History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c52.32
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c52.32
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There are five offerings commencing the next day after the Pavitra sacrifice, one each on one day. Then on the Full Moon of Phālguna there is an iṣṭi to Anumati (a puroḍāśa being offered). Vide Kāt. XV. 1. 9 and Āp. XVIII. 8. 10. There is an offering to Nirṛti prepared from the particles of grains that fall to the west of the śamyā from the mill-stone when the grains for the puroḍāśa to Anumati are being ground. The particles are taken in the sruva and a firebrand being lighted from the dakṣiṇa fire, the offering is made to the south of the vihāra on that fire-brand or on some saltish land. On the full moon day of Phālguna are begun the cāturmāsyas (i. e. first the Vaiśvadeva, then after four months Varuṇapraghāsas and so on). This goes on for one year. Between the parvans of the cāturmāsyas, the monthly full moon and new moon sacrifices are performed. The cāturmāsyas come to an end with the Śunāsīrīya parva on the first of the bright half of Phālguna. After that several rites follow such as the Pañcavātīya in five fires in the four directions and in the middle (Āp. XVIII. 9. 10–11, Kāt. XV. 1. 20–21), the Apāmārga-homa (Āp. XVIII. 9. 15–20, Kāt. XV. 2. 1 ff.). Then there are twelve offerings called 'ratninām²⁶⁴⁸ havīṁṣi' performed on twelve days one after another in the houses of the 'ratnas' (jewels) viz. of the sacrificer himself, his queens and state functionaries (Kāt. XV. 3 and Āp. XVIII. 10).
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The deity to whom an offering is made is appropriate to the person in whose house the offering is made and the offerings and fees also differ. The twelve persons (according to Kāt.) are the sacrificer, the commander of the army, the purohita, the crowned queen, the sūta (minstrel?), grāmaṇī (village headman), the kṣattṛ (chamberlain), saṁgrahītṛ (treasurer or charioteer?), akṣāvāpa (superintendent of gambling), govikarta (hunter?), dūta or pālāgala (courier), parivṛkti (the discarded queen) and the deities respectively are Indra, Agni Anīkavat, Bṛhaspati, Aditi, Varuṇa, Maruts, Savitṛ, Aśvins, Rudra (for both akṣāvāpa and govikarta), Agni, Nirṛti (the offering in this case is a caru of black rice husked with the nails). The dakṣiṇās also vary (vide Āp. XVIII. 10. 15-30, Kāt. XV. 3. 16-34). Then follow several offerings. Then comes the Abhiṣecanīya rite which is the central ceremony in Rājasūya and which lasts for five days (one day dīkṣā, three days upasads and one sutyā day of soma pressings). The dīkṣā of Abhiṣecanīya (anointing rite) is performed on the first of Caitra. It is performed on the southern part of the sacrificial ground while the Daśapeya is performed on the northern portion. In the Abhiṣecanīya and Daśapeya the hotṛ must be of the Bhṛgugotra (Tāṇḍya Br. XVIII. 9. 2, Kāt. XV. 4. 1, Śāṅ. XV. 13. 2). The Abhiṣecanīya follows the procedure of the Ukthya.
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Soma is bought for both Abhiṣecanīya and Daśapeya at the same time, but half of it (for Daśapeya) is deposited, after being carried in a cart, in the house of the brahmā priest. Then there are eight offerings of caru called Devasū-havīṁṣi viz. to Savitṛ, Agni Gṛhapati, Soma Vanaspati, Bṛhaspati, Indra, Rudra, Mitra, Varuṇa. According to Āp. XVIII. 12. 7-8 after these eight offerings the brahmā priest announces to the 'ratnins' that the sacrificer is their king and refers to the tribes or people occupying the country.²⁶⁴⁹ Vide Kāt. XV. 4. 15-17 also. At the end of iḍā in the case of these caru offerings the priest brings waters of seventeen kinds in seventeen vessels of uduṁbara wood, viz. of the Sarasvatī river, flowing water of a river, water from ripples produced by the entrance of a man or animal, water from a river drawn against the current, water of the sea, of ocean waves, of whirl-pools, of deep steady reservoirs always exposed to the sun, rain water in sunshine before it falls on the ground, of a lake, of a well, of frost &c. (Kāt. XV. 4. 21-42, Āp. XVIII 13. 1-18). All the waters are poured into a vat of udumbara which is placed near the seat of Maitrāvaruṇa. After the Marutvatīya cup is offered in the Ukthya rite, he spreads to the east of the vessel of water a tiger skin on the western end of which lead is placed. Six homas called Pārtha²⁶⁵⁰ are offered (Āp. XVIII. 15. 8, Kāt. XV. 5.
