History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c52.10
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c52.10
- Language
- English
v3.c52.10.1
This complicated rite was undertaken by one who desired overlordship (ādhipatya, as Āśv. IX. 9. 1 says) or prosperity (Āp. XVIII. 1. 1) or svārājya (the position of Indra or uncontrolled dominion). It was performed in the autumn.²⁶³⁷ Only a brāhmaṇa or a kṣatriya could perform it, but not a vaiśya²⁶³⁸ (Kāt. XIV. 1. 1 and Āp. XVIII. 1. 1). In the case of a brāhmaṇa the reward aimed at must have been the attainment of the position of a super-eminently learned or prosperous man. All the priests, the sacrificer and his wife wear chains of gold, and Āśv. IX. 9. 5 adds that the chain worn by the hotṛ has a hundred lotus-like pendants studded with precious stones. The golden chain worn by each priest becomes part of his fee. Besides the three viz. for Agni, Indra and Agni and for Indra (a ram), a barren cow for Maruts and ewe for Sarasvatī and 17 hornless, young and virile goats of one colour (or all of dark colour) for Prajāpati are offered in this rite (Āp. XVIII. 2. 12-13, Kāt. XIV. 2. 11-13). For the 17 cups of wine (called parisrut, prepared from several herbs) the pratiprasthātṛ prepares a separate mound (*khara*) to the west of the axle of the southern havirdhāna cart on which the wine cups made of clay are to be kept. The soma cups are to the east of the axle of the cart and wine cups to the west and they are to be kept separate. According to Kāt. (XIV. 1. 17 and 26) it is the neṣṭṛ priest that gets ready the mound and the wine cups.
v3.c52.10.2
In the midst of the wine cups a golden cup of honey is placed (Tai. Br. I. 3. 3, Kāt. XIV. 2. 9). The wine is purchased ready-made in exchange for lead from a long-haired man at the time when soma stalks are purchased, or the material for making wine is bought, and is entered into the sacrificial enclosure by the southern door and is boiled on the dakṣiṇa fire (Kāt. XIV. 1. 14-17). The yūpa has four angles (and not eight as elsewhere) and has no top protruding beyond the caṣāla, but its top is even and is slightly depressed in the middle. The caṣāla of the yūpa (which is 17 aratnis high) is made of wheat flour (Tai. Br. I. 3. 7, Āp. XVIII. 1. 8, Kāt. XIV. 1. 22). A race is run in connection with the mid-day pressing in the following way (Āp. XVIII. 3. 3 and 12–13). The Tai. Br. I. 3. 2 refers to the race won by Bṛhaspati and connects the Vājapeya with that race. Seventeen chariots are got ready to the east of the āhavanīya with their yokes to the north or east. One of them is the sacrificer's chariot to which three horses are yoked with mantras and a fourth runs along the third but is not yoked. These horses are made to smell the *caru* of wild rice (*nīvāra*) which is meant for Bṛhaspati. To the sixteen other chariots four horses each are yoked outside the vedi but without mantras (com. on Kāt. XIV. 3. 11).
v3.c52.10.3
A kṣatriya (*rāja-putra* according to Āp.) shoots an arrow from the space between the cātvāla and utkara and notes the spot where it falls, from which he shoots an arrow a second time. This is done seventeen times. On the spot where the arrow falls at the 17th shooting, he plants a post of udumbara wood as the goal for the chariot race (Āp. XVIII. 3. 12 and Kāt. XIV. 3. 1–11 and 16–17). When the race starts, the brahmā priest fixes an udumbara chariot-wheel (having seventeen spokes according to Kāt. V. 12. 11) on an axle (or udumbara post navel-high) implanted on a spot between the cātvāla and the utkara (or near the utkara) and ascends on that wheel with 'at the impulse of God Savitṛ may I win vāja (vigour, food or race) with the help of Bṛhaspati, the winner of vāja' (Āp. XVIII. 4. 8, Kāt. XIV. 3. 12 which mentions Vāj. S. IX. 10). When the wheel is revolved from left to right (it is revolved thrice) the brahmā chants the Vāji-sāman²⁶³⁹ (Āp. XVIII. 4. 11, Āśv. IX. 9. 8. Lāṭ. V. 12. 14). According to Lāṭ. (V. 12. 13) the brahmā only rests his arms on the wheel. The yajamāna occupies the chariot on which mantras were recited and the adhvaryu (or his pupil) also gets into it to instruct the yajamāna to repeat the Vedic formulae he has to utter. Other persons (called vājasṛt) join in the race and sit in the other sixteen chariots and a kṣatriya or vaiśya sits in one of them and the race starts with speed.
v3.c52.10.4
All the seventeen drums are beaten on the northern śroṇi of the vedi to urge on the horses. All the horses are made to smell the *caru* of wild rice (*nīvāra*) cooked in 17 pots for Bṛhaspati. The chariot of the sacrificer is in front and the others follow his, but do not overtake it. The adhvaryu makes the yajamāna recite the formulae of victory such as ‘agnirekākṣareṇa’ (Vāj. S. VIII. 31-34, Tai. S. I. 1. 11). When the chariot reaches the goal, the chariot is taken to its north and then turned round to the south. All the chariots return to the sacrificial ground and the horses are again made to smell the caru of nīvāras and a homa is offered for discharging the drums (dundubhi-vimocanīya-homa). A berry (kṛṣṇala, gold of that weight) is given to each of those that rode the chariots, but that gold is taken back from them and is donated to the brahmā who also receives the golden jar of honey (Kāt. XIV. 4. 17, Āp. XVIII. 5. 5) after it is presented to and taken back from the kṣatriya or vaiśya. The cups of soma are taken up by the priests (the adhvaryu taking the hotṛ-camasa), and the camasādhvaryus take up their cups; while the pratiprasthātṛ takes up the principal wine cup and the other sixteen are taken up by those who joined in the race. The adhvaryu starts towards the east with the soma cups with ‘sam pṛcaḥ’ (Tai. Br. I. 3. 3), the pratiprasthātṛ to the west with the wine cups and stands near the mārjālīya shed.
v3.c52.10.5
After the adhvaryu offers the soma cups, the wine cups are shaken and given to the sixteen persons who took part in the race and they quaff them on the southern śroṇi of the vedi. According to Kāt. (XIV. 3. 20 and XIV. 4. 16) the kṣatriya or vaiśya who sat in one of the chariots receives all the wine cups. When preparations are made to chant the Mahendra stotra, the neṣṭṛ requests the wife to put on a short undergarment of darbha and the yajamāna wears a silken garment (tārpyam)²⁶⁴⁰ inside the garment which he wears as a dīkṣita. A ladder is raised against the yūpa to its north or south (Kāt. XIV. 5. 5) and when the sacrificer climbs to the top of the yūpa a dialogue ensues between the sacrificer and his wife (Kāt. XIV. 5. 6-11, Āp. XVIII. 5. 9-11). The sacrificer addresses ‘wife, come, let us ascend to heaven’. The wife responds ‘let us ascend’. They engage in this dialogue thrice. According to Kāt. XIV. 5. 8 both husband and wife climb to the top of the yūpa, while according to Āp. (XVIII. 4. 12) only the husband does so who finally says ‘out of us both I shall ascend to heaven’. On reaching the top he touches the caṣāla of wheat flour and mutters ‘we reached the heaven, the gods’ (Tai. S. I. 7. 9. 2, Vāj. S. IX. 21). Thence he looks at his house with ‘May I live long with my children’