History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c51.11
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c51.11
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All these from paring nails (called apsu-dīkṣā)²⁵³⁷ except the cutting of hair are also undergone by the wife at the instance of the pratiprasthātṛ priest (but without mantras). The adhvaryu hands over a fine silken fresh garment to the sacrificer which the latter wears. In the afternoon in the prāgvaṁśa he partakes of food (rice)²⁵³⁸ mixed with ghee and sprinkled over with curds and honey or whatever is liked by him. The wife also does the same. He takes up butter (*navanīta*) with two bunches of darbha grass and smears himself thrice with them beginning from the face. He applies collyrium with a darbha blade twice to the right eye and once to the left or thrice to both. The adhvaryu performs the purification (*pavana*) of the sacrificer outside the prāgvaṁśa to its north by three bunches of seven darbhas each rubbed twice over his body above the navel and once below the navel with mantras and the sacrificer also mutters mantras. The wife also does all this (smearing the body with butter, applying añjana and purification) without mantras at the instance of the pratiprasthātṛ. The sacrificer enters the pavilion by the eastern door and the wife by the western and occupy their respective seats. Then follows dīkṣaṇīyā iṣṭi²⁵³⁹ which is so called because it effects a saṁskāra in the man intending to sacrifice and because after it is performed he is entitled to be called 'dīkṣita'. The conclusion in Jai. V. 3.
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29-31 is that a man becomes a dīkṣita at the end of the dīkṣaṇīyā iṣṭi and has thenceforward to observe the rules laid down for a dīkṣita and that one does not become a dīkṣita by being given the staff or the girdle &c. At first six āhutis called dīkṣāhutis are offered, four with ājya taken from the dhruvā into the sruva, 5th with the sruc and the sixth is called pūrṇāhuti and is offered with sruc (in which twelve ladlings with sruva have been made). These six āhutis are called 'audgrahaṇa' (Āp. X. 8. 7 and com. on Śat. VII. 1. p. 591) or 'audgrabhana' (Kāt. VII. 3. 16). In the dīkṣaṇīyā iṣṭi a cake prepared on eleven potsherds is offered to Agni-Viṣṇu (or boiled rice with clarified butter). Some offered another offering of boiled rice to Aditi. Several matters that occur in the model iṣṭi (such as observing a vrata, the girding up of the wife, cutting off a portion for yajamāna, phalīkaraṇahoma, cooking anvāhārya rice as fee for the priests, samiṣṭayajus) are omitted in this iṣṭi (Baud. VI. 3 mentions ten matters that are omitted, Āp. X. 4. 12, Sat. VII. 1. p. 575). According to Jai. VIII. 1. 3-10 the several actions done in the model iṣṭi are not to be extended to somayāga unless the vedic texts expressly say so, and Jai. X. 1. 4 establishes that there is no ārambhaṇīyā iṣṭi in dīkṣaṇīyā and other iṣṭis of somayāga. The dīkṣanīyā ends with the patnīsaṁyājas and the eating of the 2nd iḍā (Sat. VII. 1. p. 578).
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Certain rules are laid down about the pitch of the voice in the several rites. According to Āp. X. 4. 9 everything is said inaudibly till the agnīṣomīya rite. According to Kāt. (VII. 2. 31-32) the voice reaches the highest pitch in the dīkṣaṇīyā iṣṭi, the mantras in the prāyaṇīyā and ātithyā iṣṭis are in a lower tone than in the dīkṣanīyā and the upasad mantras are repeated inaudibly. The dīkṣā (consecration) of the sacrificer and his wife proceeds as follows.²⁵⁴⁰ To the south of the āhavanīya two black antelope hides (or one if two are not available) with the neck portion to the east are spread on the altar with the hairy part outside. He (the priest) sits to the west of the antelope skin bending his right knee; the sacrificer touches the white and black spots (or the line that joins them, Kāt. VII. 3. 23), then creeps upon the hide with his right knee bent and sits down on the western side of the hide. The sacrificer ties round his waist above the garment worn by him a girdle of three strands made of hemp and muñja grass, covers his right shoulder with a fresh garment and folds round his head a piece of cloth, he is given the horn of a black antelope about a span in length with three or five folds (from left to right), which he ties to the hem of his garment (or in the corner of his upper garment).
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He touches his forehead above the right brow with the horn, draws a line with it from west to east outside the vedi, and if he wants at any time to scratch his body he does so with that horn. Jai. (XI. 4. 48-49) declares that the mantra is to be repeated only once even if the yajamāna feels the desire to scratch several parts of his body at the same time. The adhvaryu gives a staff of udumbara (or of some other sacrificial tree) which is as high as the sacrificer's mouth (or chin), which he raises up and keeps on his right shoulder. While the adhvaryu is doing these things for the yajamāna, the pratiprasthātṛ does the same things for the wife (without mantras) except that she has the yoktra girt round her upper garment, that her head is covered by a jāla (a net or fillet) of wool and she has a piece of some sacrificial tree one span long for scratching her body. The sacrificer and adhvaryu repeat long passages wherein the word dīkṣā occurs frequently (Āp. X. 10. 6 and X. 11. 1), and the adhvaryu makes him repeat the sambhāra-yajus mantras (Tai. Ā. III. 8). The sacrificer then contracts the fingers of both hands one after another with mantras (first the small fingers of both hands, then the ring-fingers of both hands and so on) and ultimately he clinches his fists. He observes silence.
