Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/213

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Religious Conceptions and Feeling
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praises" of the Veda; the type is thoroughly Hindu in its naïveté and its boundlessness.

To begin with, there is in the Rig-Veda a doubtless late hymn consecrated to Dakshinā, or "Baksheesh." It is only a poetaster who undertakes, as he says, to unfold "the broad road of Baksheesh," i.e. to show how important it is to keep giving. Then, with refreshing obviousness he claims:


"Those that give dakshinā dwell on high in the heavens; they that give horses dwell with the sun. They that give gold partake of immortality; and they that give garments, O Soma, prolong their lives."

(Rig-Veda 10. 107. 2.)


There are forty or more "gift-praises" in the Rig-Veda alone; they continue throughout the rest of the Veda. I do not mean to dwell upon them beyond a single example. We may remark, however, that some of this baksheesh must have proved a veritable elephant on the hands of the receiver, except for the fact that it was as a rule imaginary baksheesh:


"Listen, ye folks, to this: (a song) in praise of a hero shall be sung! Six thousand and ninety cows did we get (when we were) with Kauruma among the Ruçamas!

"Kauruma presented the Seer with a hundred jewels, ten chaplets, three hundred steeds, and ten thousand cattle."

(Atharva-Veda 20. 127. 1, 3.)

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