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 3, Kaṇḍikā 18

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1. He should touch his navel with the formula, “Do thou not be mixed up with my food. Do thou be seated above the navel. I place thee within the belly of Indra.”

2. He should touch the respective sense-organs with the formulas, “Speech in my mouth, breathing in the nostrils, the vision in the eyes, the faculty of hearing in the ears, strength in the arms, vigour in the thighs; may all my limbs be uninjured; may thy body be with my body; obeisance to thee; do thou not injure me.”^[1]

3. He should wash the vessel with water, fill it and pour down towards the east with the formula, “Quicken the quarters.”

4. He should again fill it with water, and pour down towards himself with the formula, “Quicken me.”

5. After the Adhvaryu has carried towards him the Brahman’s portion,^[2] the Brahman should not consume it before the end of the sacrifice.

6. Whatever earthenware is broken in the sacrifice, he should touch it with the verse, “The earth has gone to earth, the mother has gone to mother. May we be possessed of sons and cattle. Let him be broken who hates us.”^[3]

7. With the formula, “O Brahman, thou art the Brahman; to Brahman thee; do thou, who hast not been offered, not injure me. Do thou who hast not been offered, become auspicious to me,” he should touch the anvāhārya cooked rice placed within the altar.

8. When the Adhvaryu calls upon him with the words, “O Brahman, we shall start,”^[4] he should utter hiṃ and impel him with the formula, “O god Savitṛ, he has declared that to thee; that do thou impel and offer. The Brahman is Bṛhaspati.^[5] Do thou protect the sacrifice; do thou protect the lord of sacrifice; do thou protect me.^[6] Om, do you start.”

9. He should sit here only until the end of the sacrifice.

10. After the sacrifice is over,^[7] he should move away by the same way by which he had entered, and put a fire-stick on the Āhavanīya fire with the formula, “Obeisance to the rite which has been performed; obeisance to the rite which has not been performed, svāhā.”