Kanda V, adhyaya 2, brahmana 3

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

1. He offers a full-offering^[1]; for the full means the All: 'May I be consecrated after encompassing the All!' thus he thinks. At this (offering) he bestows a boon; for a boon means all: 'Having encompassed the All (the universe), may I be consecrated! thus he thinks. He may perform this offering, if he chooses; or, if he chooses, he may disregard it.

2. And on the following day he prepares a cake on eight potsherds, as sacrificial food for Anumati^[2]. And whatever portion of (the grains) being ground,--either flour or rice-grains,--falls down behind the pin, that he throws together into the dipping-spoon (sruva)^[3]. They take a firebrand from the Anvāhāryapacana (or southern) fire, and therewith go southward. And where he finds a self-produced hollow^[4] or cleft,--

3. Having there made up a fire, he offers with (Vāj. S. IX, 35), 'This, O Nirṛti, is thy portion: accept it graciously, hail!' For Nirṛti is this (Earth); whomsoever she seizes upon with evil, him she seizes upon with destruction (nirṛti): hence whatever part of this (Earth) is of the Nirṛti nature, that he thereby propitiates; and thus Nirṛti does not seize upon him, while being consecrated. And the reason why he offers in a self-produced hollow or cleft, is that that much of this (earth) is possessed with Nirṛti.

4. They then return (to the sacrificial ground) without looking backward. He now proceeds with the cake on eight potsherds for Anumati. For Anumati is this (Earth); and whosoever knows to do that work which he intends to do, for him indeed she approves (arm-man) thereof: hence it is her he thereby pleases, thinking 'May I be consecrated, approved by that (genius of) approval!'

5. And as to why it is a (cake) on eight potsherds,--the Gāyatrī consists of eight syllables, and this earth is Gāyatrī. And as to why he offers of the same sacrificial food^[5] both (oblations): thereby, indeed, both of it comes to be this latter one (viz. Anumati, or approval). A garment is the sacrificial fee for this (offering): for even as one clad in a garment does not venture into the forest, but having deposited that garment (somewhere) escapes (robbers), in like manner no assault befalls him while being consecrated.

6. And on the following day he prepares a cake on eleven potsherds for Agni and Viṣṇu, and offers it in the same way as the (regular) iṣṭi: this indeed is just what that approved initiation-offering to Agni and Viṣṇu is there^[6]. Now Agni is all the deities, since in Agni one offers to all deities; and Agni forsooth is the lower end, and Viṣṇu is the upper end: 'May I be consecrated, after thus encompassing all the deities, and after encompassing the whole sacrifice!' thus he thinks, and hence there is a cake on eleven potsherds to Agni and Viṣṇu. Gold is the sacrificial fee for this (offering); for to Agni belongs this sacrifice, and gold is Agni's seed. As to Viṣṇu, he is the sacrifice, and Agni forsooth is the sacrifice: nevertheless this is Agni's alone, therefore gold is the fee.

7. And on the following day he prepares a cake on eleven potsherds for Agni and Soma, and offers it in the same way as an (ordinary) iṣṭi, for it was thereby Indra slew Vṛtra, and thereby he gained that universal conquest which now is his. And in like manner does this (king, the Sacrificer) thereby slay his wicked, hateful enemy, and in like manner does he gain the victory. 'May I be consecrated, when safety and security from evil-doers have been gained!' thus. he thinks: hence there is a cake on eleven potsherds for Agni and Soma. For this (offering) a bull set at liberty is the sacrificial fee; for yonder moon^[7] they slay while setting him at liberty^[8]: to wit, by the full-moon offering they slay him, and by the new-moon offering they set him at liberty;--therefore a bull set at liberty is the fee.

8. And on the following day he prepares a cake on twelve potsherds for Indra and Agni, and offers it in the same way as an (ordinary) iṣṭi. Now when

Indra slew Vṛtra, that vigour and energy of his went out of him, being frightened: by this offering he again possessed himself of that vigour and energy. And in like manner does this (Sacrificer) by this offering possess himself of vigour and energy; for Agni is fiery spirit, and Indra is vigour and energy: 'May I be consecrated, having embraced both these energies!' thus he thinks: hence there is a cake on twelve potsherds for Indra and Agni. A bull is the fee for this (offering), for by his shoulder he is of Agni's nature^[9], and by his testicles he is of Indra's nature: therefore a bull is the fee for it.

