History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c53.s3.12

History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c53.s3.12

Language: English

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On the day of the last dīkṣā the measuring of the plot to be used as vedi takes place. Measurements are made with a rope which is in length twice the height of the sacrificer. A fifth part of the sacrificer's height is called aratni, tenth part is called pada, each pada is divided into twelve aṅgulas and three padas make a prakrama (Kāt. XVI. 8. 21). The ground for the uttaravedi on which the altar is to be constructed is ploughed with an udumbara plough and the ropes are made of muñja. Six, twelve or twenty-four oxen are yoked to the plough. He sows on the furrows made by the plough various kinds²⁶⁹⁰ of corns (Āp. XVI. 19. 11-13 says fourteen kinds, seven being *grāmya* and seven *wild*). He omits one kind of corn which he has to abstain from partaking throughout life thereafter (Kāt. XVII. 3. 6-7). If so many kinds of corn cannot be had then in those furrows barley corn mixed with honey is sown. Then clods of earth are put thereon and the ground is made level. Several things are got ready and placed one after another on this ground (Āp. XVI. 13. 10 where they are said to be bricks but not of clay). Vide Sat. XI. 5. 21 also. The placing of bricks is begun after the first upasad (Sat. XI. 7. 2). A lotus leaf is first laid down on the spot where the horse planted its hoof (Āp. XVI. 22. 3) and on that leaf the golden ornament worn by the yajamāna at the time of the Viṣṇu strides is placed with the mantra 'brahma jajñānam' (Vāj. S. XIII. 3, Tai. S. IV. 2. 8. 2).

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To the south of that ornament is laid down the golden image of a man with head to the east and face turned to the sky in such a way that the image does not cover the hole pierced in the golden ornament (disc) by passing a string with which it was tied round the neck (the mantra repeated being very significant 'in the beginning Hiraṇyagarbha arose' Ṛg. X. 121. 1 = Vāj. S. XIII. 4). The sacrificer performs the adoration (upasthāna) to the golden man with the three verses 'bow to the serpents' (Vāj. S. XIII. 6-8, Tai. S. IV. 2. 8. 3). One should thereafter never go to the north of the image from the south by passing in front of it (i. e. to the east of it). By the side of the two arms of the golden man he places two srucs (one of kārśmarya wood filled with ghee near the right hand and the other of udumbara filled with curds near the left) with their tops to the east. A brick called svayamātṛṇṇā on which *ājya* is offered and over which the yajamāna breaths is handed over to a brāhmaṇa who places it in the centre with the help of the adhvaryu, the brāhmaṇa being looked upon as fire (Tai. S. V. 2. 8. 2). On that brick a dūrvā creeper is placed in such a way that its roots are on the brick and its tops hang on to the ground towards the east. Then the brick called *dviyajus* is laid to the east of the dūrvā, two retaḥsic bricks to the east of the preceding, then two ṛtavya bricks and then the Aṣāḍhā brick is placed to the east of the preceding.

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On all ṛtavya bricks *avakās* (mosslike plants) are deposited. About one aratni to the south of the Aṣāḍhā brick and to the east of the Svayamātṛṇṇā brick he places a living tortoise with its face to the east on the avakā plants (Āp. XVI. 25. 1, Kāt. XVII. 4. 27-28). The tortoise is anointed with a mixture of ghee, honey and curds, is enveloped in moss covered with a net and made motionless by means ²⁶⁹¹ of pegs (Āp. XVII. 25. 2, Śat. XI. 7. 42). When depositing the tortoise it is invoked with three verses (Vāj. S. XIII. 30-32) which express the wish that the tortoise may go to the deep waters, that the sun and fire may not torment it by heat, that it may reach heavenly worlds and that divine rain may follow. Even in modern times a tortoise is so built up into the altar. A mortar ²⁶⁹² and pestle of udumbara wood, each one span in length (the mortar being contracted in the middle and the pestle being rounded) are placed about one aratni to the north of the svayamātṛṇṇā brick. A śūrpa also is placed near the above two (Āp. XVI. 26. 5). The ukhā filled with sand, ghee and honey is placed on the mortar and offerings of ājya are made on it with the sruva ladle. The fire in the ukhā is transferred to a hearth with eight bricks in the centre of the fifth layer, on which a second layer of eight bricks (called punaściti) is laid. This fire becomes the gārhapatya for the Fire-altar (Śat. Br. VIII. 6. 3. 7-11, Kāt. XVII. 12. 18-21).

