History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c51.35
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c51.35
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Pravargya is separately dealt with in most sūtras, as in Āp. XV. 5-12, Kāt. XXVI, Baud. IX. 6 ff. It was supposed to provide the sacrificer with a new celestial body²⁵⁵⁶. It was an independent rite by itself (apūrva) and was not the modification of any other rite (vide com. on Kāt. XXVI. 2. 5). It appears from Āp. XIII. 4. 3-5 that the Pravargya rite was not necessarily performed in every Agniṣṭoma. The gharma is styled Samrāṭ in Vāj. S. 39. 5, is identified with the sun, is said to be the head of Yajña and the hot milk was divine life and light. Vide Ait. Br. IV. 1, Śat. Br. XIV. 1-4, Tai. Ār. IV. 1-42, V. 1-12; and Haug's translation of Ait. Br. pp. 41-43 (note), S. B. E vol. 44, Intro. XLVI—L. An earthernware vessel, one span in height, is made, the middle of which is contracted (like a mortar), which has a rim or belt (mekhalā) about three fingers lower down from the top which is a large and deep bowl and has at the end a hole or spout for pouring in liquid. This is called mahāvīra and it resembles three pots placed on one another. There are two other earthenware vessels (which are called mahāvīra). There are also two milking bowls (pinvana) and two round plates called rauhiṇa for baking two cakes. All the three are heated with the fire of horse dung kindled at the gārhapatya (or dakṣiṇa according to some) fire, baked in a square pit like ordinary pans and then taken out.
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The two puroḍāśas baked on the round rauhiṇas are offered into fire in the morning and evening to Day and Night respectively. The vessel called mahāvīra is placed on a raised clay platform and fire is kindled round it, and when it is hot ghee is poured into it. The principal mahāvīra is the first vessel and the other two are not to have the different processes performed on them (they are apracaraṇīya, Āp. XV. 6. 11). These other two are kept covered with cloth on the big āsandī to the north of the stool on which soma is placed and to the south of the āhavanīya (Kāt. XXVI. 2. 17). To the boiling ghee in the principal vessel are added the milk of a cow and of a she-goat having a male young one. The hot milk thus mixed and contained in the mahāvīra is called 'gharma', of which offerings are made to Aśvins, Vāyu, Indra (with Vasus and Rudras and Ādityas), to Savitṛ, Bṛhaspati, Yama. The sacrificer drinks (the priests only smell) the remainder by the upayamani. The hotṛ repeats several mantras at various stages from the time the mahāvīra is placed on the raised platform up to the time when the hot milk is offered and the priest called prastotṛ chants sāmans. The whole of this ceremony is called Pravargya. A few interesting matters out of the numerous details of this rite are indicated here.
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All the doors of the sacrificial hall are screened with cloth, the wife's shed also is so screened and she is to sit in her shed (and not to see the mahāvīra,²⁵⁵⁷ but at a later stage she looks at it and repeats a mantra, Kāt. XXVI. 4. 13). Whatever wooden pātras are required in this rite they are²⁵⁵⁸ made of udumbara and the cords are made of muñja grass. The paridhis were thirteen and of vikaṅkata and the fuel-sticks for boiling the gharma were to be of the same wood or of khadira, palāśa, udumbara and a few other trees. There were three black antelope skins to be used as fans and two rukmas (plates or bars) of gold and silver, two vedas (bunches of kuśa), one of which has its ends cut off. Special rules are laid down about the clay out of which the mahāvīra vessel is to be made (vide Āp. XV. 1. 9 ff.) viz.²⁵⁵⁹ it was to be dug from a pit to the east of the āhavanīya fire; with that earth was to be mixed the dust dug by a wild boar and the clay from an ant-hill, pūtīka (a plant), the hair of a goat and of a black antelope skin; on it an ajā (she-goat) was to be milked. The clay so mixed is to be carried only by men of the higher castes and hot water is to be poured on the clay only from madantī vessels²⁵⁶⁰ in order to mix the various ingredients. No śūdra nor woman is to look at all this. Two vessels for milking the cow and the she-goat are made of this very clay.
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The Mahāvīra is to be lifted up only with two wooden pieces like tongs (called pariśāsa or śapha) and never otherwise. The āsandī (stool or chair) on which the mahāvīra is to be placed is bigger than the one for king Soma (thereby bringing out its super-eminence as samrāṭ) and it is placed north of the seat for Soma. Two kharas (mounds covered with sand) are made to the north of the gārhapatya and of the āhavanīya and a third mound (called ucchiṣṭa khara) is made in the north-east of the prāgvaṁśa, having a channel outside (the śālā) for wiping off the leavings. A silver blade or plate of one hundred *raktikās* (berries for weighing) in weight is inserted in the loose sand of the western mound, sheaths of reed grass kindled at the gārhapatya are thrown on the mound and the mahāvīra vessel is placed thereon. Then pieces of vikaṅkata wood (paridhis) are laid round the Mahāvīra by the adhvaryu and pratiprasthātṛ, in all 13, the last being placed by the adhvaryu. Then a gold bar or plate (representing the Sun) is placed on the Mahāvīra pot. The adhvaryu fans the fire thrice by means of the three fans made of black antelope skin from right to left and then thrice from left to right. When a blaze is produced the gold plate is taken away. According to the Ait. Br. IV. 2 and Āśv. IV. 6. 3 the hotṛ recites several verses (21 in number) when the empty Mahāvīra is being heated (they constitute the *pūrva paṭala*) and several operations such as anointing it are being performed. The Ait.
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Br. IV. 5 further prescribes 21 verses for recitation by the hotṛ when the cow is being milked (they are called *uttara paṭala*). Vide Āśv. IV. 7. 4 also.