9. Thereupon he performs the offering of first-fruits^[10]; for verily he who performs the Rājasūya secures for himself (the benefits of) all sacrificial rites, all iṣṭis, even the spoon-offerings; and instituted by the gods, in truth, is that iṣṭi, the Āgrayaṇeṣṭi: 'May this also be offered by me! May I be consecrated by this (offering) also!' thus he thinks, and therefore he performs the offering of first-fruits. Moreover, it is for the plants that he who is consecrated, is consecrated; therefore he now makes the plants healthy and faultless, thinking, 'May I be consecrated for (the obtainment of) healthy, faultless plants (crops)!' A cow is the fee for this (offering).

10. Thereupon he performs the Seasonal offerings^[11]; for verily he who performs the Rājasūya secures for himself (the benefits of) all sacrificial rites, all iṣṭis, even the spoon-offerings; and instituted by the gods, in truth, is that sacrificial rite, the Seasonal offerings: 'May these also be offered by me! May I be consecrated by these (offerings) also!' thus he thinks, and therefore he performs the Seasonal offerings.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

On the pūrṇāhuti, or libation of a spoonful of ghee, see part i, p. 302 note. According to Kāty. Śr. XV, 1, 4 seq. Āśv. Śr. IX, 3, 2, and other authorities, this full-offering is preceded by the Pavitra (purificatory ceremony), a Soma-sacrifice with four dikṣās or initiation days (? commencing on the first day of the bright fortnight of Phālguna), serving as the ordinary opening offering (anvārambhaṇīyeṣṭi). That it formed part of the ceremonial .at the time of the composition of the Brāhmaṇa there can be little doubt (cf. Pañcav. Br. 18, 8. 1), but as it is an ordinary Agniṣṭoma, the author had no reason to refer to it.

[2]:

I. e. the approval or favour of the deities, personified,--According to Yājñika Deva (to Kāty. Śr. XV, 1, 8), the ceremonies now beginning would commence on the 10th day of the bright half of Phalgunī: the fifth day's ceremony from this day, viz. the first of the four seasonal offerings, having to be performed on the Full-moon of that month; see p. 47, note 1.

[3]:

The authorities of the Black Yajus prepare therewith a cake on one kapāla. Taitt. S. I, 8, 1.

[4]:

Sāyaṇa, perhaps rightly, takes 'iriṇa' here (and on Taitt. S. vol. ii, p. 6) in the sense of 'ūṣara,' a spot of barren (or saline) soil. Cf. VII, 2; 1, 8: 'In whatever part of this (earth) there is produced (of itself) a cleft, or in whatever part of it plants are not produced, verily that part of it Nirṛti seizes upon.'--Kauśika-sūtra XIII, 28 (A. Weber, Omina and Portenta, p. 386) recommends the following propitiatory rites in case of a sudden cleft in the ground: 'If in the village, or house, or fire-house, or meeting-place, (the ground) should burst open, four cows are got ready, a white, a black, a red, and a one-coloured one. For twelve days he puts down the butter, milked together from these. In the morning of the twelfth, having made up a fire north of where there was that cleft, having swept and sprinkled it, and strewn sacrificial grass around it; and having mixed (the butter) with ghee from the white (cow), and addressed it (the spot) with the three verses, Ath.-veda XII, x, 19-21 ("Agni is in the earth, in the plants, the waters carry Agni, Agni is in the flints, Agni is within men; in cows, in horses are Agnis," &c.), and touched it, let him then offer. In the same way on the south side; in the same way on the western side. Having concluded on the north side, let him offer with the (formulas addressed) to Vāstoṣpati (the tutelary genius of the dwelling). Having poured the refuse in the cleft, and completed the oblations, he sprinkles the cleft with lustral water.'

[5]:

Though he has offered twice (to Nirṛti and Anumati), he has only once taken out rice for oblation.

[6]:

Viz. at the ordinary Soma-sacrifice; for the Dīkṣaṇīyeṣṭi, see part ii, p. 22.

[7]:

On the identification of Vṛtra with the moon (and Soma), see I, 6, 3, 27. On the moon serving as food to the gods, see part ii, Introduction, p. xiii. According to a later conception, one kalā (or sixteenth part of the moon's disc) was taken off each day during the period of the waning, and again added to it during the period of the waxing moon.

[8]:

Utsarjam . . . ghnanti; perhaps the former has to be taken here as infinitive (in order to set him at liberty) rather than as gerund.

[9]:

Cp. I, 1, 2, 9, '(Like) fire, verily, is the yoke of that cart: hence the shoulder of those (oxen) that draw it becomes as if burnt by fire.'

[10]:

For the Āgrayaṇeṣṭi, see part i, p. 369 seq.

[11]:

For the four Cāturmāsya (enumerated in the next chapter), see part i, p. 383 seq.