Pravargya
In describing Vedic ritual we have thus far been discussing the soma sacrifice. But while the soma sacrifice dominates the R̥gveda, the collection includes hymns composed for other rites as well. One of the sub-rites of the classical soma ritual is the Pravargya, which according to most ritual sūtras is performed twice daily on the three days leading up to the soma-pressing day. At an earlier stage, likely represented by the R̥gveda, the Pravargya was an independent rite, which was only later incorporated into the soma tradition. Although the Pravargya is not mentioned by name in R̥gveda, the text refers to the rite at the center of the Pravargya, an offering to the Aśvins of gharmá, a mixture of hot milk and ghee, and the underlying verbal lexeme prá √vr̥j is used in ritual context.
Rājasūya
A number of other hymns, especially in book X, also refer to a Rājasūya, a royal consecration rite, and other rites defining and affirming royal sovereignty. The cen tral rite in the classical Rājasūya was the royal unction, in which water was poured on the king. This water conferred on the king royal power and authority. Again, the unction rite itself is not mentioned, but the symbolism of water as a substance that confers power on the king and over which a successful king must exercise power is very much part of the R̥gvedic tradition. While R̥gvedic kingship may have differed significantly from later kingship, other classical symbols of kingship also appear in the R̥gveda, such as the association of the king and the sun (cf. X.121) and the identification of king with Varuṇa and Indra, who represent two kinds of sovereignty (cf. IV.42).
animal sacrifice
The animal sacrifice, either as an independent rite or as a part of the soma sacri fice, is not very prominent in the R̥gveda and is generally alluded to by its paraphernalia, actions, and verbal accompaniment rather than treated directly. The most salient piece of equipment is the yūpa, the post to which the sacrificial animal is tied. The yūpa is celebrated in a single hymn, III.8, which is actually a composite of two parallel hymns, one appropriate to a single post for a single sacrificial animal, one to multiple posts for several victims. The hymn concerns only the preparation of the posts; there is no mention of the sacrificial victim(s).
One of the most dramatic actions in the later animal sacrifice is the threefold circumambulation of the victim by a priest, the Āgnīdhra, carrying a firebrand. When in some R̥gvedic hymns the ritual Agni is said to “go around,” the reference seems to be to this circumambulation—though again the victim is mentioned barely or not at all (see esp. IX.92.6, 97.1, where soma’s circling of the filter is com pared to the Hotar’s circling of “the fixed seats provided with [sacrificial] beasts”; see also I.173.3, VII.18.22, X.22.14). Elsewhere (VI.1.3, V.43.7) the first and most highly prized part of the sacrificial beast to be ritually offered in later śrauta ritual, the omentum, is alluded to, again without direct mention of the sacrificing of the animal.
The most significant representation of the animal sacrifice in the R̥gveda, albeit again indirect, is found in the litanies known as the Āprī hymns. In the later ritual the Āprī litany accompanied the fore-offerings of the animal sacrifice. The R̥gveda contains ten such hymns; in them a set series of subjects or key words— ritual personnel (e.g., Tvaṣṭar), qualities (e.g., “well kindled”), or equipment (e.g., ritual grass)—are treated in a fixed order, though with variable wording, generally in eleven or twelve verses. One of the pieces of equipment is the yūpa, the wooden post mentioned above, though under the epithet “Lord of the Forest” (=tree). But the actual sacrifice of an animal is never mentioned in these hymns; at best the victim is delicately referred to as an oblation.
Śunaḥśepa
There is also indirect reference to the animal sacrifice in mythological allusion to the Śunaḥśepa story, in which the young brahmin boy so named is almost offered up as a sacrifice to the gods, though he is rescued at the last minute. Although the story is best known from the very full narrative in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (VII.13– 18), his dramatic release is alluded to in the R̥gveda quite explicitly (see esp. V.2.7, also I.24.12–13).
