History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c53.s1.9
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c53.s1.9
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Several expiatory ceremonies are prescribed (Āp. XXII. 7. 9-20, Kāt. XX. 3. 13-21) if the horse died or suffered from disease. If the horse was carried away by an enemy the sacrifice was destroyed. At the end of the year the horse was brought to a stable and the sacrificer underwent dīkṣā (initiation). There were 12 dīkṣās, 12 uposads and three sutyā days (days on which soma was pressed). Vide Śat. Br. XIII. 4. 4. 1, Āśv. X. 8. 1, Lāṭ. IX. 9. 17. After the dīkṣā the sacrificer is sung as on a par with the gods and on the pressing days, at the time of avabhṛtha, the udayanīyā iṣṭi, the anubandhyā and the udavasānīyā he is spoken of as on a par with Prajāpati.²⁶⁷¹ There are 21 yūpas (stakes) all being 21 aratnis high. The central one is of Rājjudāla (śleṣmātaka) tree. On its two sides are two pine yūpas and on both sides thereafter there are three yūpas each of bilva, khadira and palāśa (Tai. Br. III. 8. 9, Śat. Br. XIII. 4. 4. 5, Āp. XX. 9. 6-8, Kāt. XX. 4. 16-20). Large numbers of animals are tied at all these stakes and slaughtered. Even wild animals like boars and birds are bound and held between the intervals of the yūpas (Āp. XX, 14. 2 ff.). Vide Vāj. S. XXIV for a list of hundreds of animals out of which those from Kapiñjala onwards (Vāj. S. XXIV. 20 ff.) are let off after fire is carried round them (Kāt. XX. 6. 9, Āp. XX. 17. 5).
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The 2nd among the three pressing days is the most important and is full of several very striking matters (such as the ribald dialogue, the brahmodya &c.). The horse to be sacrificed is yoked to a chariot along with three horses, the adhvaryu and sacrificer occupy the chariot and take it to a lake or reservoir of water, make the horses enter it (Kāt. XX. 5. 11-14). On the horse's return to the sacrificial ground it is anointed with clarified butter by the crowned queen, the favourite queen and the discarded queen in the front, the middle and hind parts of its body respectively. They also respectively tie 101 golden beads on the head, mane and tail of the horse with bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ and svaḥ. They give the remnants of the previous night's offering to the horse with Vāj. S. XXIII. 8. If it does not eat it the remnants are cast into water. Near the yūpa a dialogue takes place between the hotṛ who asks 'who wanders alone' (Vāj. S. XXIII. 9) and 'who was the first to be thought of' (Vāj. S. XXIII. 11) and the brahmā replies with Vāj. S. XXIII. 10 and 12 respectively. The horse is praised by repeating Ṛg. I. 163 (Āśv. X. 8. 5). A piece of cloth is spread over grass, thereon a mantle is spread and a gold piece is placed thereon and the horse is killed thereon. Before the words 'adhṛigo śamīdhvam' in the adhṛigu praiṣa Ṛg. I. 162 and Ṛg. I. 163. 12-13 are to be recited.
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When the horse is killed, the wives of the king go round it thrice from left to right with 'gaṇānām tvā', thrice from right to left with 'priyāṇām tvā' and again thrice from left with 'nidhinām tvā' (all in Vāj. S. XXIII. 19). They fan the dead horse with their garments while braiding their hair on the right side upwards loosening the hair on the left side and strike their left thighs with their right hands (Āp. XXII. 17. 13, Āśv. X. 8. 8). The crowned queen lies down by the side of the dead horse and both are covered by the adhvaryu with the mantle on which the horse lies and she unites with it (Āp. XXII. 18. 3-4, Kāt. XX. 6. 15-16). Then according to Āśv. X. 8. 10-13 outside the vedi the hotṛ abuses the crowned queen in obscene language and she returns the abuse along with her one hundred attendant princesses and the brahmā priest and the favourite wife enter into a similar obscene abuse. According to Kāt. XX. 6. 18 the four principal priests and the chamberlain enter into an obscene abusive dialogue (given in Vāj. S. XXIII. 22-31) with the queens along with their young female attendants. Vide Śat. Br. XIII. 2. 9 and Lāṭ. IX. 10. 3-6. The attendant princesses raise the crowned queen from near the horse with 'dadhikrāvṇo' (Ṛg. IV. 39. 6 = Vāj. S. XXIII. 32). The horse is cut up with golden, silver and iron (*lauhī* may mean copper) needles by the crowned queen, the favourite queen and the discarded one with Vāj. S. XXIII. 33-38.
