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 6, Kaṇḍikā 4

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1. Some teachers prescribe the praying only with the formula, “May I be able to maintain you.”

2. Others, only with the formula, “May I be able to maintain you; may my faith not cease.”

3. Still others, only with the vātsapra hymn.^[1]

4. According to some teachers, he should pray only with the māhitra triad of verses, “May there be great heavenly and invulnerable aid of the three—Mitra, Aryaman and Varuṇa.—The wicked enemy overrules them (= the Ādityas) neither in the house nor in the dangerous ways.—Those sons of Aditi give to the pious one incessant refuge and treasures.”.^[2]

5. The above-mentioned prayers to the sacred fires should be recited by the sacrificer even though he has gone out on a journey.

6. This much is different: The Adhvaryu should perform such of his rites as are to be performed through touching.

7. The sacrificer should murmur the relevant mantras at the proper time facing that direction.^[3]

8. When the sacrificer is going out on a journey, he should say (to the attendant), “Do thou flare up the fires.”

9. When the fires are illuminating, he should pray to them with the virājakrama verses as at the setting up of the sacred fires.^[4]

10. He should put a fire-stick on the Āhavanīya fire with the verse, “O jātavedas, do you bear, until I return, the name which first my father and mother bestowed upon me; O Agni, may I bear thy name.”^[5]

11. Standing between the two fires, he should murmur the verse, “O Mitra-Varuṇa, do you guard this our hduse. May Pūṣan guard it uninjured and unbroken until we return.”