“The Domestic Ritual Codes and the Promotion of Vedic Piety”

Timothy Lubin, Washington & Lee University                                                          [ Back to Lubin's Research ]

Although it is often supposed that the Vedic multi-fire “high (shrauta) cult” was an elaboration of the simpler household rites of earlier time, this should not lead us to suppose that the domestic ritual codes (grhya sutras) are simple transcriptions of that ancient tradition.  These codes were compiled (often explicitly) on the model of the shrauta codes, which provide the model for both textual and ritual formats for this less prestigious sphere of religious life.  This paper offers an analysis of certain features of this literature as the basis for an interpretation of the aims of the priestly authors.  These features include the establishing of authoritative (transregional) models for domestic rites, and their correlation with “equivalent” but more complex shrauta rites; the assembling of mantra-collections for the domestic ritual; the promulgation of the idea that Veda-study is incumbent upon all Aryas (with the related notion that mantra-recitation can confer the same benefits as the offering of elaborate sacrifices); and the subsuming of a wide ranges of ceremonies under the general rubric of “samskara.”  I argue that the codification of the domestic ritual was driven by a desire to extend shrauta priestly ideology into previously lay spheres.  In this regard, I wish to examine the rhetorical postures adopted to assert the “unity of Vedic ritual” and its historical impact.  Tapping the prestige associated with the shrauta cult (with its regal associations), the priests inserted themselves more directly into household and personal piety, especially as teachers, even as the householder himself inherited a range of explicitly priestly functions.  This process may be seen as a policy of Sanskritization, aimed at encouraging “Vedic” forms of piety that become a criterion of “Arya” status among those who adopt them.  In this sense, besides establishing transregional standards of practice, it provides the ideological and ritual basis for the Dharma literature.

The Panel:
Words and Actions in the Forging of Vedic Hermeneutics
 
This panel presents four new case studies of the ways in which Vedic tradition sought to construct and articulate meaning in ritual performances.  These ways range from the poetic use of mythic themes and cosmological patterns in the earlier phases of the tradition (discussed in Brereton’s and Lopez’s papers) to later priestly codifications of ritual practice that increasingly assert that mantra is the essence of ritual and textual mastery the criterion of piety (Lubin’s paper), and that define the principles by which particular sacred words are to be appropriately assigned to corresponding ritual actions (Patton’s paper).  In all these cases, the problem of the relationship of words and ideas to ritual performance is the underlying concern.  Hermeneutic strategies are developed that regard ritual action as a development of the oral texts.  These papers outline changes in the way this problem was handled over the period from the Rig Veda to the ritual codes (ca. 1000–200 BCE).

“Gods as Priests: The Rbhus and the Third Soma Pressing”
 Joel Brereton, University of Texas, Austin

This paper presents the argument that the poets of the Rig Veda composed and reformulated myths to justify or to explain particular ritual procedures.  By examining the acts of the .Rbhus, whose deeds mirror the offerings and special purposes of the third soma pressing, the author illustrates the direct connection between certain Rigvedic narratives and ritual acts.  Such observations may help reconstruct the history of Vedic ritual, since narrative describing divine initiatives may signal ritual innovation.

“The Children of .Rta: Relations among ‘Powers’ in the Veda”
 Carlos Lopez, Florida State University

This paper will outline the relationships linking a cluster of entities that are said to be “first-born of .rta (Order)” (prathamaja .rtasya) in the Veda, such as agni (fire), zraddhaa (faith), aapo devii.h (the heavenly waters), anna (food), and vaac (speech).  The Vedic poets used phrases such as “prathamaja .rtasya” to explicate the interrelations between the macrocosm (the natural and divine order) and the mesocosm (the corresponding ritual structures).  In this way, mythic themes are systematically correlated with elements of the ritual in the Rig Veda.

“The Domestic Ritual Codes and the Promotion of Vedic Piety”
 Timothy Lubin, Washington and Lee University

This paper analyzes the doctrinal and ritual changes, visible especially in the codes of domestic ritual (g.rhya-suutras), that the Vedic tradition underwent during the middle of the last millennium BCE, noting the ways in which a common liturgical format and the study and recitation of Vedic mantra were promoted as a basis for Arya identity in an increasingly cosmopolitan world.  The analysis will show how the domestic codes were designed to provide a framework for institutionalizing brahmins’ expertise as teachers and as ritual authorities in a variety of contexts beyond the multi-fire high zrauta cult.  This process may be seen as a policy of Sanskritization, in which a streamlined canon of Vedic mantras and a simplified ritual system integrating regional and popular elements are made the criterion of “Arya” (i.e., civilized) status among those who adopt them.  Besides establishing transregional standards of piety, it provides the ideological and ritual basis for the later Dharma literature.

“Magic and Metonymy in Vedic Poetry and Sacrifice”
 Laurie Patton, Emory University

This paper will examine the Vedic principles for correlating word and act, focusing on the concept of viniyoga (the application of mantras in ritual action), which she sees as a form of metonymy.  The analysis will show that viniyoga is based on synecdoche, so that one property of a poetic utterance is privileged over others in the performative context.  Such selective characteristics are made the basis for accomplishing an efficacious ritual act.  The author further relates this metonymic principle to a larger rethinking of the category of “magic” in Vedic thought and practice.