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 7
1. We shall explain the Agnihotra-offering.
2. The sacrificer should give out a call in the evening with the words, “Do thou draw out the Āhavanīya fire.” In the morning (also he should give out a call with the words), “Do thou draw out the Āhava-nīya fire.”
3. The Adhvaryu or a Brahmacārin or a Kṣīrahotṛ[1] should take up a fire-stirring stick with the formula, “Thou art a fire-stirring stick; do thou support the divine prayer,”[2] and recite over the Gārhapatya fire the verse, “O Agni, possessing the good Gārhapatya...”[3]
4. Then he should open that fire with the verse, “O Agni, do thou wake up and wake him up. May the offerings and gifts be united with him. May Viśve Devas and thou the sacrificer, sit down in this higher abode.”[4]
5. Before the appearance of shadow, he should draw out from the Gārhapatya fire the flaring Āhavanīya fire with the formula, “I draw thee out with speech as the Hotṛ, Prāṇa as the Udgātṛ, the eye as the Adhvaryu, the mind as the Brahman, the ear as the Āgnīdhra—with these five officiating priests.”
6. While the fire is being drawn out, the sacrificer should murmur, in the evening, the formula, “O Agni, being drawn out, do thou draw me out of the sin which I might have perpetrated knowingly or unknowingly. Whatever sin I have committed by day, do thou, drawn out, relieve me of all that,” and in the morning the formula, whatever sin I have committed by night, do thou, drawn out, relieve me of all that.”
7. He should place the fire into the Āhavanīya fire-place with the verse, “I offer the oblation of ambrosia into the ambrosia, the fire into the earth, for the winning of immortality. May I win the unending desire through it which Prajāpati won first.” (To this he should add), “Agni into Agni, svāhā,” in the evening, and “Sūrya into Agni, svāhā,” in the morning.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
The word “Kṣīrahotṛ” has been variously explained by Dhūrtasvāmin and Rudradatta in their commentaries on Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra VI.15.16: One whom the cow milked out for the first Agnihotra-offering is given away, or one who receives as remuneration the quantity of milk remaining after the Agnihotra-offering or any other kind of wealth, or one who has been selected as the Agnihotra-offer at the setting up of the sacred fires.
[2]:
Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.I.7.I.
[4]:
Taittirīya-saṃhitā IV.7.13.5.