nse are worth citing.
Conspicuous as an authority on the sacrifice, and at the same time as
a somewhat recalcitrant priest, is Y[=a]j[.n]avalkya, author and
critic, one of the greatest names in Hindu ecclesiastical history. It
was he who, apropos of the new rule in ethics, so strongly insisted
upon after the Vedic age and already beginning to obtain, the rule
that no one should eat the flesh of the (sacred) cow ('Let no one eat
beef.... Whoever eats it would be reborn (on earth) as a man of ill
fame') said bluntly: 'As for me I eat (beef) if it is good (firm).[17]
It certainly required courage to say this, with the especial warning
against beef, the meat of an animal peculiarly holy (_Cat. Br._ III.
I. 2. 21). It was, again, Y[=a]jnavalkya (_Cat. Br_., I. 3. I. 26),
who protested against the priests' new demand that the benefit of the
sacrifice should accrue in part to the priest; whereas it had
previously been understood that not the sacrificial priest but the
sacrificer (the worshipper, the man who hired the priest and paid the
expenses) got all the benefit of the ceremony. Against the priests'
novel and unjustifiable claim Y[=a]jnavalkya exclaims: 'How can people
have faith in this? Whatever be the blessing for which the priests
pray, this blessing is for the worshipper (sacrificer) alone.[18] It
was Y[=a]jnavalkya, too, who rebutted some new superstition involving
the sacrificer's wife, with the sneer, 'who cares whether the wife,'
etc. (_kas tad [=a]driyeta, ib._ 21). These protestations are naively
recorded, though it is once suggested that in some of his utterances
Y[=a]jnavalkya was not in earnest (_ib._ IV. 2. 1. 7). The high mind
of this great priest is contrasted with the mundane views of his
contemporaries in the prayers of himself and of another priest; for it
is recorded that whereas Y[=a]jnavalkya's prayer to the Sun was 'give
me light' (or 'glory,' _varco me dehi_), that of [=A]upoditeya was
'give me cows' (_ib_. I. 9. 3. 16). The chronicler adds, after citing
these prayers, that one obtains whatever he prays for, either
illumination or wealth.[19] Y[=a]jnavalkya, however, is not the only
protestant. In another passage, _ib_. ii. 6. 3. 14-17, the sacrificer
is told to shave his head all around, so as to be like the sun; this
will ensure his being able to 'consume (his foes) on all sides like
the sun,' and it is added: But [=A]suri said, 'What on earth has it to
do with his head? Let him not shave.'[20]