History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c48.162.1

v3.c48.162.1

The adhvaryu comes back to the north of the vedi from the spot where he offered to Sviṣṭakṛt, fills the juhū with water and pours it round the paridhis (or their places) beginning from the middle one and proceeding from left to right with ‘I offer this offering into Vaiśvānara, it is a spring with a hundred or a thousand streams. May he support in this that is being filled, my father, grandfather and great-grandfather’ (Tai. Ā. VI. 6) and then touches water. The sacrificer makes the tyāga with ‘this is for (my) father &c.’ and then touches water. The adhvaryu lays down the two srucs in their proper places. Then he tears the surface (or top) of the puroḍāśa meant for Agni from west to east, inserts his thumb and the anāmikā (ring-finger) and takes out from inside the cake a portion which is as much as a barley grain or the pippala²³⁸¹ berry with ‘let this be cut off, somewhat bigger than a barley grain or than the wound made by an arrow. May we not injure this holy and well-offered *havis* of the sacrifice’ (Tai. Br. III. 7. 5). He takes off a portion from the other puroḍāśa also in the same way but without piercing the top. These portions are called prāśitra. The brahmā priest looks at the prāśitra when it is being taken out with ‘I look at thee with the eye of Mitra’ (Āśv. I. 13. 1).