History of India/Volume 1/Chapter 4

by Romesh Chunder Dutt

CHAPTER IV

FOOD AND ART IN THE VEDIC AGE

BARLEY and wheat seem to have been the chief produce of the field, and the principal articles of food. The names of grain found in the Rig-Veda are somewhat misleading, as they have come to bear a different signification in modern days from what they had in the ancient times. Thus the word yava, which in modern Sanskrit implies barley only, was used in the Veda to imply food-grains generally, including wheat and barley. And the word dhāna, which, in Bengal at least, now means paddy or rice, implies in the Rig-Veda fried barley, which was used as food and offered to the gods. There is no allusion to rice (vrīhi) in the Rig-Veda.

We also find mention of various kinds of cakes prepared from these grains and used as food and offered to the gods. The term pakti (from pach, to cook, or to prepare) means prepared cakes, and various other terms, such as purodāsa (sacrificial cake), apūpa (cake), and karambha (barley groats), are also used.

It may easily be imagined that animal food was largely used by the early Hindus of the Panjab, and we have frequent allusions to the sacrifice and to the cooking of cows, buffaloes, and bulls. Mention is also made of a slaughter-house where cows were killed, as well as of the sacrifice of horses, bulls, and rams. The allusions to the sacrifice of the horse are extremely rare, showing that, although the custom was introduced

SACRIFICE OF A GOAT.

into India by the early Aryans from their primitive home, the flesh of horse as an article of food soon fell into disuse. In later times the asvamedha, or sacrifice of the horse, was performed on rare occasions with great pomp and circumstance by powerful kings, after they had subdued their neighbours and assumed a title answering to the imperial title in Europe. There can be no doubt that this great imperial rite rose out of the simple sacrifice of the horse practised in primitive times when the horse was still an article of food, but the pomp and ceremony, as well as certain revolting rites connected with the horse-sacrifice of later days, were unknown in Vedic times.

A fairly complete account of the sacrifice of the

THE HORSE - SACRIFICE (ASVAMEDHA).

horse, as it prevailed in Vedic times, is to be found in the one hundred and sixty-second hymn of the first Mandala of the Rig-Veda. The body of the horse was marked with a cane and was then dissected along the lines marked, and the ribs and the different limbs were separated. The meat was roasted and boiled, while the soul of the horse was supposed to go to the gods. In later times an endless amount of pomp, ceremony, and detail was woven about this rite of the horse-sacrifice, in contrast to the simplicity of Vedic days.

THE SOMA PLANT.

The fermented juice of the plant called Soma appears to have been the only intoxicating drink used in Vedic times. So much were the ancient Aryans addicted to this drink, that Soma was soon worshipped as a deity both in India and in Iran (under the name Haoma in the latter country), and we find one entire Mandala, or Book, of the Rig-Veda, dedicated to this deity. The Aryans appear to have been more habituated to fermented and intoxicating Soma than their peaceful brethren of Iran, and some allusions in the Avesta are thought to refer to the hated customs of their Indian brethren. Some antiquarians think that this was one great reason of those dissensions which broke out among the southern Aryans and led to the final separation of the Iranians from the Hindus.

The process by which the Soma juice was prepared is fully described in the sixty-sixth hymn of the ninth book of the Rig-Veda, from which the following verses are selected:"O Soma! you have been crushed; you flow as a stream to Indra, scattering joy on all sides; you bestow immortal food.

"Seven women stir you with their fingers, blending their voices in a song to thee; you remind the sacrificer of his duties at the sacrifice.

"You mix with water with a pleasing sound; and the fingers stir you over a woollen strainer, and filter you. Your particles are thrown up then, and a sound arises from the woollen strainer.

"The woollen strainer is placed on a vessel, and the fingers repeatedly stir the Soma, which sends down a sweet stream into the vessel.

"O Soma! you are then mixed with milk. Water runs toward you with a pleasing sound."

From this description it would appear that the juice of Soma used to be taken mixed with milk. The poets of the Rig-Veda go into ecstasy over the virtues and the exhilarating powers of the Soma, and some of their descriptions have developed into the strange Puranic legends of the churning of the ocean and the discovery of the Amrita, or immortal drink. The sky in the Veda is considered watery and is often confused with the sea, and the milking of Soma from the sky is transformed in the Puranas into the churning of the ocean for the Amrita.

It would appear from many passages in the Rig-Veda that many arts were carried to a high state of excellence. Weaving was well known, of course, and deft female fingers wove the warp and woof. In one curious passage the seer laments his ignorance of the mysteries of religious rites by saying: "I know not the warp and I know not the woof" of religious rites; and elsewhere the weaving and bleaching of sheep's wool are attributed to the god Pushan, who, as we have already seen, is the god of shepherds.

Every Aryan village had probably its barber then as now, and the clearance of forests by fire is in one passage described as the shaving of the earth. Carpentry was also well known, and we have frequent allusions to the construction of carts and chariots. The use of iron, of gold, and of other metals was well known, and the Rig-Veda contains references to the work of the blacksmith and the goldsmith.

But we get a better idea of working in metals in Vedic times from the descriptions of various gold ornaments and iron utensils and implements of war which are to be found throughout the Rig- Veda. The allusions are numerous, and we select only a few as illustrations. We are told of armour used in war and of golden helmets, while mention is also made of armour for the shoulders or arms, probably a shield. The lightning is compared not only to a javelin, but also to a sword or battle-axe, and to bows and arrows and quivers. Three thousand mailed warriors are mentioned; feathered, sharp-pointed, shining shafts are described; and sharp-edged swords are noted, as well as war-chariots and kettle-drums. And lastly, we have a spirited account of the arms and accoutrements of war, which we shall translate for our readers further on.

The steeds of war had golden caparisons, and the warriors had golden ornaments about their necks. The lightning ornaments of the Maruts are compared to jewelry, necklaces, golden breastplates, and bracelets and anklets. We also learn of anklets for the feet, and of

FORT JAMRUD—PESHAWAR.

golden breastplates for the breast, as well as of golden crowns for the head.

Thus it will be seen that a very considerable advance had been made in the manufacture of arms, weapons, and various kinds of ornaments. We have references also to vessels of skin and iron vessels, as well as to iron towns, which must be taken in a figurative sense as signifying strong forts, and there are likewise allusions to a hundred stone-built towns.

There can be no doubt that in the various rocky and mountainous tracts where the early Hindus established their colonies, they soon learnt to utilize stone as a durable and cheap material for architecture, and there can be little difficulty in believing that in some of the Vedic towns there were structures and surrounding walls of stone. That the art of building was carried to some degree of excellence appears from many

INDIAN ELEPHANT OF STATE.
From a Buddhist sculpture.

allusions to mansions with a thousand pillars, but at the same time it must be admitted that there is no distinct allusion in the Rig-Veda to the art of sculpture properly so called, and the researches of antiquarians have failed to discover in any part of India traces of sculptured stone much anterior to the Buddhist era.

Most of the animals domesticated at the present day were domesticated in India in the remote period

Colonnade of Hindu Pillars.
From a Photograph.

of the Rig-Veda, including cows, goats, sheep, buffaloes, and dogs (the latter used in carrying burdens), while one passage alludes to a king riding with his ministers on an elephant.

The war-horse, too, received his meed of praise, and so highly was he esteemed by the early Aryans in their battles against the aborigines, that under the name of Dadhikra he soon became an object of worship. It is evident, moreover, that the war-horses of the early Aryans inspired the aborigines with dire terror, as is shown by the following passage from the Rig-Veda:—

"As people shout and raise a cry after a thief who has purloined a garment, even so the enemies yell and shout at the sight of Dadhikra! As birds make a noise at the sight of the hungry hawk on its descent, even so the enemies yell and shout at the sight of Dadhikra careering in quest of plunder and cattle!

"Enemies fear Dadhikra, who is radiant and destroying as a thunderbolt. When he beats back a thousand men around him, he becomes excitable and uncontrollable in his strength."