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They take out the fat of the dead horse in place of the omentum taken from the goat in other sacrifices (Āp. XXII. 18. 10-11, Kāt. XX. 7. 7). The blood of the horse is cooked and offered at the end of the other offerings to sviṣṭakṛt (Āp. XXII. 19. 10 and Kāt. XX. 8. 8.). Before the omentum of the animals meant for Prajāpati is offered there is *brahmodya* (a theological dialogue, where questions and riddles are propounded and answers given) between the priests in the *sadas*. According to Āśv. X. 9. 2-3 at first the hotṛ asks the adhvaryu 'who roams alone &c.' (Vāj. S. 23. 45) and the adhvaryu replies 'the sun roams alone &c.' (Vāj. S. 23. 46). Then the hotṛ again asks 'what light is like the sun's &c.' (Vāj. S. 23. 47) and the adhvaryu replies 'truth is light equal to the sun &c.' (Vāj. S. 23. 48, which however reads 'brahma sūryasamam'). Then the brahmā priest asks udgātṛ and he replies (Vāj. S. 23. 49-50), then the udgātṛ asks a question and the brahmā replies (Vāj. S. 23. 51-52). Then the four priests come out and each asks the sacrificer who sits facing the east the question 'I ask you the furthest limit of the earth &c.' (Ṛg. I. 164. 34) and the sacrificer replies 'this vedi is the furthest limit' (Ṛg. I. 164. 35). Vide Lāṭ. IX. 10. 9-14 for almost the same questions and answers.²⁶⁷² Kāt. (XX. 7. 10-15) mentions Vāj. S. XXIII. 49-62 as the dialogue that takes place at this stage in the Aśvamedha and states that Ṛg. I. 164. 34 (= Vāj. S. XXIII.
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61) is the question propounded by the sacrificer (and not by the priests as Āśv. says). Two grahas called Mahiman are offered, one before the omentum is offered and the other after it (Śat. Br. XIII. 5. 2. 23 referring to Vāj. S. XXIII. 2, Āśv. X. 9. 4, Kāt. XX. 7. 16-17 and 27). Offerings of the vapā of all animals are made to the several deities of whom Prajāpati is the last. Then the king sits on a lion's or tiger's skin, a piece of gold is placed on his head with Rg. I. 90. 1, a bull-hide is held over his head, he is sprinkled with the remnants (saṁsrāva) of the offerings called *mahiman* and offerings are made to the twelve months, Madhu, Mādhava &c. and seasons Vasanta &c. After the several offerings, on the third pressing day, the sacrificer performs the final purificatory bath. At the end of the avabhṛtha iṣṭi, on the head of a bald man,²⁶⁷³ whose eye-balls are yellowish-brown, who has prominent teeth, who is suffering from white leprosy and who dips into water, an offering is made (three according to Āp. XX. 22. 6) with the words 'to Jumbaka, svāhā' (Vāj. S. XXV. 9). Vide Kāt. XX. 8. 16, Śāṅ. XVI. 18. 18 and Śat. XIV. 5. 4. The latter add two important details, viz. that the man should be of the Atri gotra and that he should enter such deep water that it should flood his mouth. The Tai. Br. III. 9. 15 says that the āhuti 'to Jumbaka, svāhā' is the last in Aśvamedha and that Jumbaka means Varuṇa. A hundred cows and a cart to which bulls are yoked are given to him.
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When the sacrificer comes out of the water after avabhṛtha persons guilty of such grave sins as brāhmaṇa murder plunge into that water and become purified without having performed the penances prescribed for such sins (Kāt. XX. 8. 17-18).²⁶⁷⁴