History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c49.s2.10

v3.c49.s2.10

The last rite in the Sākamedhas is the Traiyambaka homa. Vide Tai. S. I. 8. 6, Śat Br. II. 6. 2. 1–17, Āśv. II. 19. 37–40, Āp. VIII. 17–19, Baud. V. 16–17, Kāt. V. 10. This homa is offered to Rudra. Some of its peculiarities may be noted. In this the adhvaryu takes out material to prepare cakes cooked on one potsherd exceeding by one the children (the sons and grandsons together with their wives and unmarried daughters) of the sacrificer or at least four (if he is childless or has no more than a few children). Every thing is done facing the north and all places where offerings are to be made must be to the north. He cooks the cakes on the northern side of the gārhapatya and may anoint the cake with clarified butter,²⁴⁷⁰ he carries a single smoking firebrand kindled at the dakṣiṇa fire with the mantra ‘eka eva rudro’ (Tai. S. I. 8. 6). All (priests and relatives) go to a spot near by in the north-east and lay down one cake on earth dug out by rats from a hole with the words ‘O Rudra! the rat is thy beast’ (Tai. S. I. 8. 6. 1.) or if one has an enemy and one hates him one may think of him and offer that cake with the words ‘that is thy beast’. He places the single firebrand in a spot where four roads meet and which has the usual five purifying rites performed on it and offers thereon with the middle leaflet of a palāśa leaf (used as the *juhū* ladle) portions cut off once each from all the cakes prepared for Rudra with the mantra ‘O Rudra! this is your portion, may you partake of it together with Ambikā, your sister, svāhā’ (Tai. S. I. 8. 6 = Vāj. S. III. 57). The remainder he places on the earth heap dug up by rats and covers it with earth. After coming back from the heap, the sacrificer and the priests mutter a mantra (Vāj. S. III. 58) or only the yajamāna mutters the same mantra (Tai. S. I. 8. 6). The yajamāna, his children and his wife and other ladies go round the fire thrice from right to left (as in pitṛyajña) with the famous mantra ‘Tryambakam yajāmahe’ (Tai S. I. 8. 6 and Vāj. S. III. 60) striking their left thigh with their right hand and again thrice striking their right thigh with their right hand. The unmarried daughter of the yajamāna desirous of a husband should go round the fire from right to left and again from left to right (thrice in each mode), with the above mantra altered to suit her case (Vāj. S. III. 60).²⁴⁷¹ The portions of the cakes that remain are thrown up in the air by the yajamāna so high that a cow (or bull) with upturned mouth cannot reach them and he catches them in his hand one after another.²⁴⁷² If he cannot catch them he touches them when they fall on the ground. They are then placed in two woven baskets (half and half), which are then hung from the two ends of a bamboo pole or the beam of a scale or a pole made of a sacrificial tree and he fastens them on two sides on a tree trunk, or a tree or a bamboo or ant-hill, in such a way that a cow or bull cannot reach them, with the mantra (Vāj. S. III. 61 first part, Tai. S. I. 8. 6 ‘eṣa te rudra bhāgaḥ). They mutter the mantra ‘avatatadhanvā &c.’ (Vāj. S. III. 61 latter half and Tai. S. I. 8. 6) repeatedly without taking breath and do so thrice (according to Āp. VIII. 18. 9). They (priests and yajamāna) return to the place where the other rites were performed and touch water. According to Āp. (VIII. 19. 1–3) a white horse is the dakṣiṇā or a white bull or a bull that has a white spot of hair.