Kanda I, adhyaya 3, brahmana 5

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

THE KINDLING OF THE FIRE, THE PRAVARA, AND THE TWO LIBATIONS (ĀGHĀRA) OF BUTTER.

1. With the fire-wood (idhma, lighting material) the Adhvaryu lights (indh) the fire: hence it is called fire-wood. And with the kindling verses (sāmidhenī) the Hotṛ kindles (sam-indh, to make blaze): hence they are called kindling verses.

2. He (the Adhvaryu^[1]) says (to the Hotṛ): 'Recite to the fire as it is being kindled!' for it is to the fire, when it is being kindled, that he recites.

3. Here now some people say, 'O Hotar, recite to the fire as it is being kindled!' But let him not say so; for that (priest) is not a Hotṛ as yet; only when he (the sacrificer) elects him^[2], does he become a Hotṛ. Let him therefore say, 'Recite to the fire as it is being kindled!'

4. He recites (verses) addressed to Agni: he accordingly kindles it (the fire) with the aid of its own deity. In the gāyatrī metre (are the verses which) he recites; for the gāyatrī is Agni's metre: by means of its own metre he thereby kindles it. The gāyatrī is vigour, the gāyatrī is the brahman^[3] (the priestly order): with vigour he thereby kindles it.

5. Eleven (verses) he recites; for of eleven syllables consists the triṣṭubh metre. The gāyatrī is the brahman and the triṣṭubh is the kṣatra (or military order)^[4]. With the aid of these two energies he thus kindles it: for this reason he recites eleven (verses).

6. Thrice he recites the first verse, and thrice the last one; for of threefold beginning are sacrifices, and of threefold termination: therefore he recites thrice the first and the last (verses).

7. Fifteen sāmidhenī verses result (from this repetition of the first and last of the eleven verses). The fifteen-versed chant^[5], doubtless, is the thunderbolt, and the thunderbolt means strength; so that he thereby converts the sāmidhenīs into strength: hence, if he should hate any one, he may crush him with his great toes^[6] at the time when those (verses) are recited. By saying, 'I here crush so and so!' he crushes him with that thunderbolt.

8. Fifteen nights indeed there are in a half-moon; and growing by half-moons the year passes: hence he thereby obtains the nights.

9. Now in the fifteen gāyatrī verses there are indeed three hundred and sixty syllables^[7]; and three hundred and sixty days there are in a year: hence he thereby obtains the days, he thereby obtains the year.

10. For an iṣṭi (which is performed in order to obtain the fulfilment of a special wish)^[8] let him recite seventeen sāmidhenī verses; for in a low voice he sacrifices to the deity to which he offers an iṣṭi.

Twelve months, namely, there are in a year, and five seasons^[9]: this (makes) the seventeenfold Prajāpati. For verily Prajāpati is all: hence for what wish he performs the iṣṭi, that wish he thus accomplishes by means of the All. In a low voice he sacrifices to the deity; for what is spoken in a low voice is undefined (indistinct), and undefined is the 'All:' hence for whatever wish he performs the iṣṭi, that wish he thus accomplishes by means of the All. This is the practice in regard to an iṣṭi.

11. Some people say: 'Let him recite twenty-one sāmidhenī verses also at the full- and new-moon sacrifice.' Twelve, doubtless, are the months of the year, five the seasons, and three these worlds: this (makes) twenty; and the twenty-first is this very (sun) that here shines: he is the resort, he the stay; thereby he (the sacrificer) obtains this resort, this stay. He may therefore recite twenty-one.

12. Let him recite them only for one of established prosperity (gataśrī), who would not wish to become either better or worse. For, what he for whom they recite is like, like that he will either be or worse^[10], for whom, that knows this, they recite those (twenty-one verses). This, however, is mere speculation, for those (twenty-one verses) are not recited^[11].

13. Thrice he should recite the first and thrice the last (verse), without drawing breath; for three are these worlds, so that he thereby spreads (san-tan) these worlds, gains these worlds. Also three breaths there are in man: this recitation thereby causes him (the sacrificer) to be extended (santata), not cut short (by death).

14. He (the Hotṛ) should endeavour to recite this (uninterruptedly) as long as his strength lasts. If, on the other hand, he were to take breath in the middle (of the verse), it would be a slight on this very (sacrifice)^[12]: by reciting this (holy) composition without taking breath, that slight will be avoided.

15. If, however, he do not care to undertake this, he may also recite one (verse) at a time without drawing breath: he thereby spreads those worlds one by one, gains those worlds one by one. The reason why he takes breath, is that the gāyatrī is indeed breath; and that by reciting a complete gāyatrī verse, he accordingly bestows complete breathing (on the sacrificer): let him therefore recite one (verse) at a time without breathing.

