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 8, Kaṇḍikā 14

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1. The Adhvaryu should start the procedure of the Kraiḍina Iṣṭi.

2. In the latter half of the night the calf of the Agnihotra-cow and the calf fed by another cow should be tethered.

3. Before the offering of the morning Agnihotra,^[1] the Pūrṇadarvya should be offered.

4. The Adhvaryu should spread clarified butter as base into a darvī-ladle, fill in that ladle with the crust and the scraping (already preserved)^[2], and put on it the scrapings of the scooping ladle.

5. After having poured clarified butter on the oblation, he should offer it on the Gārhapatya fire.

6. After having gone over the verse, “O ladle, filled, do thou fly away. Well filled, do thou fly back. Let us exchange, as if, our possessions O hundred-powered (Indra); (do thou grant me) food and strength,”^[3] he should make the offering with the next verse; “Do thou give me; I shall give thee. Do thou bestow upon me; I shall bestow upon thee. Do thou accept my offering; I shall accept thy grant.”^[3]

7. He should call out a bull, and make the offering while the bull is bellowing.

8. If the bull does not bellow, the Brahman should say, “Do you offer.”

9. The sacrificer should give away to the Brahman the bull at whose bellowing the offering was made.

10. The Adhvaryu should pour out paddy for a cake on seven potsherds to krīḍin Maruts when the sun is rising.

11. According to some teachers, the offering should be made when the rays of the sun have become visible.

12. The Iṣṭi should come to an end in the prescribed manner.

13. At sun-rise the Adhvaryu should cause the cow suckling an adopted calf to be milked, and pour out paddy for a cake on seven potsherds to svatavant Maruts.

14. The Iṣṭi should be concluded in the prescribed manner.

15. The Adhvaryu should start the rite of Mahāhavis.

16. Its procedure has been explained by the Varuṇapraghāsaparvan except the Avabhṛtha.^[4]