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34) and then with a gold piece tied in two kuśa blades the water in the big vessel is cleansed (that is utpavana is performed) and is distributed in four vessels made of palāśa, udumbara, nyagrodha and aśvattha. The sacrificer wears a silken garment (tārpya, explained by Kāt. XV. 5. 7-11), a white turban (one end of which hangs from the shoulder) and a mantle. The sacrificer recites the Āvid formulae²⁶⁵¹ (Āp. XVIII. 14. 10, Kāt. XV. 5. 21, which refers to Vāj. S. X. 9). The adhvaryu gives a strung bow and three arrows to the sacrificer, who puts a copper piece in the mouth of a long haired man (eunuch) for averting evil (from spirits and snakes?); vide Vāj. S. X. 10. The sacrificer treads upon the piece of lead and brushes it away with his foot and stands on the tiger-skin with a gold piece under his foot and has a fillet of gold on his head. The sacrificer holds up his arms. He strides in the quarters. The sacrificer stands facing the east and the adhvaryu, standing in front of him, first sprinkles him with the holy water contained in the vessel of palāśa, the other priests follow viz. the brahmā sprinkles him from the right with water in udumbara vessel and so on. Besides, the king's brother (Kāt. XV. 5. 30) or another kṣatriya (Āp. XVIII. 16. 3) sprinkles him with water from the udumbara vessel, a friendly kṣatriya from the third vessel and a vaiśya from the fourth (Āp. XVIII. 16.
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3-5 says a kṣatriya sprinkles water from udumbara vessel, a vaiśya sprinkles from behind the king with water from aśvattha vessel and a friend from the common people sprinkles from the north side with water in the nyagrodha vessel). These actions are probably symbolic of the consent of all people to the anointing. The sacrificer rubs with the antelope horn over the whole of his body the holy water sprinkled over him (Kāt. XV. 6. 8). According to Kāt. XV. 6. 1-2 at this stage or after the dice play (to be described later) the hotṛ priest sitting on a cushion inlaid with gold recites the story of Śunaḥśepa²⁶⁵² for the sacrificer's benefit. Āp. XVIII. 19. 10 places this recital after the dice-play. Āśv. IX. 3. 9 says that the story of Śunaḥśepa is recited to the anointed king after the marutvatīya śastra in the Abhiṣecanīya rite (and before the Niṣkevalya śastra), the king being seated on a golden cushion and surrounded by his son and ministers. The adhvaryu also sits on a cushion inlaid with gold and utters the responses (pratigara) uttering 'om' (as the pratigara) at the end of each ṛk and 'tathā' at the end of each *gāthā*.²⁶⁵³ At the end of the recitation the sacrificer donates a hundred or a thousand cows to the hotṛ and to the adhvaryu and donates also their respective cushions. The king takes three strides called Viṣṇukrama on the tiger-hide.
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All the remnants of the anointing waters are poured in the palāśa vessel and are handed over by the anointed king to his son with the words 'May my son continue this my work and this my prowess.' Then two homas are offered (called nāmavyatiṣañjanīya) in which at first the son is declared to be the father of his father and then secondly the relationship is rightly put.²⁶⁵⁴ Vide Āp. XVIII. 16. 14-15, Kāt. XV. 6. 11. Then there is a symbolic march for the plunder of cows. As in Vājapeya a chariot is made ready, four horses are yoked to it, the sacrificer ascends it, takes the chariot in the midst of a group of hundred or more cows belonging to his kinsmen collected to the north of the āhavanīya, touches one of them with the string of his bow and says 'I seize these.' Then he restores to the owner as many cows as are collected or more and returns to the sacrificial ground and makes four offerings called Rathavimocanīya. Vide Kāt. XV. 6. 13-23. Lāṭ. (IX. 1.
