As you can see there from the title, our intent with these linked pieces has been to take a look at one of the more foundational questions to the Indo-European theology.

Namely, why it is that we carry out rites of sacrifice and offering to the Gods in the first place.

I suspect that for many, the answers one would get if you asked them (other than a perfunctory “I don’t” – albeit hopefully with a “but I’d like to!”) would be generally connected to one of at least two (not-mutually-exclusive) themes.

The first of these being that if one seeks to cultivate a relationship with Divinity, then engaging in the proper ritualistic conduct is a fairly logical way to look to do so.

After all – it often entails either inviting the God (as Guest) to come and attend one’s rite (the theological equivalent to inviting somebody to come out or over for a drink or a meal), or heading around to where They live (… by which we usually mean the temple – the ‘House’ of the God(s) in local terms – interplanar expeditions to the High Heavens or sojourns encompassing relevant part(s) to the Underworld etc. tending to be the sort of thing one leaves off doing ‘early on’, particularly unannounced, lest the trip turn out to be a decidedly one-way ticket) with the proverbial plate of baking (by which, we often would mean a literal plate of baking given the role of sacral cakes and Indian sweets in various proceedings).

The second style of answering (and of offering), meanwhile, often tends to have something rather more specific in mind. Perhaps there is something that is within the God’s well-renowned portfolios & purview which one seeks to petition for most directly. Or maybe it is felt necessary to ask for Divine Aid, guidance & empowerment, in the pursuit of some difficult exterior thing (i.e. it is not within the God’s holding to directly bestow that which is sought for – but They can , if so favourably disposed , assist most greatly in enabling one to be able to get it). Whatever the case, and whatever it is which we might seek to term it, the basic patterning is broadly similar – an attempt to affect a particular desired purpose through the propitiation featuring an offering for the Deity.

Each of these approaches are quite resonantly ‘human’ ones. Both insofar as they are ‘humanocentric’ (anthropocentric, more properly speaking) in terms of their ‘objectives’ (a better relationship for the devotee with the Divinity; particular boon(s) able to be bestowed for the devotee (or those being approached on behalf of) by the Divinity – or obtainable, to be sure, with Their trenchant aiding and availment) … but also insofar as they make the grand and the cosmic appear almost as if a ‘social paradigm’ not entirely unfamiliar to most of us ‘down here’. Something that may indeed be a (broadly) accurate heuristic – albeit entirely ‘incomplete’, for much the same (if not exactly the same, lest we repeat the sin once more and over again) reason that going visiting to (human) Royalty is not the same thing as going around to a more ‘mundane’ person’s dwelling. But I digress.

Where we intend to go with this next portion to our series is charting something that does not quite so readily ‘map’ on ‘down’ to the basic interaction of two (human) personages. And it is something rather more ‘foundational’.

To put the matter directly – our previous installment had drawn from both Roman and Vedic source-material which had spoken (briefly) about a rather worrisome prospect … namely, the ‘breakdown’ in relations between ‘down here’ and ‘up there’ expressed via an effective cessation of sacrificial / oblatory conduct on the part of mankind, and its (potential) impacts at the macrocosmic level should this be allowed to ensue.

And whilst we certainly have these aforesaid attestations that such a thing should prove a rather dire circumstance … the question might, perhaps, be asked as to what evidence we might marshal towards that claim.

I would, perhaps, have been tempted to merely suggest that one take a look around at the state of the modern world for rather overt elucidation as to the broadly pervasive consequences for a suffusing (indeed, downright immanent) ‘lack of faith’ as applies both Gods and the Rites of Their Worshipping (the ‘lack of faith’ being one way in which one might seek to translate the ‘AShraddha’ utilized in the Shatapatha Brahmana section I had quoted from in our earlier installment – although “lack of trust” is also viable, and “unbelief” is how Eggeling’s rendering had parsed it) which certainly characterizes much of our time.

But we can do things somewhat less ‘inferentially’ – at least, in terms of mythic attestations that serve to most directly ‘spell out the consequences’ for such a shortfall.

Now, as to where we are going with this …

Well, as it happens, it is to a rather familiar – to our readership, at any rate – Pauranika myth.

Usually, I would ‘retell it myself’, but just this once, we shall let somebody else do the (proverbial – yet also literal) honours.

In this case, the Swami Vijñanananda translation for Devi Bhagavata Purana VII 28:

“Vyāsa said : – […] In olden times, there was a great Dānava named Durgama: he was very cruel. He, the the son of Ruru, was born in the family of Hiraṇyākṣa.

Once he thought within himself thus : – “The Munis offer oblations by Mantras as ordained in the Vedas. And the Devas, eating the clarified butter (ghee) of these oblations, get nurtured and strengthened. The Vedas is the strength of the Devas; if the Vedas be destroyed, the Devas also would be destroyed. Thus it is advisable to destroy the Vedas. (There is no other easy way.)”

Thus thinking, he went to the Himālayās to perform tapasyā.”

[We shall abridge things slightly by noting that what happens next is the by now ‘standard’ occurrence for a Demon carrying out an extended effort which results in a Boon being granted by Brahma …]

“Hearing thus, the Demon got up from his Samādhi and worshipping Him duly, said : –

“O Lord of the Devas! Give me all the Vedas. O Maheśvara! Let all the Vedic Mantrams, that are found in the Three Worlds, with the Brāhmaṇas and the Devas, come to me and give me such strength as would enable me to conquer the Devas.”

Hearing this, the God Brahmā, the author of the Four Vedas, replied, “Let it be as you wish,” and went away. From that time, the Brāhmaṇas forgot all about the Vedas. So bathing, Sandhyā, daily Homas, Śrāddha, sacrifice, and Japam and other rites and performances, all became extinct.”

What does this lead to?

Well, a few things … Most prominently:

“[The] Devas became gradually weaker and weaker, not getting Their share of the sacrificial Havis.”

Which enables a demonic war-effort to begin overwhelming the Devas – even successfully laying siege to the Divine City of Amarāvatī and reducing the Devas to retreat and hiding.

There is also an impact upon the natural world:

“When oblations of clarified butter are offered to the Fire, those get transferred to the Sun (Sūryaloka) and get transformed as rains. So when the Homa ceremonies disappeared, there was the scarcity of rain. The earth became quite dry and not a drop of water was found anywhere. The wells, tanks, pools, rivers all were dried up. And this state of “no rains” lasted one hundred years. Countless people, hundreds and thousands of cows, buffaloes and other beasts went to the jaws of death. The dead bodies of persons remained in heaps in every house; persons would not be found to perform their burning ceremonies.” [After all … those “burning ceremonies” are themselves Vedic Rites …]

In essence and in effect, we observe that the rather genius gambit of this demon lord has not only weakened the Gods … but would seem to have weakened the general saliency & immanency for Cosmic Order (Rta, Themis, Örlög (in a sense – the underlying meaning being ‘Supernal Law’), etc.) within the Universe.

Hence, those features of the universe which are contingent upon, and foundationally expressive of, the Cosmic Order … well, these also break down and corrode.

As Yeats put it in his ‘Second Coming’:

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, […]”

Although as applies a “Blood-Dimmed Tide” being “loosed” … well, hold on to that thought 😉

Because what happens next … well. To rather heavily summarize – a ‘return to source’ occurs. The Gods, Brahmanas, and Munis seek refuge in the Divinity that is ‘above and beyond’ that which has taken place within the universe (viz. the cessation of Sacrifices) and been concordantly weakened via same. Now, texts differ slightly upon this point – the Skanda Purana [IV 2 71 23-24] has Shiva involved (and then Devi’s Divine Intervention following His Request); the Shiva Purana [V – Umā Saṃhitā 50 9 onward] and Devi Bhagavata Purana [VII 28] have the petitioning to Devi undertaken fairly directly (and we shall refrain from attempting to provide an exhaustive accounting as to individual iterations of the myth upon these points through various texts, not least as the effect overall is so recognizably the same).

As we have often had cause to observe – the way in which this ‘works’ … is that Devi is the Divine Order / Cosmic Law. You see this over and over again both expressly and implicitly stated within the Indo-European Theology. Vak as the in-universe ‘expression / expressor’ of Rta-as-Brahman (‘Cosmic Order as Absolute’), the aforementioned saliency for Themis (in a fairly pointedly correlate position per Ovid’s recounting for Deucalion, even), and so forth. And you perceive it most particularly when it comes to the ‘Active Enforcement Clause’ for said Cosmic Order – again, the Goddess : Nemesis, Skaði, the array of Goddess-Forms one would probably immediately associate with Kālī, to name but Three.

