3. The Deva-sacrifice, i.e. the offering of oblations to the gods (sometimes called Huta).
4. The Bhûta-sacrifice, i.e. the giving of food to living creatures (sometimes called Prahuta).
5. The Manushya-sacrifice, i.e. the receiving of guests with hospitality (sometimes called Brâhmya huta).[294]
The performance of this daily Pitriyagña, seems to have been extremely simple. The householder had to put his sacred cord on the right shoulder, to say "Svadhâ to the Fathers," and to throw the remains of certain offerings toward the south.[295]
The human impulse to this sacrifice, if sacrifice it can be called, is clear enough. The five "great sacrifices" comprehended in early times the whole duty of man from day to day. They were connected with his daily meal.[296] When this meal was preparing, and before he could touch it himself, he was to offer something to the gods, a Vaisvadeva offering,[297] in which the chief deities were Agni, fire, Soma the Visve Devas, Dhanvantari, the kind of Æsculapius, Kuhû and Anumati (phases of the moon), Pragâpati, lord of creatures, Dyâvâ-prithivî, Heaven and Earth, and Svishtakrit, the fire on the hearth.[298]
After having thus satisfied the gods in the four quarters, the householder had to throw some oblations into the open air, which were intended for animals, and in some cases for invisible beings, ghosts and such like. Then he was to remember the Departed, the Pitris, with some offerings; but even after having done this he was not yet to begin his own repast, unless he had also given something to strangers (atithis).
When all this had been fulfilled, and when, besides, the householder, as we should say, had said his daily prayers, or repeated what he had learned of the Veda, then and then only was he in harmony with the world that surrounded him, the five Great Sacrifices had been performed by him, and he was free from all the sins arising from a thoughtless and selfish life.
This Pitriyagña, as one of the five daily sacrifices, is described in the Brâhmanas, the Grihya and Sâmayâkârika Sûtras, and, of course, in the legal Samhitâs. Rajendralâl Mitra[299] informs us that "orthodox Brâhmans to this day profess to observe all these five ceremonies, but that in reality only the offerings to the gods and manes are strictly observed, while the reading is completed by the repetition of the Gâyatrî only, and charity and feeding of animals are casual and uncertain."
Quite different from this simple daily ancestral offering is the Pitriyagña or Pinda-pitriyagña, which forms part of many of the statutable sacrifices, and, first of all, of the New and Full-moon sacrifice. Here again the human motive is intelligible enough. It was the contemplation of the regular course of nature, the discovery of order in the coming and going of the heavenly bodies, the growing confidence in some ruling power of the world which lifted man's thoughts from his daily work to higher regions, and filled his heart with a desire to approach these higher powers with praise, thanksgiving, and offerings. And it was at such moments as the waning of the moon that his thoughts would most naturally turn to those whose life had waned, whose bright faces were no longer visible on earth, his fathers or ancestors. Therefore at the very beginning of the New-moon sacrifice, we are told in the Brâhmanas[300] and in the Srauta-sûtras, that a Pitriyagña, a sacrifice to the Fathers, has to be performed. A Karu or pie had to be prepared in the Dakshinâgni, the southern fire, and the offerings, consisting of water and round cakes (pindas), were specially dedicated to father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, while the wife of the sacrificer, if she wished for a son, was allowed to eat one of the cakes.[301]