History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c48.217

v3.c48.217

The hotṛ unties the yoktra (the girdle) of the wife with ‘I release thee from the fetter of Varuṇa &c.’ (Ṛg. X. 85. 24).²⁴¹⁵ The wife lays aside the yoktra and the adhvaryu makes her recite ‘here do I unloosen the fetters of Varuṇa &c.’ (Tai. S. I. 1. 10. 2). The hotṛ winds round the yoktra twofold, places it to the west of the gārhapatya fire with its loop and end to the east, keeps over it the blades of the veda with their points to the north and lays down a pūrṇapātra²⁴¹⁶ (a vessel filled with water) to the east of the blades but touching them. The hotṛ touches that vessel and makes the wife who touches it repeat a mantra 'thou art full &c.' (Tai. S. I. 6. 5. 1). The hotṛ sprinkles water from the pūrṇapātra in all directions and makes the wife, who also sprinkles water from it in all directions, repeat 'Let the gods and the priests purify (or wipe) in the eastern direction &c.' (Tai. S. I. 6. 5. 1-2, quoted in Āśv. I. 11. 7). The hotṛ places into the joined hands of the sacrificer's wife with the palm upwards the yoktra, and places his left hand with palm turned upwards on the wife's folded hands (but in modern practice the hotṛ does not hold his hand over the wife's) and pours down the water from the pūrṇapātra on the hands (his and the wife's) and makes her repeat 'May I not throw away progeny &c.' (Āśv. I. 11. 8). The hotṛ holds by his right hand the tops of the blades of the veda bunch (the binding cord of which has already been unloosened), proceeds from the gārhapatya to the āhavanīya, repeats Ṛg. X. 53. 6 (tantum tanvan &c.) and without shaking them, strews continuously some of them from the gārhapatya to the āhavanīya. The rest of the blades the hotṛ lays down and, standing to the north-east of the āhavanīya, takes ājya from the pot of ājya (ājyasthālī) in the sruva and offers with svāhā at the end of the mantras oblations of ājya, which are called 'sarvaprāyaścitta' (expiation for all lapses). The mantras are given below.²⁴¹⁷ Having made the oblations the hotṛ pays homage with the 'saṁsthājapa (lit. the prayer muttered on completion)'²⁴¹⁸ and goes out of the sacrificial ground by the way called tīrtha (vide above p. 984).