Hence, as there has been the ‘breakdown’ in the saliency of Cosmic Order (due to the non-performance of the Rites) and the consequent weakening of all which is effectively contingent thereupon (including its most argent defenders – the Gods) … well, the petitioning is directly to Her to come and (re-)sort the whole thing out.

Which takes three (closely interrelated) forms.

Part of this is the rendering of the natural world re-fertile. This comprises a re-start of the water-cycle (via Her Tears of compassion upon looking at … the state of the worlds; Rains), and in particular it features the re-emergence of food-crops (and herbs). In fact, this is a large part to Her Theonym – Śākambharī … ‘Bearing [‘Bharii’] Shoots [‘Shaaka-‘]’, as in She Brings The (Green) Shoots of the new growth. Although I do rather like the ‘double meaning’ to it – as She also quite (literally) pointedly shows up Bearing Arrows … which get put to good use in exactly the manner one would anticipate. She Shoots, you see.

I suppose one might figuratively surmise Her here as the Trouble-Shooter.

Trouble emerges … She Shoots it (well .. him – it’s often, for ‘some reason’, a ‘him’).

Oh and that, by the way, is both the second dimension to the ‘sort[ing] the whole thing out’, as well as where that “Blood-Dimmed Tide” comes in (which, whilst not so directly pertinent to our purpose herein – I shall nevertheless indulge my penchant for providing a few exemplars, in the name of demonstrating a feature to a broader typological concordancy for this (broad) style of demon-Destroying and Law-Loka-lizing mytheme).

To quote again from the Vijñanananda rendition for the Devi Bhagavata Purana:

” The fight grew to such a terrible extent that, within ten days, all the Akṣauhiṇī troops were destroyed. So much so as the blood of the dead soldiers began to flow in torrents like rivers.”
[VII 28 60]

It is a detail that finds some potential degree of resonance in Ovid at Metamorphoses I around 156-157 – wherein the bodies of the ‘Gigantes’, having sought to overthrow the Gods through the piling of mountains (correctly observed in Eggeling’s SBr footnoting at II 1 2 13 to correlate with an essential Vedic ritual-relating mythic typology in which the Demons seek to do much the same thing through the construction of Altars via Bricks) : “[…] perfusam multo natorum sanguine Terram / inmaduisse ferunt calidumque animasse cruorem, […]”, rendered by More as: “the Earth was reeking with the copious blood / of Her gigantic sons; and thus replete / with moisture She infused the steaming gore with life renewed.” Kline has: “[…] drenched Earth with streams of blood, and they say She warmed it to new life […]”.

Meanwhile, per Ovid (Metamorphoses I 149) – we also hear of a circumstance of “caede madentis” : the Earth (“terras”) verily “overflowing with blood”, immediately prior to his presentation for the Gigantomachy.

That is certainly one way to ensure the (re-)irrigation to the landscape / cosmos !

We might also observe from the Gylfaginning (VII), pertaining to the aftermath of Ymir’s slaying by Odin et co, that:

“[…] en er hann féll, þá hljóp svá mikit blóð ór sárum hans, at með því drekkðu þeir allri ætt hrímþursa […]”

Which, per Brodeur: “[…] lo, where he fell there gushed forth so much blood out of his wounds that with it they drowned all the race of the Rime-Giants […]”

And not least due to the manner in which the next section declares this blood to have been utilized to render both “sæinn ok vötnin” (i.e. the Seas and Lakes), including the liminal Waters ringing the habitable Earth (“[…] ok festu saman jörðina ok lögðu þann sjá í hring útan um hana […]”) – although subject to the point that the Grimnismal section quoted in support by Sturluson has “sveita” (which, to be sure, can mean ‘sweat’ or ‘blood’) rather than “blóði” as pertains the “sær” (sea) thusly involved.

