History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c23.104

v2.c23.104

The brahmā is the only priest (out of the four ṛtviks) in sacrifices that are offered in one fire (the gṛhya fire) and are called *pākayajñas* and the yajamāna (sacrificer) is himself the hotṛ priest.⁴⁸⁶ The order of the several parts in the homa is as follows:⁴⁸⁷ upalepana (smearing with cowdung), arranging of sthaṇḍila with sand or earth; drawing lines on the sthaṇḍila with a *samidh* (fuel stick), keeping the *samidh* on the lines with its end towards the east, sprinkling sthaṇḍila with water on its north or east, keeping the samidh (with which lines were drawn) outside the sthaṇḍila towards the north-east, then ācamana (by the sacrificer), then placing fire (either produced by attrition or brought from the house of a śrotriya or the ordinary one) on the sthaṇḍila facing the performer, placing two or three samidhs on the fire, keeping ready of idhma (15 samidhs) and a bunch of darbha grass. Then parisamūhana (wiping the ground round the fire from north-east with the hand that has water in it), then paristaraṇa (strewing darbha grass round the altar first to the east, then to the south, then to the west and lastly to the north), then silent paryukṣaṇa (sprinkling of water thrice round the fire, each time taking water in the hand separately ), then apaḥ-praṇayana ( carrying forward the water to the north of the fire ) in a vessel of bell-metal or earthenware, then ājyotpavana ( purification of the clarified butter with two kuśa blades as strainers⁴⁸⁸ thrice, once with mantra and twice silently ), the two āghāras and the two oblations of ājya. Then the principal oblations as directed in the various sūtras, then finally an oblation to Agni Sviṣṭakṛt. The method of offering an oblation is to repeat the mantra preceded by om and to add svāhā at the end, to put the āhuti ( oblation ) on fire and to say ' this is for such and such a god and not mine '.⁴⁸⁹