Verse 8.209

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

रथं हरेत् चाध्वर्युर्ब्रह्माऽधाने च वाजिनम् ।
होता वाऽपि हरेदश्वमुद्गाता चाप्यनः क्रये ॥ २०९ ॥

rathaṃ haret cādhvaryurbrahmā'dhāne ca vājinam |
hotā vā'pi haredaśvamudgātā cāpyanaḥ kraye || 209 ||

At Fire-laying, the Adhvaryu shall take the chariot, and the Brahman the horse; or the Hotṛ shall take the house: and the Udgātṛ shall take the cart at the Soma-purchase.—(209)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

At the rite of Fire-laying the Adhvaryu shall take the chariot; and the Brahman or the Hotṛ shall take the swift horse.

In certain rescensional texts, these form the ‘sacrificial fee’ for the rite of Fire-laying.

At, the rite of ‘Soma-purchase,’ there is a cart, which is to be taken by the Udgātṛ. To this cart one calf is yoked, and another unyoked: and it is on this cart that the purchased Soma is carried. Others hold that the rites laid down in connection with the ‘purchase of Soma’ have some transcendental purpose, and their use does not lie only in the obtaining of the Soma; because there is no new character produced in the Soma by its being purchased in the peculiar manner prescribed.

This verse has described how the fees prescribed in connection with the subsidiary details are to be distributed among the several persons concerned; the next verse is going to describe the rule concerning the distribution of the sacrificial fee prescribed in connection with all rites in general.—(209)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 120), which adds the following notes:—For the followers of certain recensions it is laid down in connection with the fire-kindling rites that the Adhvaryu is to receive the chariot the Brāhmaṇa priest a swift horse, the Udgātṛ priest, the cart in which the Soma is carried.—‘Kraye’ means at the purchase of Soma.—Hence the answer to the question raised in the preceding verse is that the special fee prescribed for a particular priest is to be given to that priest only; as it is only thus that the ‘giving’ would be done in its real sense; the mention of the priests in the texts prescribing the fees could not but be for this perceptible purpose; while in any other case such naming would have to be taken only as serving some transcendental purpose.

This verse is quoted also in Parāśaramādhava, (Vyavahāra, p. 221), to the effect that it is only the general fee prescribed in connection with the performance as a whole that it is to be divided among the priests,—not so the special fee prescribed in connection with a particular priest, who alone is to receive this latter fee;—and in Kṛtyakalpataru (90a), which says that this answers the question raised in the preceding verse, the answer being that wherever the texts prescribe a certain article as to be given to a particular person, it has to be given to that person only.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Viṣṇu (Vivādaratnākara, p. 120).—(Same as Manu).

Bṛhaspati (Aparārka, p. 837).—(Same as Manu).