History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c49.s1.2.1

v3.c49.s1.2.1

The word Varuṇapraghāsa is masculine and is always employed in the plural. The Śat. Br. (II. 5. 2. 1) gives a fanciful etymology viz. that yavas (barley grains) belong to Varuṇa and as these are eaten (from *ghas* to eat) in this rite it is so called. This rite is performed in the rainy season four months after Vaiśvadeva on the Full Moon day of Āṣāḍha or of Śrāvaṇa. The sacrificer should go out of his house to a spot where plenty of shrubs grow. Two altars (vedi) have to be prepared to the east of the āhavanīya inclined towards the east, one south of the other. The northern vedi is in charge of the adhvaryu and the southern one in charge of his assistant, the pratiprasthātṛ (Āp. VIII. 5. 5.). The latter follows the adhvaryu in doing the same actions on the southern vedi that are done by the adhvaryu on the northern vedi except carrying the water forward, girding the wife, producing fires and a few others specified in Kāt. V. 4. 33; all the orders (sampraiṣas, like 'agnaye samidhyamānāya anubrūhi') are to be uttered once and everything that concerns the uttering of words is to be done by the adhvaryu only (Āp. VIII. 5. 17)²⁴⁵⁷. But Jai. XII. 1. 18 says that the mantras for taking ājya, for prokṣaṇa and the like are to be recited by the two separately. The procedure is like that of Vaiśvadevaparvan except where special directions are given. The two vedis are separated from each other by a space (at the corners) two, three or four aṅgulas or a span or even wider (Āp. VIII. 5.