Verse 8.210

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

सर्वेषामर्धिनो मुख्यास्तदर्धेनार्धिनोऽपरे ।
तृतीयिनस्तृतीयांशाश्चतुर्थांशाश्च पादिनः ॥ २१० ॥

sarveṣāmardhino mukhyāstadardhenārdhino'pare |
tṛtīyinastṛtīyāṃśāścaturthāṃśāśca pādinaḥ || 210 ||

From among all, the chief men shall receive half; the next shall receive half of that; the ‘thirders’ the third part and the ‘fourthers’ the fourth part of it.—(210)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

From among the priests, ‘the chief ones receive half’; i.e., they receive half of the fee that is prescribed for the rite as a whole.

At the Soma-sacrifice there are sixteen priests; of these the chief ones are four: the Hotṛ, the Adhvaryu, the Brahman and the Udgātṛ, and these receive one half of the total fee;—the total fee being one hundred and twelve, fifty-six go to these four men.

Half of this, that is twenty-eight, go to the ‘next’; i.e., those four whose appointment comes after that of the four mentioned above; i.e., the Maitrāvaruṇa, the Pratiprasthātṛ, the Brāhmaṇācchaṃsin and the Prastotṛ.

The ‘thirders’ receive the ‘third part.’—The term ‘part’ here is synonymous with ‘half’; the term ‘half’ does not always stand for two equal divisions; it is used also in reference to what is very near such equal divisions; hence the ‘third part’ of ‘fifty-six’ is understood to be sixteen; so that each of these four gets four.

Some people take the ‘third part’ as such that of the total fee; when others take it as that of fifty-six.

The four ‘thirders’ are—the Acchāvāka, associated with the Hotṛ, the Neṣṭṛ connected with the Adhvaryu, the Agnīd with the Brahman, and the Pratihartṛ with the Udgātṛ.

The ‘Fourthers’—i.e., so called because they perform the fourth part of the rite, and also because they occupy the fourth place from the Maitrāvaruṇa— receive ‘the fourth part’—i.e., twelve—of the whole; this number being got at in the same manner as before.

This same method of distribution is to be employed also in the case of the rite of Initiation, where the fee is laid down as ‘a hundred’; where also the ‘halfers’ and ‘fourthers’ help in the performance.

The practice, that, we have found prescribed elsewhere we have described in connection with the present text also.—(210)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

The total fee being 112, the shares are 56, 28, 16, 12 (Medhātithi);—the total being 100, the shares are 48, 24, 16, 12 (Rāghavānanda, Nārāyaṇa and Kullūka); [Buhler wrongly puts the last figure as 8];—the total fee shall be divided into 25 shares and the several classes shall receive 12, 6, 4 and 3 respectively.

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 118), which adds the following notes:—At the Jyotiṣṭoma, 100 cows have been laid down as the fee for the 16 priests; and the present rule prescribes what part of it is to be given to which priest; the four ‘principal’ priests—e.g., the Hotṛ, Adhvaryu Brahman and Udgātṛ—are ‘ardhinaḥ’, entitled to one half; with a view to the total available, this ‘one half must be understood to be 48; so that 48 cows are to be given to the principal priests’;—the next class, consisting of the Maitrāvaruṇa, Pratiprasthātṛ, Brāhmaṇacchaṃsi and Prastotṛ are to receive half of the ‘half-sharers’, i.e., 24 cows have to be given to these;—the next class, consisting of the Acchāvāka, Neṣṭr, Agnīdhra and Pratihartṛ, are entitled to a third part of the ‘half-sharers’; so that they are to receive 16 cows;—the last class consisting of the Grāvastotṛ, Netṛ, Potṛ and Subrahmaṇya, are to receive a quarter of the ‘half-sharers’; so that these receive 12 cows.—This division, it adds, his based upon the text ‘ardhino dīkṣayati’ which actually names the priests ‘ardhinaḥ,’ ‘half-sharers’, and so forth.

It is quoted in Mitākṣarā (2.265), which lays down the same classification and division as the Vivādaratnākara. It raises the following question:—“This division cannot be acceptable, as we find neither any convention to the effect, nor is the fee of the nature of capital jointly raised, nor is there any Vedic text actually prescribing such shares. So that, under the circumstances, the most equitable division would be that every one should receive an equal share, according to the rule laid down in Mīmāṃsā-sūtra—‘Samam syāt aśrutatvāt’, ‘it must be equal, as nothing else has been directly prescribed’; or that each one should receive what is due to him in consideration of the work actually done by him.”—It answers this objection as follows:—Unless we accept the division suggested, we cannot account for the names ‘ardhinaḥ’ (half sharers), ‘Tṛtīyinaḥ’ (third sharers), and ‘Pādinaḥ’(quarter sharers), which we find in a text in connection with the Dvādaśāha sacrifice, which has the Jyotiṣṭoma for its archetype; these names would be meaningless if they were not taken as indicating the share of the priests in the sacrificial fee.

It is quoted in Aparārka (p. 837), which adds that though the first class of priests gets only 48, which is not quite half of 100, yet it is very close to it; hence they may be called ‘Half sharers’; it has the same division as in Mitākṣarā.

It is quoted in Smṛtitattva (p. 739);—and in Kṛtyakalpataru (90a), which adds the following explanation:—‘Sarveṣām’, among the sixteen priests engaged in the sarcrifice, out of the 100 cows, the prescribed sacrificial fee, one half is to go to the principal priests, viz., Hotṛ, Brāhmaṇa, Adhvaryu and Udgātṛ; even though they may receive a little less than the exact one half, they may be called ‘ardhinaḥ’, ‘Halfers’; the second set, consisting of the Maitrāvaruṇa, Brāhmaṇacchaṃsin, Pratiprasthātṛ and Prastotṛ, are entitled to half of what is received by the former set; the third set, consisting of the Acchāvāka, Agnīdhra, Neṣtṛ and Pratihartṛ, receive the third part of what is received by the first set;—and the fourth set, consisting of the Grāvastut, Netṛ, Unnetṛ and Subrahmaṇya, receive the fourth part of what is received by the first set.