Moreover, it is not in the inherited formulae of the ritual alone that this view is upheld.

To be sure, when philosophical speculation is introduced, the Father-god comes to the fore; Brahm[=a][9] sits aloft, indulgently advising his children, as he does in the intermediate stage of the Br[=a]hmanas; and _[=a]tm[=a] (brahma)_ too is recognized to be the real being of Brahm[=a], as in the Upanishads.[10] But none of this touches the practice of the common law, where the ordinary man is admonished to fear Yama's hell and Varuna's bonds, as he would have been admonished before the philosopher grew wiser than the Vedic seers.

Only personified Right, Dharma, takes his seat with shadowy Brahm[=a] among the other gods.[11] What is the speech which the judge on the bench is ordered to repeat to the witnesses?
Thus says the law-giver Manu: "When the witnesses are collected together in the court, in the presence of the plaintiff and defendant, the (Brahman) judge should call upon them to speak, kindly addressing them in the following manner: 'Whatever you know has been done in this affair ...

declare it all.

A witness who in testifying speaks the truth reaches the worlds where all is plenty ...
such testimony is honored by Brahm[=a].