Translation of the Sanhitá of the Sáma Veda / By J. Stevenson.

Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Translation of the Sanhitá of the Sáma Veda / By J. Stevenson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be practised before commencing and during, the singing of this Veda. It is evidently from its style a modern work compared with the ancient hymns that form the Sanhita^ yet probably it is founded on ancient traditions. The first austerity mentioned is the Krichchhra Prayas- chitta, which requires for its performance twelve days. During the first three, the devotee eats only once, and that during the day; during the next three he eats once, but during the night; for the next three days he eats only provided that some one has given him food without his asking for it; and for the last three days he fasts entirely. There is next the Atikrichchhra Prayaschitta, corres¬ ponding to the above, only the penitent eats on no one day more than a single mouthful; and as if this were not a sufficient trial of Brahmanical endurance, there is next the Krichchhra Krichchhra, during nine days of which life is sustained by once drinking water, while on the three last even this simple beverage is denied. The singing of various sacred verses is to accompany these fasts. The first of these penances purifies, it is said, from common sins; the second, from deadly sins; and the third makes a man pure even as the gods. Such is the initiatory rite of this book of austerities, but it is a trifle to the con¬ cluding one, in the performance of which the devotee is commanded to live on milk during four months; then^ having gone to the jungle, and having built for himself a shed, he is to enter it with his Kamandalu, or vessel for bathing, and fast twenty-one days without even drinking water. Should such voluntary abstinence be indeed pos¬ sible, our physiologists will require to remodel their