Among the Vedic rites the S0111 a sacrifices are the most solemn and complicated. and those to which the greatest efficacy is ascribed in remit ting sin, conferring offspring and even iminortal ity. They require the attendance of sixteen priests, and are divided into three groups. ac cording as the actual pressing and offering of the soma oecupies only MP' day, or between one and twelve days. The performanee of all ,rants sac rifices requires two other fires besides that used for domestic rites. The act of first placing the fires in their respective receptacles, after due con secration of the ground, constitntes the essential part of the first duty, which the householder should have performed by four Brahmans imme diately after the wedding. To the same class of sacrificial ceremonies belong those performed on the days of the new and full moon, the oblation at the commencement of the three seasons, the offerings of first-fruits, and other periodical rites. Besides these regular sacrifices, the Kraut(' cere monial ineludes a number of most solemn rites, which, on account of the objects for which they are instituted, and the enormous expenditure they involve, could be performed only on rare occasions, and hy powerful princes. Of these the most important arc the inaugural ceremony of a monarch who claims supreme rule. and the horse sacrifice, one of great antiquity, enjoined by the Br:thin:mica] ritual upon kings desirous of attaining universal sovereignty. Human sac rifices were also performed in the early period, and are recommended as late as the epic. They come into prominence again in the later form of Brahmanism known as Hinduism, in which new gods are recognized. See SAIVAS.
When the householder is advanced in years, when lie sees his skill become wrinkled and his hair gray, when he sees the son of his son, the time is said to have come for him to enter the third stage of lift. He should now disengage himself from all family ties—except that his wife may accompany him if she choose—and re pair to a lonely wood, taking with him his sacred fires and the implements required for the daily and periodical offering. Clad in a (leer's skin, or in a single piece of cloth, or in a bark garment, with his hair and nails uncut, the hermit is to subsist exclusively on food growing wild in the forest, such as roots, green herbs, fruits, wild rice, and grain. He must not accept gifts from any one. except what may he absolutely neces sary to maintain him; but with his own little hoard he should, on the contrary, honor to the best of his ability those who visit his hermitage. 1Iis time must be spent in reading the metaphysi cal treatises of the Veda, in making oblations, and in undergoing various kinds of privations and austerities, with a view to mortifying his passions and producing in his mind an entire in difference to worldly objects. Having by these means succeeded in overcoming all sensual affec tions and desires, and in acquiring perfect equa nimity toward everything around him, the hermit has fitted himself for the final and most exalted order, that of the devotee or religious mendicant.
As such he has no further need of either inorti fications or religious observances; but 'with the sacrifieial fires deposited in his mind' he may devote tau' remainder of his days to meditating on the divinity. Taking up his abode at the foot of a tree in total solitude, 'with no companion but his own soul,' clad in a garment, he should carefully avoid injuring any creature or giving offense to any human being that may Imp pen to come near him. Once in a day, in the evening. 'when the (-baryon] fire is extinguished and the smoke no longer issues from the fire place, when the pestle is at rest, when the people have taken their meats and the dishes are re moved,' he should go near the habitations of men in order to beg the little food that may suffice to sustain his feeble frame. Ever pure of mind, he should thus bide his time. 'as a servant ex pecteth his wages.' wishing neither for death nor for life, until at last his soul is freed from its fetters and absorbed in the eternal spirit, the im personal. self-existent Brahma.
The study of the ancient Hindu lilerature has taught. us that some practices which have hith erto, or until reeently, prevailed in India, and which have contributed much to bring Hindu morals into disrepute, are comparatively modern innovations. Thus, the rite of suttee (prop. sati, 'the faithful wife'), or the voluntary immolation of widows, which was formally abolished with considerable difficulty in 18'29, seems to have sprung up originally as a local habit a in ong the Kshatriyas, and, on becoming more and more prevalent, to have at length received Brahmani cal sanction. There is no authority for it in ancient t Vedic) literature, but it is recognized in later epic poetry. Cases of infanticide arc still frequent in ninny parts of India. especially among the Rajputs. The priests have never sanc tioned the practice, but they have never tried to suppress it. Its origin has to lie sought in the enormous extravagance of wedding feasts, and in a notion that parents arc disgraced by their daughters remaining husbandless. The practice of ea rly marriage is. however, sanctioned by the early codes. The cow has been held in high honor in India from early times: but the abhorrence of slaughtering and eating the flesh of trine is of comparatively late origin. It has been conclu sively shown that in former times beef formed a staple article of food. Consult : Monier-Wil liams, Itbidoi.sccl ( London, ; A. Barth, Religions of India (3d ed., London. 1890) ; and Hopkins. Religions of India (Boston, 1895). For particulars and varieties of Hindu doctrines. etc.. see Butinnism; INDIA ; JAIN ISM; MARPT ; SAIVAS ; SAKTAS ; SIKHS ; SURYA ; METEMPSYCHOSIS; UPANISHAD ; USIIAS ; VAISIINAVAS ; VEDA ; VEDANTA.