you here.
^4 On a day that will come, they wriLIay^e m the earth, hke the feather of an arrow.t^ 1 hold back speech that goes against the grain,t* as one would restram a horse with a bridle.
NOTES I. The hymn, that began by addressing death directly, now addresses the company of the mourners 2 There may have been a ntuai to erase the footpnnts of the mourners, or it may be n simple and straightforward metaphor for the end of mourning j Perhaps a stone to mark the boundary of the world of death 4 The mound oscr the grave j. Rituallj punficd butter uould be used instead of mascara or c>c-shadow to protect the women among the mourners.
6 I'hat K long before tbcj climb into old age or the grave, 7. The wife of the dead man, a bo lay down beside him perhaps 55 THE RIG VEDA miming copulation, as the queen later did with the dead stallion), until called back with this verse.
8. Probably only done when the dead man was a warrior.
9. That is, to any generous sacrificcr, not merely to someone who makes oiEferings to the earth.
10. Destruction (Nirrti) is the female personification of disorder and disintegration, in contrast with the orderly and peaceful aspects of death.
11. The metaphorical house built by Yama for the dead man, perhaps S3rmbolized by the urn containing his bones (or his cre- mated ashes) placed in the earth.
12. The dead man is addressed again.
13. An elliptic metaphor, perhaps referring to the way the feather is stuck into the cleft made for it in the arrow, or as a feather floats gently down to earth when it is freed from the arrow.
14. Perhaps a reference to the poet’s satisfaction in having made a good hymn, or his pleasure in returning now to more auspicious subjects, or a statement that the rest is silence. Most likely, a com- mand to remain silent lest one say something ill-omened.
10.154 'Funeral Hymn The hymn begins with a distinction between levels of spiritual attainment and then asks that the dead man be sent to live among those who are distinguished in one way or another.
I For some, the Soma is purified; others sit down for butter.^ Those for whom honey flows ^ — let the dead man go away straight to them. z Those who became invincible through sacred heat,® who went to the sun through sacred heat, who made sacred heat their glory — let him go away straight to them.
^ Those who flight in battles as heroes, who sacrifice their bodies, or those who give thousands to the priests — let him go away straight to them.
/f Those who first nursed Order, who had Order and made 54 DEATH Order grow great, the fathers full of sacred heat, O Yama - let him go away straight to them.
/ Those inspired poets who know a thousand ways, who protect the sun, the seers full of sacred heat, O Yama - let him go away to those who are reborn through sacred heat.
NOTES I. A distinction between the foods of the gods and the dead fathers Cf lo 14 3 and 10 135 1. Though both groups eat both foods. Soma is ambrosia for the gods, while butter is human food for the scmi-divinc fathers 2 As honey (Soma) is better than butter, the dead man hopes to go to the gods.
3. Tapas, the heat generated by religious activity. Cf. 10.190.
10.135 The Boy and the Chariot Though this hymn is traditionally dedicated to Yama, Yama appears only m the first and last verses (which are closely related), framing an allegory of the secret of death The plot, though obscure, seems to he something hke this The father of a young boy has died, and the boy mentally follows the journey of his father to the realm of Yama, grieving and trying to get him to return; the hymn does not ncccssanly imply that the boy himself dies or even wants to die. The voice of the father answers the boy, saying that the chariot that the boy has built in his imagination to follow his father is already, unknown to the boy, bringing him after the fatlicr This chariot is the funeral sacnfice or the oblation or the funeral fire that ‘carries’ the corpse to Yama and the fatliers.* It is, at the same time, a mamfcsuition of tlic boy’s own wish to sec his father.^ Tlic final verse gives a vision of paradise, perhaps to reassure the boy.® r [TZv son;] ‘Bencatli the tree with beautiful leaves where Yama drinks vith the gods, there our father, the head of the familj, turns wiili longing to tlic andcni ones ■* 51 THE RIG VEDA 2 ‘ Reluctantly I looked upon him as he turned with longing to the ancient ones, as he moved on that evil way.® I longed to have him back again.’
^ \yoice of the father:'] *In your mind, my son, you made a new chariot without wheels, which had only one shaft but can travel in all directions. And unseeing,® you climbed into it.
/f ‘My son, when you made the chariot roU forth from the priests,'^ there roUed after it a chant that was placed from there upon a ship.’
/ Who gave birth to the boy? Who made the chariot roll out? Who could tell us today how the gift for the journey® was made?