We might also, perhaps, contemplate the circumstance of Rudra’s heroic actions to vanquish an attempted demonic uprising, as recounted in the Mahabharat’s regaling of the First Sword [XII 166 in the Ganguli abridged translation]:

“[…] During the progress of that dreadful and fierce battle, the earth became miry with flesh and blood and horrible sights presented themselves on every side. Strewn with the fallen bodies of Danavas covered with blood, the earth looked as if overspread with mountain summits overgrown with Kinsukas. Drenched with gore, the earth looked exceedingly beautiful, like a fair-complexioned lady intoxicated with alcohol and attired in crimson robes. Having slain the Danavas and re-established Righteousness on earth, the auspicious Rudra cast off his awful form and assumed his own beneficent shape. […]”
(Consider the key role of Jupiter / Zeus, or Apollo (as applies the Aloadae), in correlate proceedings within the Classical legendarium; and perhaps also the manner in which the Sword is wielded (with relation to Righteousness, defence & upholding of – and “Duly meting out chastisement unto those that have transgressed the barriers of virtue for the sake of the body or the mind”, per the Ganguli translation) , in comparison to Ovid’s presentation for Jupiter’s wielding of that certain ‘sword’ (“ense” – ensis) of the dread sanction in his Metamorphoses [I 190-1])

But let us return to the Devi Bhagavata Purana, and Her Restoration as to the Worlds.

The next component being that final – and most integral, in some ways – reversal for the demon’s despoilment .. the restoration of the Vedas (and therefore the enablement to actually perform the proper sacral rites). Per the afore-quoted text:

” Vyāsa said : – O King! Thus when Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Hara and the other Devas praised and chanted various hymns to the Devī and worshipped Her with various excellent articles, She became instantly pleased. Then the Devī, graciously pleased, handed over the Vedas to the Brāhmaṇas. At last, She, the Cuckoo-voiced, made a special address to Them. “These Vedas are the excellent parts of My body. So preserve these with Your greatest care. The more so, when You all have seen with Your Own eyes what a great calamity befell on You when these Vedas went away out of Your Hands! You should all worship and serve Me (the Controller of the Space) always; there is no other thing higher than this that I can advise You for Your welfare. […]”
[Devi Bhagavata Purana VII 28 74-78, Vijñanananda translation]

To briefly explicate upon this – we had earlier made mention for the Goddess, Divine Speech (Vak … more properly Vāc) as the in-universe expression / expressor for Rta (Cosmic Order). And most certainly, you can see how the idea of the Sacred Speech as providing the essential ‘binding’ / ‘linkage’ between us and Eternity is entailed here.

The way that the Rites (etc.), the Liturgies with which they are brought to life and thusly enacted, had arrived ‘in the first place’ was via their Divine Revelation to the Seers (Rsis – and Rsikas) ; hence, what is going on here is a re-Revelation , as the essential fundament toward the restoration of proper Order.

And we would additionally note at this point that the restoration of the abundance of the natural world is also, itself, an integral ‘priming of the pump’ for this reciprocal foundation. After all – without the ‘fruits’ (and that which can be rendered with them), there should be precious little to actually offer through these Rites in the first instance.

Hence, in this way, the action of the Devi in (re-)provisioning the world(s) with them is placing within the hands of their denizens the ‘opportunity’ – the interesting question and the interesting test being just what it is which they do with them next. Re-start the cycle, proper and in earnest? Or go another (and rather self-destructively solipsistic) way in preference instead.

In essence, we face much the similar choice today. Only, for us it is falsely conditioned – to be, in effect, ‘not so much a choice at all’.

And not, I must add, in the inexorable direction of Duty – but rather, a veiling miasma which seeks to suppress even the prospect for the resumption of ‘our part’ in the righteous Cosmic (as in: ‘Lawful’, and also part and party to ‘Regime’) Cycle which has otherwise previously prevailed in both realms of Myth and History. The interruptions within the former proving but temporary Eclipses even as the interregnums as amidst the latter have drawn out more deeply.

But more upon this in due course.

Suffice to suggest:

You are told that there is ‘no choice’. With this, I unutterably agree !

There is no choice ! But it is not for the ‘stock-standard’ (un)reasoning which one tends to hear from the Very Online antagonists toward Indo-European revival and/or practice today … that the Rites (in spirit), once suppressed are thereby axiomatically to stay suppressed, simply because of their (oft ill-securely thread-bare-triumphalist) say-so.

Rather, it is for the entirely different inherent rationale –

Namely, that for us there are some things far too important to allow to remain unaddressed, unembraced, un-revitalized.

And besides – how else and how better to fight back, than with Fire.