This Pit_ri_ya_gñ_a, as one of the five daily sacrifices, is described in the Brâhma_n_as, the G_ri_hya and Sâmayâ_k_ârika Sûtras, and, of course, in the legal Sa_m_hitâs. 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 Pit_ri_ya_gñ_a or Pi_nd_a-pit_ri_ya_gñ_a, 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 Brâhma_n_as[300] and in the _S_rauta-sûtras, that a Pit_ri_ya_gñ_a, a sacrifice to the Fathers, has to be performed. A _K_aru or pie had to be prepared in the Dakshi_n_âgni, the southern fire, and the offerings, consisting of water and round cakes (pi_nd_as), 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] Similar ancestral offerings took place during other sacrifices too, of which the New and Full-moon sacrifices form the general type. It may be quite true that these two kinds of ancestral sacrifices have the same object and share the same name, but their character is different; and if, as has often been the case, they are mixed up together, we lose the most important lessons which a study of the ancient ceremonial should teach us. I cannot describe the difference between these two Pit_ri_ya_gñ_as more decisively than by pointing out that the former was performed by the father of a family, or, if we may say so, by a layman, the latter by a regular priest, or a class of priests, selected by the sacrificer to act in his behalf. As the Hindus themselves would put it, the former is a g_ri_hya, a domestic, the latter a _s_rauta, a priestly ceremony.[302]