6 How was the gift for the journey made? The beginning arose from it: first they made the bottom, and then they made the way out.® 7 This is the dwelling-place of Yama, that is called the home of the gods. This is his reed-pipe that is blown, and he is the one adorned with songs.
NOTES 1. Cf. 1.164 for the m5rstic symbolism of the chariot that is the sacrifice, with no wheels and one shaft (10.13 5. 3); ^^id cf. 10.16 for the funeral fire.
2. In later Sanskrit, the ‘chariot of the mind’ {tnSuorathd) is a word for ‘wish’. Cf. 10.83.12 for a chariot made of thought.
3. This hymn may be the kernel of the famous myth of Naci- ketas, in which a boy travels to the realm of death and converses with Death and with his father. But the present hymn cannot be interpreted as if it were already an expression of that complex m3rtb.
4. The dead ancestors in the realm of Yama. Cf. 10.14.
5. The path of death; probably not Hell, but cf. 10.71.9 and 6. Literally, not seeing the chariot that you are mounting; symbolically, not understanding the power of the sacrifice.
7. The priests compose the funerary hymns which accompany the corpse and which are thus ‘carried’ by the chariot and by a 36 DEATH ship (both metaphors for the sacrifice and the oblation) that the priests send away from them.
8. Probably equipment with which the deceased was supplied for the journey to Yama’s abode (cf. lo i6.8), here identified with the chant placed on the sacnfiaal chariot. The word here translated ‘gift for the journey’ {amidst) occurs only once more m the Ri.g Veda, to desenbe the woman who accompanies the bride on her journey to the groom’s house (lo 85.6), 9 This verse is simultaneously a literal description of the chariot and a figurative reference to the chant, with its opening and dosmg phrases.
10.38 A. Spell to Turn 'Stack the Departing Spirit This imprecation to the manas - heart, mind, and life-spirit - may have been spoken over a dead man or to a man on the brink of death, to keep the spirit withm the body. The central verses refer alternately to earth (3, 3, 7, 9) and sky (4, 6, 8).
1 If your spirit has gone to Yama the son of Vivasvan far away, we turn it back to you here to dwell and to live.
2 If your spirit has gone to the sky or to the earth far away, we turn it back to you here to dwell and to live.
} If your spirit has gone to the four-cornered earth far away, we turn it back to you bcrc to dwell and to live.
4 If your spint has gone to tlic four quarters of the sky far away, we turn it back to you here to dwell and to live / If your spirit has gone to the billowy ocean far auny, we turn It back to you here to dwell and to live € If your spirit has gone to the flowing streams of light far away, we turn it back to you here to dwell and to hvc.
7 If your spint has gone to the avaters, or to tlic plants, far aw a), wc turn it back to j'ou here to dwell and to hvc.
5 If jour spirit has gone to the sun, or to the dawns far aw ay, w c turn it back to j-ou here to dwell and to live.
17 THE RIG VEDA ^ If your Spirit has gone to the high mountains far away, we turn it back to you here to dwell and to live.
10 If your spirit has gone to this whole moving universe far away, we turn it back to you to dwell and to live.
11 If your spidt has gone to distances beyond the beyond, far away, we turn it back to you to dwell and to live.
12 If your spirit has gone to what has been and what is to be, far away, we turn it back to you to dwell and to live.
\ 58 THE ELEMENTS OF SACRIFICE All the hymns of the R/£ Veda are ritual hymns in some sense, smce all were sung as part of the Vedic ceremony, but some ate self-consaously devoted to the meanmg of the ritual.^ Even here, pride of place is given to the verbal rather than to the physical aspect of the sacrifice, the ongms of sacred speech (10.71) and the powers of sacred speech (10.125). The personal concerns of the priests also mspure considerable interest m the authors of the hymns (pnests themselves): the priest whose patron is the kmg (10.173) laments the loss of his royal fiaend (10.35) praises faith and generosity (10.15 1 3nd 10.117), while other pnests, more securely employed, express their happmess m a hymn that is hvely to the pomt of bawdmcss (10.101, cf. 7 103 and 9.112). The meamng of the sacrifice is explored m a hymn that umtes all of these themes and expresses them m the form of a senes of nddles about the meamng of life (1.164).
NOTE I. Cf cspcdnlly 10 90, 10.130, 9112, and the hymns to Agni and Soma.
lo.yi The Origins of Sacred Speech