Aśvamedha
Perhaps the most extravagant and dramatic ritual in the classical śrauta system is the great royal sacrifice, the Aśvamedha or Horse Sacrifice, to be performed by a king to consolidate or display his power. It involves letting a stallion roam at will for a year, accompanied by armed troops who fight the sovereigns of any territory into which the horse strays. When the horse returns at the end of the year, it is sacrificed, along with numerous other victims, with due pomp but also with almost unimaginably outlandish accompanying actions. At the climax of the ritual the chief wife of the king has sex (or simulated sex) with the just-slaughtered horse on the ritual ground, while the other queens and their female attendants circle around, singing and dancing and trading obscene jokes with the officiating priests.+++(5)+++
Two late R̥gvedic hymns (I.162–163) directly treat the Horse Sacrifice, although the later sexual extravaganza is either unknown to them or, more likely, delicately omitted from discussion. The first (I.162) describes the (literally) gory details of the sacrifice itself, while commending the sacrificed horse and all its gear to the gods, while the second (I.163) lavishly lauds the horse and identifies it with the sun on its journey34 The Rigveda to the gods. Moreover, if we are correct in our interpretation of X.86, the famous salacious three-way conversation among Indra, his wife Indrāṇī, and Indra’s pal, the monkey Vr̥ṣākapi, this hymn is a burlesque or parody (though a serious one) of the Horse Sacrifice, with the monkey standing in for the horse-victim, Indrāṇī for the wife who must mate with the animal victim, and Indra for the king and sacrificer who stands by and watches this mating. This interpretation presupposes that the dramatic sexual aspect of the Aśvamedha was already present in the R̥gvedic version of the rite and is simply not mentioned in I.162–163.
Funeral
In addition to the rituals that will be codified in the later classical śrauta system, the R̥gveda marginally treats rituals that will form part of the gr̥hya, or “domestic,” ritual system, primarily life-cycle rites. The R̥gvedic treatments are almost exclusively found in late portions of the text, in Maṇḍala X, and often have parallels in the Atharvaveda. The funeral is treated in a series of hymns (X.14–18) in the Yama cycle. Of particular interest are X.16, which concerns the cremation fire and the actual burning of the dead man’s body, and X.18, which describes the funeral service, the burial, and the return of those still living to their lives. Verses 7–9 of X.18 have attracted special attention because they appear to depict the widow of the dead man, first lying beside the dead man and then being recalled to life and to remarriage—thus suggesting that while the later institution of satī or widow burning is not attested in the R̥gveda, the ritual representation of the widow’s ceremonial death (though followed by ceremonial rebirth) could have provided a model for a more literal enactment. Many of the verses in this group of hymns are found also in the Atharvaveda funeral hymns, XVIII.1–4. Another hymn, X.56, describes the ascent of the body of the deceased by means of the cremation fire and its transformation into an immortal body in heaven (see Brereton forthcoming a). A long and episodic hymn, X.85, is devoted to the wedding. Many of its verses are found also in the Atharvaveda wedding hymns and are utilized in the gr̥hya sūtra protocols for the wedding ceremony. After a long mythological prologue, the hymn proceeds (sometimes in jumbled fashion) from the wooing of the bride-to-be to the journey of the newly married couple to the new home, with a very interesting (and barely comprehensible) treatment of the deflowering of the bride.
Marriage
The R̥gveda also provides a certain amount of evidence for the institution of the Svayaṃvara or bridal “self-choice” marriage, familiar to anyone who has ever stud ied first-year Sanskrit and read the Mahābhārata story of Nala and Damayantī, whose engagement took that form. Most of the R̥gvedic evidence is mythological, as the archetypal divine bride in the text is Sūryā, daughter of the sun, who exer cises her choice (see especially Jamison 2001), but there is also lexical evidence (see Jamison 2003) as well as incidental imagery, especially in Dawn hymns, of young girls in such a situation.
Pregnancy and birth
Pregnancy and birth, a major preoccupation in the later gr̥hya material, is barely represented in the R̥gveda. There is a charm for safe childbirth (X.184), which fol lows immediately on a brief dialogue between husband and wife attempting to con ceive (X.183), and in a short series of hymns against disease we find one against dangers of miscarriage (X.162). Maṇḍala V also contains a charm for safe child birth embedded in an Aśvin hymn (V.78.7–10) and motivated by the mythological case of (the male seers) Atri and Saptavadhri, trapped in tight quarters like a child in the womb.