History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c51.116.1

v3.c51.116.1

In the Agniṣṭoma there are twelve *stotras* and twelve *śastras*. The words śastra and stotra in their etymological sense mean ‘praise or laud,’ but a stotra is a laud that is sung to a melody and a śastra is a laud that is only recited (vide Śabara on Jai. VII. 2. 17). A śastra always belongs to and follows a stotra. In the prātaḥsavana the hotṛ begins his āhāva after the udgātṛ makes *hiṃkāra* in the stotra he chants and in the other two savanas the hotṛ does so after the *pratihāra* element of the stotra (Āśv. V. 10. 1–3) when the prastotṛ draws his attention by uttering the word ‘eṣā’ (this) at the time of the *prastāva* of the last verse in the stotra.²⁶⁰⁶ The ājyaśastra is the first śastra in the Agniṣṭoma and the āgnimāruta is the last. Jai. (II. 1. 13–29) establishes that when the vedic text says ‘he recites the prauga śastra’ or ‘he chants the ājya stotra,’ what is meant is not that these stotras and śastras are merely some subordinate matters in connection with the devatā of the rite, but they are really principal matters. In X. 4. 49 Jai. states that in the Agniṣṭut sacrifices there is no *ūha* of the stotras and śastras of the Agniṣṭoma, but they are sung and recited as in Agniṣṭoma. In the morning savana (pressing of soma), five stotras are chanted viz. Bahiṣpavamāna and four Ājyastotras; in the mid-day pressing five more viz. the mādhyandina pavamāna and four Pṛṣṭhastotras (vide Haug's tr. of Ait. Br. p. 193 n. 29) and in the evening pressing two stotras viz.