Skandapurana 5.201

Viśvāmitra said: / Having heard that, all the brahmins bowed in humility, / and filled with curiosity, O best of men, questioned him:

“How is a decision of an arbiter given by the best among brahmins / by means of Vedic speech, abandoning human speech? / Why should three claps of the hands be given by the high-souled arbiter? / Tell us all this, for our curiosity is indeed great.”

Hearing that, Bhartṛyajña said to those best of brahmins: / “Listen, I will tell the reason for this.

The speech of the Nāgaras situated in the Vedic assembly never becomes false, / whether [it indicates] auspiciousness or inauspiciousness.

Therefore, through the utterances of the Veda, the best of brahmins point out / favorable or unfavorable [outcomes] to the inquirer who is seeking an answer.

The arbiter should then present the question and its omen again and again / to those brahmins, until the final determination is reached.

If the word of those seated in the Vedic assembly were to become futile, / their greatness would be destroyed, and thence anger would arise.

From anger hostility arises; from hostility comes association with sin. / For this reason, O brahmins, the arbiter asks repeatedly.

And when consensus among all is achieved, / then the arbiter gives three claps of the hands.

With the first of them, he destroys the desire of the questioners; / with the second, he destroys anger; with the third, he destroys greed.

For this reason, O brahmins, three claps must be given by him.”

The brahmins said: / “The Ātharvaṇa is renowned as the fourth brahmin. / Why has his question been proclaimed as first among the Nāgaras?”

Bhartṛyajña said: / “Since the Ātharvaṇa question was declared first by me, O brahmins, / I will explain that; listen attentively.

Jealousy, which destroys one’s own place, must not be harbored here; / this was properly ascertained by me for the purity of the occupant of the place.

Sacrifices such as the Agniṣṭoma, known by the names of Ṛg, Yajus, and Sāman, / promote otherworldly welfare; they are neither worldly nor meant for magical rites.

And in the Atharvaveda, all magical rites are proclaimed / by Brahmā, the maker of the world, for the benefit of all worlds.

The Atharvaveda must be consulted first for the accomplishment of worldly affairs. / For this reason, though being the fourth, it stands as the first.

All this has been related to you as I was asked, O best of brahmins; / everything arising from this inquiry must always be carried out as one.”

Thus ends the two hundred and second chapter, entitled “Description of the Determination of Words by Bhartṛyajña,” in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Skandapurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand verses, in the section on the greatness of the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara.