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 9, Kaṇḍikā 5
1. If one does not get darbha-blades, he should make the offering into water.[1]
2. He should, however, not censure water: this is consumable, this is not consumable. So says Āśmarathya. He should accept water during that year even from one at whose house he would not ordinarily take food.. So says Ālekhana.[2]
3. According to some teachers, he should, however, not wash his feet with water.[3]
4. After one year,[4] he should offer a cake on eight potsherds to vratapati Agni.
5. The Iṣṭi should come to an end in the prescribed manner.
6. If the sacred fires of one, who has set them up, come in contact with other fires, or if they come into one another’s contact, he should offer a cake on eight potsherds to vivici Agni.[5]
7. Then he should offer[6] to vratapati (Agni).
8. The Iṣṭi should come to an end in the prescribed manner.
9. If the sacred fire of one, who has set up the sacred fires, burns out his house, he should offer a cake on eight potsherds to kṣāmavant Agni.[7]
10. Then (he should offer a cake on eight potsherds) to vratapati (Agni).[8]
11. The Iṣṭi should come to an end in the prescribed manner.
12. If the sacred fires come into contact with the house-burning fire, one should offer to vivici (Agni)[9] and śuci (Agni).
13. Then to vratapati (Agni).[10]
14. The Iṣṭi should come to an end in the prescribed manner.
15. If the sacred fires come into contact with the lightning, one should offer a cake on eight potsherds to apsumant Agni.[11]
16. Then to vratapati (Agni).[12]
17. The Iṣṭi should come to an end in the prescribed manner.
18. If the sacred fires come into contact with the funeral fire,[13] or with the puerperal fire, one should offer a cake on eight potsherds to saṃkusuka Agni.
19. Then to vratapati (Agni).[14]
20. The Iṣṭi should come to an end in the prescribed manner.
21. If all the contingencies occur simultaneously, one should perform the Kṣāmavatī Iṣṭi[15] at the end.
22. If the Agnihotra-vessel leaks out, one should recite over it the verse “Agni, Indra, Tvaṣṭṛ and Bṛhaspati have made the flowing embryo flawless. It has dropped on the ground; let it not meet with Nirṛti yonder.”[16]
23. He should pour water upon the leaked out milk.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
= Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.3.11.
[2]:
[3]:
= Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.3.14. These vows should be observed for one year according to Āśmarathya; according to Ālekhana, they should be observed for ever. cf. Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.3.15.
[4]:
The sūtra reads saṃvatsarāt. Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.3.16 reads saṃvatsarasya parastāt.
[5]:
= Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.3.18.
[6]:
A cake on eight potsherds. This injunction is not found in Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra.
[7]:
Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.3.17 prescribes this sacrifice also in case the old and young die successively.
[8]:
Not in Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra.
[9]:
The offering to vivici Agni is not necessary according to Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.3.22.
[10]:
Not in Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra.
[11]:
= Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.3.22.
[12]:
Not in Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra.
[13]:
For this contingency Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.3.22 prescribes an offering to śuci Agni.
[14]:
Not in Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra.
[15]:
= Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.3.23.
[16]:
Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa III.7.3.6. According to Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra IX.4.1, one should further restore it with the verse, vidhuṃ dadrāṇam....