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14-22) gives a more graphic account that at the time of giving gifts, the king's kinsmen are collected with their wealth, arrows are discharged at them by the sacrificer, they themselves bring back the arrows and declare 'O king, may you be victorious.' One-third of their wealth is distributed among the priests, one-third is given at the time of the Daśapeya to the worthy brāhmaṇas brought in that rite, one-third is returned to the kinsmen, villages are bestowed on them and they become rājanyas (king's nobles) but not worthy of coronation. Before getting down from the chariot he puts on boar-skin shoes, bows to the earth with 'O mother earth! do not injure me nor may I injure thee' (Vāj. S. X. 23, Tai. S. I. 8. 15. 1). The king then sits on a chair or throne made of khadira that is placed in front of the āgnīdhrīya shed (Āp. XVIII. 18. 5-8, Kāt. XV. 7. 1-4). The priests and the 'ratnins' take seats round him; the brahmā priest (the purohita or adhvaryu according to Kāt. XV. 7. 11) hands over the sphya to the king, from whom it passes on to several persons viz. the king's brother, sūta, sthapati, village headman, kinsman (Āp. XVIII. 18. 14-16). According to Kāt. (XV. 7. 13) the kinsmen and the pratiprasthātṛ mark out a place for dice play with the sphya (according to Āp. XVIII. 18. 16 the superintendent of gambling does so). On the ground so marked a quadrangular hut or shed is erected.
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Five dice are handed over to the king who is lightly struck by the priests with sticks of sacrificial trees. The king calls as umpires (upadraṣṭṛ) the saṁgrahītṛ, the bhāgadugha (collector of taxes) and the kṣattṛ (Āp. XVIII. 19. 6-8). The play is so arranged that the best throw (of the dice) comes to the king and the worst to his kinsman.²⁶⁵⁵ It appears that the dice play required golden pieces also beyond a hundred or a thousand in number (Āp. XVIII. 19. 1). According to Kāt. (XV. 7. 25-26) the king actually undergoes the avabhṛtha bath, while Lāṭyāyana as stated above differs. After the offering of anubandhyā cow and the performance of the udavasānīyā iṣṭi, a cake prepared from a mixture of rice and barley and baked on twelve potsherds is offered to Indra and Viṣṇu. For ten days after the Abhiṣecanīya he offers successively on each day offerings called 'saṁsṛpāṁ havīṁṣi' respectively to Savitṛ, Sarasvatī, Tvaṣṭṛ, Pūṣan, Indra, Bṛhaspati, Varuṇa, Agni, Soma, Viṣṇu (Kāt. XV. 8. 1-4, Āp. XVIII. 20. 7 which says they are ten or seven and they begin with Agni; Āśv. IX. 4. 6 speaks of only seven). Each of these is offered in fire set up in a devayajana to the east of the preceding one and the last of the ten is offered in the shed prepared for the Daśapeya rite (Āp. XVIII. 20. 8-10, Kāt. XV. 8. 2-3). On each of the ten (or seven) iṣṭis (of saṁsṛpāṁ havīṁṣi) he offers to the priests ordinary or golden lotus flowers and on the tenth day he wears a garland made of those flowers.
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That becomes his consecration (dīkṣā) for the next rite, viz. Daśapeya. Jaimini declares (in XI. 2. 57-62) that though soma is purchased for both Abhiṣecanīya and Daśapeya at the same time (vide p. 1216 above), yet in the two ekāhas the whole procedure of soma sacrifices is repeated. A different proposition is stated in Kāt. XV. 8. 10-13 (except as to dīkṣā and avabhṛtha which are repeated in both rites). On the tenth day after the Abhiṣecanīya is finished the Daśapeya is performed (Lāṭ. IX. 2. 1, Kāt. XV. 8. 14 says on the 7th day i. e. on 7th of the bright half of Caitra). This rite is so called because in it each of the ten camasas (cups) of soma are partaken of by ten brāhmaṇas (Āśv. IX. 3. 18, Āp. XVIII. 21. 3). The brāhmaṇas are the ten ṛtviks who ordinarily partake of the soma in camasas plus 90 more (called *anuprasarpakas*) who possess special qualifications, viz. whose ten ancestors on the father's and mother's sides were masters of Vedic lore, had rigorously performed their duties and were engaged in holy actions and who had no sexual or marital alliances with non-brāhmaṇas²⁶⁵⁶ (vide Āśv. IX. 3. 19-21, Śāṅ.