History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c52.15

v3.c52.15

(Tai. S. I. 7. 9. 2) or in the several directions with Vāj. S. IX. 22 (Kāt. XIV. 5. 11). Vaiśyas (explained as his children by the com. on Kāt. XIV. 5. 12) throw up to him 17 bags of salt or saltish earth enveloped in leaves of aśvattha or (according to Āp. XVIII. 5. 16-18) the adhvaryu, brahmā, hotṛ and udgātṛ raise up the bags to his face on long poles respectively from the east, south, west and north with mantras (referring to food, *vāja* and winning of *vāja*) He receives them and descends. He plants his right foot on a piece of gold placed over a goat-skin spread in front of the yūpa on the ground with its neck to the east and hairy side outside and his left foot on the skin itself and from thence he sits down on a couch placed on the west side of the uttaravedi. The offerings of the omentum and other limbs of the animal for Sarasvatī and of other animals are made, the wild rice caru for Bṛhaspati is offered and the priests partake of the remnants as usual. The animals for Prajāpati are offered at the time of the mid-day pressing. Before the offering to Sviṣṭakṛt of the wild rice caru is made water and milk are poured in a vessel of udumbara and food of seventeen kinds of grains or of as many as the sacrificer remembers except one is also put therein and seven offerings are made of all this with the sruva and the yajamāna is sprinkled with the rest (Kāt. XIV. 5. 20-24). He does not eat throughout his life-time the food of the one kind of grain that was omitted. The adhvaryu declares thrice after taking the name of the sacrificer 'he, so and so, is samrāṭ' (overlord). Āp. XVIII. 7. 18 says that on performing vājapeya a man is entitled to use the white parasol. After the performance of Vājapeya the sacrificer had to observe certain rules of conduct (vide Lāṭ. VIII. 12. 1-4, Āp. XVIII. 7. 16-17). He should act like a kṣatriya (i. e. he may study and make gifts, but should not teach or accept gifts), he should not rise to receive or do abhivādana or carry²⁶⁴¹ errands for or sit on the same couch with a person who had not performed that sacrifice. The adhvaryu receives the horses and the chariot in which the sacrificer sat (Āp. XVIII. 3. 10) and receives also all the 17 clothes with which the yūpa was enveloped. As to other fees there is some divergence among Āp. XVIII. 3. 4-5, Āśv. IX. 9. 14-17, Kāt. XIV. 2. 29-33 and Lāṭ. VIII. 11. 16-22. Āśv. says that 1700 cows, 17 chariots to which horses are yoked, seventeen horses, seventeen animals which men ride, seventeen draught oxen, seventeen carts, 17 slave-girls decked with golden *niṣkas* round their necks, 17 elephants with golden girths—these constitute the fee in Vājapeya and Āśv. suggests other alternatives. Āp. XVIII. 3. 4 is almost the same but adds seventeen goats and ewes. Lāṭ (VIII. 11. 16–18) is also practically the same as Āśv. but adds several alternatives about cows. In the Kuruvājapeya (variously explained in the com.) cows donated are only 17, in other Vājapeyas 1700 or 17000 cows may be given. Lāṭ. further says that the gifts may be equally divided among all the priests, that the chariot occupied by the sacrificer over which *yajus* mantras were recited and the couch with its coverlet are given to the udgātṛ, the goat-skin with the golden piece is taken by the hotṛ.