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The Religion of the Veda

the sacrificer was rewarded, or thought he was re- warded, under this otherwise monotonously one-sided arrangement. We have seen that Faith, Çraddhā, is personified. Now the sacrifice, called ishṭa, and the baksheesh, called (by another name) pūrta, enter into a close compound, the ishṭāpūrta. They, in their turn, get to have a kind of personal reality, and turn into a kind of beneficent genius, or perhaps better a kind of solid asset which becomes useful with the gods during life, and, mark you, after death as well. During life, the god helps him who sacrifices and gives baksheesh; he adds to, does not rob his property.[1] But it is for the most part a question of future reward. In a well-known funeral hymn of the Rig-Veda the corpse is addressed most realistically:


"Do thou join the Fathers, do thou join Yama, join thy ishṭāpūrta (that which thou hast sacrificed and given to the priests) in the highest heaven!" (Rig-Veda 10. 14. 8.)


And the following is a particularly realistic treatment of the same ideas. Again a dead man is blessed as he goes to heaven:


"Know him (the pious dead), O ye associated gods in the highest heaven, recognise his form! When he shall have arrived by the paths that lead to the gods, disclose

  1. ↑ Rig-Veda 6. 28. 2.
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