History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c53.s1.6.1

v3.c53.s1.6.1

Various rules are stated about the horse's colour and other qualities (Śat. Br. XIII. 4. 2. 4, Kāt. XX. 1. 29-35, Lāṭ. IX. 9. 4). The horse must be all white with dark circular spots and of great speed, or the front part of its body may be dark and the rest of the body white, or it may have a tuft of dark blue hair. The horse is sprinkled with holy water by the four principal priests standing in the four directions (from the east), each surrounded respectively by a hundred princes, a hundred ugras who are not kings, by sūtas and village headmen, and by chamberlains and saṁgrahītṛs (Āp. XX. 4, Śat. XIV. 1. 31). A dog with four eyes (i. e. having two natural eyes and two depressions in the skin above the eyes) is killed by a man of the āyogava caste or by a voluptuary with the pestle of sidhraka wood. The horse is made to enter water and the corpse of the dog is with a loop of reeds made to float under the horse (Āp. XX. 3. 6-13, Kāt. XX. 1. 38 ff., Śat. XIV. 1. 30-34). The horse is brought near the fire and offerings are made in the fire till the water ceases to drip down from the horse's body (Kāt. XX. 2. 3-5). A girdle made of muñja grass or of darbhas 12 or 13 aratnis long and smeared with the ājya that remains after being poured over the brahmaudana is invoked with the mantra ‘imām—agṛbhṇan raśanām ṛtasya’ (Tai. S. IV. I. 2. 1, Vāj. S. 22. 2) and the horse is bound with it after taking the permission of the brahmā priest.