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Some priest (like the pratiprasthātṛ) other than the adhvaryu inaudibly declares (to the gods) thrice and loudly proclaims to the world thrice 'this brāhmaṇa has undergone the consecration, son of so and so, grandson of so and so, great-grandson of so and so, the son of such and such a woman, grandson of such and such a woman and great-grandson of such and such a woman'. Even when the sacrificer was a kṣatriya or vaiśya, the announcement was still to be 'this brāhmaṇa²⁵⁴¹ &c.,' since after dīkṣā a person was supposed to be reborn and to be a child of holy prayer and to have become pure enough for receiving spiritual influences. The Śat. Br. III. 3. 3. 12 states 'he who is consecrated becomes an embryo'. Dīkṣā takes place in the afternoon (Āp. X. 12. 1) and the sacrificer observes silence till the appearance of stars in the evening. The adhvaryu directs the milking of two cows to supply milk for the sacrificer and his wife who are to subsist on the milk of the two cows during the period of the sacrifice. This vrata (observance) of subsisting on milk is declared by Jai. (IV. 3. 8-9) to be *kratvartha* (an obligatory rule) and not puruṣārtha (recommendatory). Vide also Jai. VI. 8. 28. Some allowed rice or barley to be cooked in that milk. The two cows were milked in two separate vessels, one of which (meant for the sacrificer) was heated on the gārhapatya and the other (for the wife) was heated on the dakṣiṇa fire.
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A kṣatriya or vaiśya sacrificer could take gruel or āmikṣā respectively or all persons could subsist on milk or on rice cooked in milk or on fruits (if enough milk was not available) or if he had a desire for curds, he could use curds or use fried barley grains or he could take ghee. He was to take his food at midday or midnight long after ordinary men have taken their meals and he took his food from a pot which was not earthenware and the wife from a copper pot. Persons who were not dīkṣitas were not to see him when taking his milk or other vrata diet. The wife was also to take her milk or other diet in her own place. Vide Āp. X. 16 and Kāt. VII. 4. 19-34 for details. The dīkṣita and his wife (to some extent) have to observe certain rules (till the final bath) and people also had to observe some rules with reference to him. He has to keep awake on the night of the dīkṣā (Jai. XII. 1. 17), on the night when soma is purchased and on the night before the pressing day. He is not ²⁵⁴² to speak with women or śūdras nor should a śūdra follow him. If he is obliged to speak to a śūdra he should do so by employing a messenger belonging to the three higher varṇas. He may speak to or bless another, but he was not to bow to another, even if the latter was his ācārya or father-in-law or a king. No one was to touch him or to address the dīkṣita by his name (but use only such terms of address as 'bhoḥ', 'dīkṣita' &c.).
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The sacrificer was not to keep aside the antelope horn till the fees were distributed. He could laugh covering his face with his hand and should not show his teeth. He was not ordinarily to answer calls of nature by day, but if he has to do so, he must do so in a shaded spot. He has to observe complete celibacy. While he is consecrated for the sacrifice, he does not go out by the western door, nor does he perform the daily agnihotra, nor vaiśvadeva nor offering of bali nor perform the darśapūrṇamāsa iṣṭi (Jai. XII. 1. 19-23), but he may employ another to do all these. He must speak the truth and address people in a pure and conciliatory style adding the word 'canasita' when addressing a brāhmaṇa and the word 'vicakṣaṇa' when addressing a kṣatriya or vaiśya (vide Ait. Br. I. 6). He must always be in the pavilion at sunrise and sunset; he sleeps on the ground to the south of the āhavanīya with his head to the east and sleeps on his right side and does not turn his back to the fire. He always sits on antelope hide and never leaves it and his staff (except when answering calls of nature). No one is to eat the food given by a dīkṣita till the agnīṣomīya victim or its omentum is offered. It is recommended by all the sūtras that dīkṣā (consecration) should not be finished in one day, but it should extend over 12 days or a month or a year or till from being fat he becomes lean (vide Āp. X. 14. 8, X. 15. 4, Āśv. IV. 2. 13-15).
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Every day (while the dīṣkā lasts) the sacrificer observes silence from the afternoon till the appearance of stars and in the morning from before sunrise till the sun goes up. The dīkṣita is allowed to go himself or to send agents called (sanīhāra)²⁵⁴³ to collect money and materials necessary for the sacrifice. He has to observe many rules on his journey (vide Āp. X. 19. 6-16).