Jaiminīya (Talavakāra) Brāhmaṇa 1.52

1.52

Regarding this some go scattering handfuls of roof-thatch from the Gārhapatya to the Āhavanīya with this verse: ‘Through this Viṣṇu stepped.’ But he should not do it that way. If someone there were to say: ‘He has scattered [thatch] on the face of the sacrificer; soon someone will scatter [thatch] on his face when he is dead; he will shut out the household headship,’ it would indeed happen so. He should do it in this way only: Taking a water-pot or a water-jug, he should go pouring out water from the Gārhapatya to the Āhavanīya with this very verse: ‘Through this Viṣṇu stepped.’ This which is the verse is a divine purifier, and this which is water is a divine purifier. Whatever unappeased, whatever impure part of the sacrifice is here, water is the pacification of all that. They pacify it with water alone.