194 The Religion of the Veda
the sacrificer was rewarded, or thought he was re- warded, under this otherwise monotonoust one- sided arrangement. We have seen that Faith, Qraddha, is personified. Now the sacrifice, called is/zg‘tz, and the baksheesh, called (by another name) parts, enter into a close compound, the iskgo‘pzirm. They, in their turn, get to have a kind of personal reality, and turn into a kind of bonefioent genius, or perhaps better a kind of solid asset which becomes useful with the gods during life, and, mark you, after death as well. During life, the god helps him who sacrifices and gives baksheesh ; he adds to, does not rob his prOperty.3L But it is for the most part a question of future reward. In a well-known funeral hymn of the Rig-Veda the corpse is addressed most
realistically :
“ Do thou join the Fathers, do thou join Yama, join thy zirflfa'yfirta (that which thou hast sacrificed and
given to the priests) in the highest heaven 1” (Rig-«Veda IO. 14. 8.)
And the following is a particularly realistic treat-" ment of the same ideas. Again a dead man is blessed as he goes to heaven:
“Know him (the pious dead), 0 ye associated gods in
the highest heaven, recognise his form l When he shall have arrived by the paths that lead to the gods, disclose
1 Rig-Veda 6. 28. 2.
