Bharadvaja-srauta-sutra

by C. G. Kashikar | 1964 | 166,530 words

The English translation of the Bharadvaja-Srauta-Sutra, representing some of the oldest texts on Hindu rituals and rites of passages, dating to at least the 1st millennium BCE. The term Srautasutra refers to a class of Sanskrit Sutra literature dealing with ceremonies based on the Brahmana divisions of the Veda (Sruti). They include Vedic rituals r...

Praśna 1, Kaṇḍikā 5

1. “May I, who am carrying the Barbis for spreading, increase the joint of these plants which were born three generations before the gods.—O darbha-blades, may your form which is full of sap of water, fit for the sacrifice, possessing gods, be auspicious to me. May I, the cutter of you, not be injured; may I live a hundred years.—You are limited amongst the unlimited. I bind happiness (as it were) for the good act. Let me not reach any evil. The cut-off blades may shoot off and grow in abundance.”[1] Theses verses are prescribed respectively for the placing of the cutting instrument, and the cutting, and the tying up of the darbha-blades intended for spreading out.

2. The Adhvaryu should prepare the faggot consisting of twenty-one sticks either of palāśa or of khaḍira (Acacia Catechu).

3. According to some teachers, he should tie up the faggot consisting of eighteen sticks.

4. Fifteen (out of these) are sāmidhenī sticks.[2]

5. Three are enclosing sticks.[3]

6. (They should be) either of palāśa or of kārṣmarya (Gmelina arborea) and should be either dry or sappy and having skin.

7. Moreover, they should be either of khadira or of bilva or of udumbara or of vikaṅkata (Flacourtia ramontchi) or of rohitaka (Andersonia rohitaka). So is it said.[4]

8. The middle (enclosing stick) should be thick, the southern one thinner and longer, and the northern one the thinnest and the shortest.

9. There should be two āghāra-sticks.[5]

10. The twenty-first is the Anūyāja-stick.[6]

11. He should prepare, with the same procedure,[7] a cord (śulba) with an odd number of constituent parts of darbha-blades with or without roots.

12. He should gather the faggot on it.

13. He should tie[8] it with the verses, “Since, O fire, assuming the form of a deer, thou hast entered the plants; I gather through twentyonefold faggot by means of a well-furnished (cord).—Three enclosing stick, three fire-sticks, the (fifteen) attending fire-sticks, the fire-stirring-sticks, the grain-stirring stick, and the fire-stirring stick do I gather by means of a well-furnished cord.”[9]

14. With the formulas, “Thou art a black deer, living in the lair;”[10] “O god, moving ahead, may I be in position to carry thee,”[11] he should stick the knot from the east towards the west.

15. After having placed it not directly on the ground, he should deposit the chips of the faggot markedly.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa III. 7.4.9-10.

[2]:

See II.12.3.

[3]:

See II.9.3.

[4]:

The source of this passage is not known.

[5]:

See II.9.6.

[6]:

See 11.12.3; III.4.6.

[7]:

See 1.4.4.

[8]:

Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra 1.6.1 prescribes these verses for the collecting of the faggot on the cord.

[9]:

Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa III. 7.4.9-10.

[10]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā 1.1.11.1. Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra 1.6.2 prescribes this formula for the tying.

[11]:

Taittirīya-āraṇyaka IV.33.

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