16. He recites them in a continuous, uninterrupted way: thereby he makes the days and nights of the year continuous, and in a continuous, uninterrupted way revolve those days and nights of the year. And in this way he gives no access to the spiteful enemy; but access he would indeed give, if he were to recite them discontinuously: he therefore recites in a continuous, uninterrupted way.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The Adhvaryu, in the first place, prepares a seat for the Hotṛ, either west of the altar or north of its left hip; and covers it with dry Kuśa grass. [He then calls, 'O Hotṛ, come!'] The Hotṛ; having rinsed his mouth north-east of the Āhavanīya, with his face to the east, turns round from left to right and betakes himself to the sacrificial ground, always keeping his right foot before the left. He finally takes up his position so as to have the heel of the right foot in a line with the north hip of the altar, and the toes on the barhis; whilst he keeps the hands on a level with the heart, spread open and joined together, and looks towards the junction of the earth and sky. The Adhvaryu then takes a samidh (kindling-stick) and calls on him as above. The Hotṛ now mutters the formulas 'Adoration to the teacher! Adoration to the observer! Adoration to the promulgator!' &c. (Āśv. Śrautas I, 2, 1). The sacrificer then takes the wooden sword and says, 'Recite for me, as it were, stretching along (i.e. continuously)!' whereupon the Hotṛ; having asked and received the permission of the Brahman, proceeds to recite the kindling verses. Kāty. III, 1, 1 seq.; Āśv. I, 1, 4 seq.

[2]:

This does not take place until the pravara or invitation addressed to Agni, the Hotṛ of the gods, to assist in calling the p. 96 gods to the sacrifice, cf. Sāyaṇa and Śat. Br. I, 5, 1, 1 seq. According to some authorities, however, the choosing of the Hotṛ seems to take place at this particular time, or even before, at the time of the agnyanvādhāna; cf. Hillebrandt, p. 73.

[3]:

The gāyatrī (though it is not the most frequent metre) is considered as the first, as it is the shortest, of Vedic metres. The hymns addressed to Agni are mostly in the gāyatrī metre.

[4]:

The hymns celebrating the heroic deeds of Indra and his associates, the wind-gods, are almost entirely composed in the triṣṭubh, the most frequent of Vedic metres.

[5]:

The pañcadaśa-stoma, or form of recitation in fifteen verses at the Soma-sacrifice, is sacred to Indra (Nirukta 7, 10), the wielder of the thunderbolt.

[6]:

Or, with his thumbs (aṅguṣṭhābhyām). The Kāṇva text has 'pādyābhyām aṅguṣṭhābhyām;' but Kāty. III, 1, 7 has 'aṅguṣṭhābhyāṃ pādyābhyāṃ vā,' which would seem to leave a choice between the thumbs and the great toes; the commentator, however, takes vā in a restrictive sense. The sacrificer is to press down the earth with his great toes (or thumbs) each time when a kindling verse is recited.

[7]:

The gāyatrī verse consists of three times eight syllables, and 24 × 15 = 360. In the place of the last sāmidhenī (called paridhānīyā), however, the Vāsiṣṭhas have a triṣṭubh stanza (4 × 11 syllables), so that the above computation of syllables does not hold good in their case. One might be inclined to infer from this that the triṣṭubh was the more original, a gāyatrī being substituted later to yield the above symbolical number of syllables. Cf. Taitt. S. II, 5, 7 seq.; Taitt. Br. III, 5, 3.

[8]:

The kāmyeṣṭis, and iṣṭis generally, are performed with certain modifications, on the model of the new- and full-moon sacrifice, of which they are therefore said to be vikṛtis or modifications.

[9]:

In other passages, and in later times generally, six seasons, comprising two months each, are counted, but the transitional season between winter and spring, śiśira, is not unfrequently, as in our passage, combined with the winter season (hemanta), or partially with that and the spring (vasanta). On the identification of Prajāpati with the year, cf. note on I, 2, 5, 12.

[10]:

The condition of one who is gataśrī cannot be improved, but only impaired. The construction of this paragraph is somewhat doubtful to me. It runs thus: Tā haitā gataśrer evānubrūyād ya icchen na śreyānt syām na pāpīyān iti yādṛśāya haiva sate ’nvāhus tādṛn vā haiva bhavati pāpīyān vā yasyaivaṃ viduṣa etā p. 99 anvāhuḥ so eṣā mīmāṃsaiva na tv evaitā anūcyante. Sāyaṇa seems to take it thus:--'He should recite them only for a gataśrī. A householder who desires neither an improvement nor a lowering of his position, is just such a one for whom the Hotṛs recite the sāmidhenīs in the appointed (niyatena) way. Further, for whomsoever, that thus knows the irregular (? aniyata, not regulated) way of recitation, they recite those twenty-one sāmidhenīs, he becomes either worse or better. What is set forth in the words from "A householder who desires neither an improvement" &c. is mere speculation; the recitation is not to be performed in this way.' The corresponding paragraph of the Kāṇva recension is much briefer and clearer:--Tad etad gataśrīr eva kurvīta na ha śreyān na pāpīyān bhavati yasyaivam anvāhuḥ saiṣā mīmāṃsaiva na tv anūcyante, 'only a gataśrī, however, should do this; for neither better nor worse becomes he for whom they recite thus. This is indeed speculation, but they (the twenty-one sāmidhenīs) are not recited.'

[11]:

In the Taitt. S. II, 5, 10, the number of verses (effected by the repetition) is given as varying, according to the special object in view, between fifteen and forty-eight.

[12]:

? Or, it would be an act of neglect on his, the sacrificer's, part: by (the Hotṛ) reciting without fetching breath, that act, that neglect would be avoided.