Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/212

and replace him in the bosom of the One True Being. Of all this later on.

However, even these saccharine promises about the accumulated credit given in heaven for sacrifice and baksheesh seem not to have been regarded by the poet priests as a sufficient guarantee that they might securely count upon that faith which meant works useful to them. They employ another device. Being skilled verse-smiths, they begin to use their craft to forge chains of poetry which shall hold rich patrons willing captives. They compose the so-called dāna-stutis, "gift-praises," or gāthā nāraçañsyaḥ, "stanzas singing the praise of men."^[1] In dithyrambic language exorbitant gifts on the part of generous givers of old, mythic kings and patrons, are narrated, so as to stimulate the potential patron of the present day. They sing these praises so stridently that the Vedic texts themselves, in their soberer moments, decry the "gift-praises" as lies and pollution. The poet of a "stanza singing the praise of men" and the brandy-drunkard are likened unto one another: they are polluted, their gifts must not be accepted. I question whether the religious literature of any other people contains anything that resembles either in character or extent the "gift-

1. ↑ Cf. Ludwig, Der Rig-Veda, vol. iii., p. 274 ff.; Bloomfield, The Atharva-Veda (Indo-Aryan Encyclopædia), p. 100.