History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c51.3
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c51.3
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v3.c51.3.1
Sacrifices are often divided for convenience into iṣṭi, paśu and soma. According to Gaut. VIII. 21 and Lāṭ. Śr. V. 4. 24 there are seven forms of soma sacrifices, viz. Agniṣṭoma, Atyagniṣṭoma, Ukthya, Ṣoḍaśin, Vājapeya, Atirātra and Aptoryāma. The Agniṣṭoma is the model (prakṛti) of all soma sacrifices. The Agniṣṭoma is a one day (aikāhika or ekāha) sacrifice and it is an integral part of the Jyotiṣṭoma so much so that the two are often identified. Soma sacrifices are classified into those that are finished in one day (and so called ekāha), those that are celebrated for more than one day up to twelve (and so called ahīna), those that extend over more than twelve days (and are called Sattra). The dvādaśāha is both a sattra and an ahīna.²⁵³⁰ The Jyotiṣṭoma occupies generally five days and the chief rites performed on these days are: (1) choosing of priests, madhuparka, dīkṣaṇīyeṣṭi, consecration of the sacrificer (dīkṣā); (2nd day) Prāyaṇīyā iṣṭi (i. e. opening iṣṭi), purchase of soma, ātithyeṣṭi (iṣṭi offering hospitality to soma), Pravargya,²⁵³¹ Upasad (homage twice a day in the morning and evening); (3rd day) Pravargya and Upasad twice again; (4th day) Pravargya and Upasad, Agnipraṇayana, Agniṣomapraṇayana, havirdhāna-praṇayana, animal sacrifice; (5th day called *sutya* or *savanīya*) pressing of soma, offering it and drinking it in the morning, mid-day and evening, the udayanīyā (concluding iṣṭi), avabhṛtha (final purificatory bath).
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In the following pages only a skeleton outline of Agniṣṭoma is presented, derived from the principal Śrauta sūtras. Jai. in VI. 2. 31 declares that the performance of Jyotiṣṭoma is obligatory on all members of the three higher varṇas, just as upanayana is, since the word brāhmaṇa in Tai. S. VI. 3. 10. 5 (a brāhmaṇa when born comes charged with three debts) is only illustrative. Agniṣṭoma is so called because in it Agni is praised or because the last chant (*stotra*) is addressed to Agni.²⁵³² It is to be performed in *vasanta* (spring) every year and on the New Moon or Full Moon day (Āp. X. 2. 2, 5 and 8, Kāt. VII. 1. 4 and Sat. VII. 1 p. 562). The general view expressed in Jai. IV. 3. 37 was that one should perform a soma sacrifice after having performed darśapūrṇamāsa, cāturmāsyas and paśu sacrifice, but some held that it could be performed even before darśa-pūrṇamāsa, but after agnyādhāna (Āśv. IV. 1. 1-2 and Sat. VII. 1. p. 556). Jai. (V. 4. 5-9) also states this as the view of some. Jaimini, however, declares that all modifications of the Agniṣṭoma must be performed after one has begun to perform darśapūrṇamāsa (V. 4. 26). The intending sacrificer sends a person called *somapravāka* (inviter to officiate at a soma sacrifice) to invite brāhmaṇas who are thorough masters of the Veda, neither too young nor too old, with clear and loud voices and not deficient in any limb (Tāṇḍya Br. I. 1. 1, Drāhyāyaṇa Śr. I. 1. 10, Āp. X. 1. 1).
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He invites the principal four or all the 16 (or 17, including ‘sadasya’) priests (*ṛtvij*), who make inquiries whether some other person has refused the office and whether the fee will be excellent. Those portions of the choosing mantras are uttered inaudibly wherein the priests are invoked as if they were divinities and the portion *asau mānuṣaḥ* or *tvam mānuṣaḥ* is uttered loudly.²⁵³³ When the priests come *madhuparka* is offered to them. The sacrificer goes to the king (of the country) to ask for a sacrificial ground (*devayajana*), even if he has one already, with the formula ‘god Varuṇa, give me devayajana’.²⁵³⁴ This is a mere form, but even the king has to make a similar request (in his case) to the hotṛ and other priests. The requirements of a proper devayajana have already been given above (p. 988n). In the western portion of the devayajana from which all roots are uprooted, a pavilion²⁵³⁵ (*vimita*, a four-cornered maṇḍapa) is erected, the central ridge and the covering bamboos of which run from west to east, which has doors (two cubits wide) in all directions and which slightly inclines towards the east, or a rectangular house (*śālā*) may be built, twenty *aratnis* long and ten aratnis wide (Kāt. VII. 1. 19–25, Āp. X. 5. 1–5, Baud. VI. 1). A shed for cooking the *vrata* food is erected to the south of the pavilion and another to the west for the patnī (wife of the sacrificer).
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The sacrificer while in his house implants his gārhapatya and āhavanīya fires on the araṇis with a mantra ‘ayam te yoniḥ’ (Vāj. S. III. 14., Tai. S. I. 5. 2), comes to the devayajana, enters (along with the priests and his wife) the maṇḍapa by the eastern door with the araṇis in his hand, and touches the central post of the pavilion. The things that are required (sambhārāḥ)²⁵³⁶ are also brought to the pavilion. In the pavilion a vedi is prepared and fires are established after being produced by attrition. Offerings of ājya with the sambhārayajus formulas (Tai. Ā. III. 8), with the sapta-hotṛ formulas (Tai. Ā. III. 5) are made and also a yūpāhuti is offered. Outside the pavilion to its north the sacrificer gets the hair on the head, arm-pits and on the face cut by a barber in a tent covered with mats, pares the nails of his hands first (of the right hand first from the small finger) and then of the feet. Jai. (III. 8. 3–11) establishes that it is the sacrificer (and not the adhvaryu) who pares his nails, cuts his hair, brushes his teeth, subsists on milk. Sat. VII. 1. p. 587 states that the nails of the left hand are pared first and then of the right hand. He brushes his teeth with an udumbara twig, then he bathes in a reservoir of water or in a kuṇḍa after putting a golden piece in it with mantras, performs ācamana and drinks water as a consecration.