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 14, Kaṇḍikā 22

l. The Adhvaryu should throw darbha-blades on the water, and pour out an āghāra-libation by means of the ladle with the verse, “The face of Agni has entered the water. Do thou, O Agni, the child of water, guarding against the demons’ power, offer a fire-stick in each house. Let thy tongue seek the clarified butter.”[1]

2. If there are already blades, he should pour out the libation on them.

3. He should make all offerings on the darbha-blades themselves.

4. The procedure up to the choosing of the Hotṛ should be similar.[2]

5. He should cause the Āgnīdhra to announce and (after the latter has responded,) say, “O Hotṛ, do you stand.” This much should be the choosing of the Hotṛ.

6. He should neither choose the Ṛṣi-ancestors of the sacrificer nor the Hotṛ.

7. He should offer four Prayāja offerings except the one to Barhis.

8. After having offered the two Ājyabhāgas, he should take out a portion of the cake and offer it to Varuṇa.

9. He should take up the entire cake and offer it to sviṣṭakṛt Agni-Varuṇa.

10. Then be should call out, “O Āgnīdhra, do thou cleanse the water once.”

11. The Āgnīdhra should cleanse only the water once. He should cleanse the water with the formula, “Water is winner of treasure; I cleanse the water which has hastened to treasure, which has woo treasure, which possesses treasure, and which consumes food, for the winning of the treasure of one who wins treasure, and for food.”[3]

12. The Adhvaryu should offer two Anūyājas except the one to Barhis.

13. He should give out the call (to, the Hotṛ), “Do you recite the yājyā relating to the offering for the Devas in connection with the first Anū-yāja;” “Do you recite the yājyā in connection with the second.”

14. He should fill in the ladle with the sediment of Soma, and strike the ladle into the water with the verse, “Thy heart is in the ocean, within the water; let the plants and water enter thee. O lord of sacrifice, let us worship thee with the offerings of the sacrifice, at the utterance of the hymn, at the utteṛance of the homage.”[4]

15. Wherever any drop of Soma comes up, he should cat it up with the formula, “O god Soma, I, invited, eat of thee....”[5]

16. According to some teachers, he should only touch it.

17. He should scatter the water with the verse, “O bath, O flood, thou glidest, O flood. Thou hast removed by sacrifice the sin committed by the gods through the gods; the sin committed by mortals through the mortals. Guard us, O god, from wide hostility.”[6]

18. The sacrificer and his wife should enter the water, and bathe without plunging, but sprinkling their heads with water.

19. With the formula, “May the water and the plants be good friends of ours. May they be the enemy of one who hates us and whom we hate,”[7] they should cleanse each other’s back.

Footnotes and references:

[2]:

II.15.8.

[3]:

cf.III.48.

[4]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.4.45.2.

[5]:

XIV.19.3.

[6]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.4.45.2. According to Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra XIII.19.10, the Adhvaryu should offer an oblation of clarified butter on the Āhavanīya fire with the verse while proceeding to the Avabhṛtha.

[7]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.4.45.2.

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