History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c48.98

v3.c48.98

With the ends of the blades cut off in making the veda bunch he (the āgnīdhra or adhvaryu himself) wipes the sruva and the three ladles viz. juhū, upabhṛt and dhruvā), invokes them with 'you are not sharpened (and yet) you destroy our enemies.' He takes up the sruva and the sruc ladles with 'Agni summons you, who are filled with butter, for the worship of the gods,’ heats them on the āhavanīya or gārhapatya with ‘burnt is the evil spirit, burnt are the enemies, I heat you with the very dazzling light of Agni.’ He cleans the sruva, the bowl by rubbing its inside several times and its outside on all sides once with the tips²³³⁸ (of the vedaparivāsanāni) and its rod with the roots (of the portions of the cut blades) with ‘May I not brush the place of cows! I clean thee that art strong (or possessed of food) and that subduest enemies’ (Tai. S. I. 1. 10. 1). He cleans the juhū ladle, the bowl by rubbing its inside several times from west to east with the tips (of the cut portions), its outside from east to west with the middle portions and its rod with the roots with ‘may I not brush out speech and life-breath, I clean thee &c.’ He cleans the upabhṛt, the inside from east to west (as for sruva), the outside from west to east with the middle portions and the rod with the roots with ‘may I not rub out the eye and the ear, I clean thee &c.’ He cleans the dhruvā ladle as he did the sruva, with the difference that the mantra is ‘may I not rub out progeny and home &c.’ He does not allow a cleaned vessel to come in contact with one that is not cleaned, but if they are brought in contact he again heats the vessel (already cleaned) and cleans it again. He takes up the vessel called prāśitraharaṇa,²³³⁹ heats it on the fire (but without mantras) and cleans it, the bowl with the tips (of cut blades) on all sides from the outside to the inside and the rod with the roots ‘with may I not brush out food, progeny and prosperity, I clean thee that art strong and subduest enemies’. According to Āp. II. 4. 10 and com. on Sat. I. 7 p. 158 the sruc ladles and the prāśitraharaṇa are laid on darbhas in front of the utkara or to its west on the north side of the vedi. He sprinkles with water the cut portions of the veda bunch with which the vessels were cleaned and offers them into that fire²³⁴⁰ (gārhapatya or āhavanīya) on which the vessels were heated with 'this artistic thing (the darbha that springs from water) spread down from heaven, it resorts to the spaces of the earth; we destroy our enemy with it that has a thousand shoots, svāhā!' (Tai. Br. III. 3. 2).