le or to any sacred spot, and that it does not
require any image of the deity. Instructions are always given for
choosing and preparing a place for the rite, and for erecting an
altar; a place had to be prepared on each occasion. The gods were
asked to come, or were thought to be seated in heaven looking on; the
sacrifice is in the open air. While the celebration proceeded
according to a certain ritual, it lay with the worshippers to fix to
what god or gods the sacrifice should be addressed. There was not one
ritual for Agni and another for Indra, but the same would serve for
either or for both. The sacrifices of which we hear in the Brahmanas
are domestic rites; they are offered by the heads of the household,
who invite ancestors also to be present. A Brahman is present to
direct those who sacrifice and the inferior priests who assist them,
and the benefits of the act extend to all the dependants of the
household. The time was determined by natural seasons or by household
events. Some sacrifices were greater than others, the more elaborate
ones requiring several days, months, or even years for their
celebration. Among the kinds of offerings which might be made we find
that of man enumerated; human sacrifice, however, if it had prevailed
in earlier times, had now grown obsolete.

The rise of the Brahmans into a caste changed the character of the
sacrifice by making its due celebration depend more on special
knowledge, and by increasing its elaborate mystery. Once the hymn was
recognised as an essential element of such an act, the person who
could interpret the hymn and explain its effects acquired great
importance. And when the explanation of all the various features of
the sacrifice was once begun, a wide door was opened to minute
ingenuity. It is astonishing to what trifles these priestly
directories descend, what explanations are brought from every part of
earth and heaven of the most trivial circumstances, and what
sacredness is found in the very blades of grass around the altar. Now
the effect of such a treatment of ritual is inevitably that the rite
itself, the outward mechanical performance, comes to be regarded as
important, and that the ethical and religious end which was
originally aimed at, is lost sight of. The priest and those he acts
for are so intent on the minutiae of their celebration that they
forget about the god it is intended for. And as they are quite
convinced that the sacrifice, if offered with