Prapāṭhaka IV, Kāṇḍikā 1

1.^[1] He throws the two spits into the fire;

2. That which consists of one (simple) branch, towards the east, the other one towards the west.

3.^[2] They cut off the Avadāna portions from all its limbs,

4. With the exception of the left thigh and the lungs.

5. The left thigh he should keep for the Anvaṣṭakya ceremony.

6.^[3] On the same fire he cooks one mess of rice-grains and one of meat, stirring up the one and the other separately, from left to right, with two pot-ladles.

7. After he has cooked them, he should pour (Ājya) on them, should take them from the fire towards the north, and should pour (Ājya) on them again.

8. Having poured the juice (of the Avadānas) into a brazen vessel,

9. And having placed the Avadānas on a layer (of grass) on which branches of the Plakṣa (tree) have been spread,

10.^[4] He cuts off (the prescribed portions) from the Avadānas in the way prescribed for Sthālīpākas, (and puts those portions) into (another) brazen vessel;

11. And (the portion) for the Sviṣṭakṛt oblation separately.

12. Taking of the mess of boiled rice-grains (Sūtra 6) a portion of the size of a Bilva fruit, he should mix that, together with the Avadānas (Sūtra 10), with the juice (Sūtra 8).

13. Taking a fourfold portion of Ājya he should sacrifice it with the first of the eight Ṛcas, 'Entering into fire, the fire' (MB. II, 2, 9-16).

14. Of the mixture (Sūtra 12) he cuts off the third part and sacrifices it with the second and third (verse).

15. He places the word Svāhā after the second (of those verses, i.e. after the third verse of the whole Mantra).

16. In the same way he sacrifices the other two-thirds (of that mixture, the one) with the fourth and fifth (verse), and (the other) with the sixth and seventh (verse).

17. Having cut off the rest, he should sacrifice the oblation to (Agni) Sviṣṭakṛt with the eighth (verse).

18. Even if he be very deficient in wealth, he should celebrate (the Aṣṭakā) with (the sacrifice of) an animal.

19. Or he should sacrifice a Sthālīpāka.

20.^[5] Or he should offer food to a cow.

21.^[6] Or he should burn down brushwood in the forest and should say, 'This is my Aṣṭakā.'

22. But let him not neglect to do (one of these things). But let him not neglect to do (one of these things).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

1, 1. Comp. III, 10, 31.

[2]:

Comp. Āśvalāyana-Gṛhya I, 11, 12; Khādira-Gṛhya III, 4, 14 seq.

[3]:

'He cooks a mess of meat'—i.e. he cooks the Avadānas. Comp. Khādira-Gṛhya, l.l. 17; Āśv.-Gṛhya I, 11, 12.

[4]:

See I, 8, 5 seq.

[5]:

20 seq. Regarding these Sūtras, which occur nearly identically in Śāṅkhāyana III, 14, 4 seq., Āśvalāyana II, 4, 8-11, comp. the note, vol. xxix, p. 105.

[6]:

I believe that we ought to correct upadhāya into upadahya. Śāṅkhāyana III, 14, 5: api vāraṇye kakṣam apādahet. Āśvalāyana II, 4, 9: agninā vā kakṣam uposhet.