History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c51.3.3

v3.c51.3.3

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).