History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c47.14

v3.c47.14

The original worship of fire may have been individualistic as well as communal or tribal. The daily agnihotra was an individual affair; but as even simple iṣṭis like darśapūrṇamāsa required four priests, and Soma sacrifices required 16 priests and costly preparations, these sacrifices partook more or less of a public or at least congregational character. It appears that as most brāhmaṇas were poor and could not carry on even the daily agnihotra, which pinned them down practically to one place and did not allow them to move out of the village for securing their livelihood, even agnihotra must have been comparatively rare in early times. Such Vedic sentences as ‘one who has begot a son or sons and whose hair is still black should consecrate the Vedic fires’ (quoted by Śabara on Jaimini I. 3. 3 and cited on p. 350 above) establish that agnyādhāna was advised for brāhmaṇas when they had reached middle age (and not before). The daily agnihotra required the maintenance of at least two cows, besides thousands of cow-dung cakes and fuel-sticks. For the maintenance of agnihotra and the performance of darśapūrṇamāsa (in which four priests were employed) and the Cāturmāsyas (where five priests were required) the house-holder was required to be well-to-do. And the Soma sacrifices could be performed only by kings, nobles and the rich and by those who could collect large subscriptions. We find that kings while making grants often expressed that the object of the grants was to enable the brāhmaṇa donees to offer *bali*, and *caru* and to perform agnihotra. For example, in the Sarsavni plates of Buddharāja dated in Kaṭaccuri *saṁ.* 361 i. e. 609-10 A. D. the grant is made for *bali*, *caru* and agnihotra and in the Damodarpur plates (dated 443-44 and 447-48 A. D.) the grants are made for agnihotra and for the performance of the five daily yajñas.²²²⁷ During the centuries of Moslem domination no help from royalty could be expected and so the institution of Vedic sacrifices languished. In the last hundred years or so, solemn Vedic sacrifices have been performed only rarely. But, since many of the gṛhya ceremonies as set forth in the gṛhya sūtras closely imitate the procedure of the Vedic fire cult and Vedic sacrifices formed the first and foremost manifestation of the sentiments of faith and worship in India, a work dealing with Dharmaśāstra cannot be said to have dealt with its subject completely and adequately if the treatment of Vedic sacrifices were left out altogether, the following bare outline is presented here, the more so as sacrifices were the first *dharmas* according to Ṛg. X. 90. 16.