The God Who Was Left Behind

Long ago, the old book says, the gods found the way to heaven, and the way was the sacrifice.

They built the fire, made their offerings in the proper order and rose up to heaven, all of them together. Or nearly all. One god was left standing on the ground where the rite had been held.

He was the god who rules over the cattle. The book gives him a name for that moment, Vastavya, the one who remained on the site.

He looked around at the cold ground and the scattered grass, and he understood.

"I have been left behind. They are shutting me out of the sacrifice."

He went up after them.

He came up on the north side, and he came with his weapon raised. He reached them at the very end of the rite, when the main offerings were finished and only the last one remained.

The gods saw him standing there, and they saw what he was holding.

"Do not throw it!" they cried.

"Then do not shut me out of the sacrifice," he said. "Set aside an offering for me."

"So be it," said the gods.

He lowered his weapon. He did not throw it, and the book is careful to add that he did not hurt anyone.

But now the gods had a difficulty. They had promised him a share, and everything had already been offered. The dishes were empty.

So they turned to the priest. "Butter the dishes again. Fill them again. Cut one more portion from each."

It was done, and that last portion was offered to him. This, says the book, is why there is a final offering after all the others in every sacrifice. The gods gave him his share after their own, and so it has been given ever since.

The book goes on to say who he is. The offering is addressed to Agni, the fire, and the book explains that this is the same god under his gentlest name. The people of the east call him Sharva. The Bahika people call him Bhava. He is the lord of beasts, and he is Rudra. All of those names are dangerous to say, and Agni is the calm one.

Even so, the priests took care. His portion is cut from the north side and offered on the north side of the fire, because the north is his quarter. It is kept well apart from every other offering, so that his power does not fall upon the cattle.

A second Vedic book tells it more briefly and more harshly. In its telling there is no warning and no bargain made in time.

"The gods shut Rudra out of the sacrifice," it says. "He pierced the sacrifice."

The rite itself was struck through by his arrow.

The gods gathered round it. They agreed that the only way to make it whole was to honour the one they had left out, and this they did.

But a small piece of the sacrifice remained where the arrow had touched it, a scrap no bigger than a grain of barley, and somebody had to eat it.

They gave it to Pushan, the gentle god who guards the roads and the herds. Pushan ate it, and it broke his teeth. That is why, the book says, Pushan is offered only soft food, ground fine, for he has no teeth to chew with.

Other old books add to the list. The piece was shown to Bhaga, and when he looked at it, it burnt out his eyes. It was handed to Savitri, and it cut off his hands, and the gods made him new ones of gold.

At last it was given to Brihaspati, the priest of the gods. He was afraid, and he was wise. He did not simply take it. He looked at it only with the eye of the sun. He took it only with the hands of other gods, and he ate it with the mouth of Agni, the fire. It did him no harm.

And ever since, the old books say, the priest who receives that portion swallows it without chewing.