History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c51.127.4

v3.c51.127.4

After the anuvākya is repeated by the maitrāvaruṇa for the marutvatīya cup to be described below no gifts are made (Āp. XIII. 7, 14, Kāt. X. 3. 2). On making the gifts the sacrificer does obeisance (namaskāra) to the priests and utters an invocation as to animals donated in the words 'who gave to whom?'²⁶¹⁴ Drāhyāyaṇa (V. 3. 14-19) states that before accepting a gift every priest murmurs the famous mantra 'I take thee at the impulse of god Savitṛ.... &c' (Tāṇḍya I. 8. 1) and after receiving the gift each donee murmurs 'who gave to whom' (Tāṇḍya I. 8. 17). The gifts are taken away by the path between the āgnīdhrīya shed and the sadas and then by the tīrtha (Drāhyāyaṇa V. 3. 13). Jai. (X. 2. 22-28) declares that the making of gifts to the priests is not merely a formal act as part of the sacrificial rites, but is intended to induce the priests to give their services in return for the gifts. In Jai. X. 3. 39-49 it is concluded that in the words 'the dakṣiṇā is 112' the vedic text refers only to cows and not to the various kinds of corns, in X. 3. 50-52 that the division of the gifts is to be made by the sacrificer and not left to be done by the priests and that all the priests do not share equally, but according to the Vedic texts some get half (they are ardhinaḥ), others one-third (they are called tṛtīyinaḥ) and still others one-fourth (X. 3. 53-55). Jai. XII. 1.