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Seven pieces of gold are placed on the golden image, the first on the mouth, then two each on the two nostrils, the two eyes and two ears. In the forepart of the ukhā, the heads of the five animals (on which curds and honey are poured and on which 7 gold pieces are thrust) are placed in a certain order. The human head is in the middle, to the north the heads of the horse and ram and to the south the heads of the bull and goat (Kāt. XVII. 5. 13-18, Āp. XVI. 27. 5-19). According to Āp. and Sat. the head of a serpent also may be placed (Āp. XVI. 27. 22, Sat. XI. 7. 63) or only the mantras 'namo astu sarpebhyaḥ' (Vāj. S. XIII. 6-8, Tai. S. IV. 2. 8. 3) may be recited. The various kinds of bricks are heaped in various directions on thick mud spread on the above stated things so as to form the first layer. According to Sat. (XI. 5. 22) each layer consists of only 200 bricks (1000 for all five), when the sacrificer performs the cayana for the first time; he employs 2000 for all layers when he performs it a second time and this number goes on increasing each time he repeats agnicayana.²⁶⁹³ According to the Śat. Br. (S.B.E. vol. 43 p. 22 n. 1), Kāt. XVII. 7. 21-23 the bricks required for all the five layers are 10800. The time required for piling also varies. Some held that the piling took one year (8 months for the first four layers and 4 months for the last) or all the layers may be laid in a few days. Sat (XII. 1. 1 ff) and Āp. (XVII. 1. 1-11, XVII. 2. 8, XVII. 3.

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1) state that the five layers are laid on five successive days. On each layer thick mud (*purīṣa*) prepared from the earth (mixed with water) dug out of the cātvāla pit after touching a dark or bay horse that stands to the north is spread with '*pṛṣṭo divi*' (Vāj. S. XVIII. 73, Tai. S. I. 5. 11. 1 quoted by Āp. XVI. 34. 6-7, Sat. XI. 5. ). Each layer and the spreading of mud are carried out each day between the two upasads (morning one and afternoon one). When all the layers are completed the āhavanīya fire is established on the altar so built. Eight dhiṣṇyas, square or round, have to be constructed with bricks, viz. the āgnīdhriya and 7 others as in somayāga (but the number of bricks for each differs). A small round and variegated stone (aśman) is placed to the south of the āgnīdhra's place on the northern part of the fire-altar. A fuel-stick is kindled on the new gārhapatya hearth, taken over the svayamātṛṇṇā brick of the 5th layer and an offering of the milk of a dark cow whose calf is white is made on that fire. Śatarudriya homa is offered to Rudra. On the western corner of the northern side of the Fire-altar which is enclosed by a line of stones on all sides there are three stones, as high as the knee, naval and mouth on which (serving as āhavanīya) 425 oblations are offered to Rudra and his fearful aspects by means of the leaf of the Arka plant (serving as juhū) of wild sesame mixed with gavedhukā. A twig of arka plant is used to clear the leaf of the offerings.

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The priest faces the north and makes the oblations standing, the mantras being taken from the Śatarudriya section (bginning with 'namaste rudra manyave,' Vāj. S. XVI. 1-66, Tai. S. IV. 5. 1-10). The arka leaf and twig are thrown into fire. The altar is cooled by the āgnīdhra with the water from a jar which is held over the stone referred to above. The stone is thrown to the south of the altar with 'May sorrow go to him whom we hate' (Vāj. S. XVII. 1) and if it is not broken the adhvaryu breaks it into pieces. On a long bamboo, a frog, avakā plants and reed (vetasa) twigs are tied and drawn over the altar from the south hip to the south shoulder²⁶⁹⁴ and then they are thrown on the utkara. The Gāyatra, Rathantara and other sāmans are sung (Śat. Br. IX. 1. 2. 35 ff, Kāt. XVIII. 3. 1 ff). Then follow numerous offerings, viz. one puroḍāśa to Vaiśvānara and 7 puroḍāśas to the Maruts,²⁶⁹⁵ Vasordhārā²⁶⁹⁶ (stream of wealth) offerings of ājya from an udumbara sruc, which is finally thrown into the fire, 6 Pārtha oblations as in Rājasūya followed later by six more after the abhiṣeka of the sacrificer, the Vājaprasavīya²⁶⁹⁷ offerings of the mixture of milk and water with the gruel of 14 *grāmya* and wild corns with an udumbara sruva that is four-cornered like a camasa (the sruva being thrown into the fire at the end).

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With the remnants of Vājaprasavīya offerings collected in a pot he sprinkles the sacrificer who sits on a dark antelope skin spread on an udumbara couch to the north of the tail of the fire altar. A royal sacrificer sits on a tiger skin and a vaiśya on a goat-skin. After this six Pārtha offerings are made followed by twelve Rāṣṭrabhṛt (supporting the kingdom) homas of ājya with mantras, that contain the words ‘vāṭ’ and ‘svāhā’ (Vāj. S. XVIII. 38-43, Tai. S. III. 4. 7).²⁶⁹⁸ Then three Vāta (wind) homas are offered catching with his joined hands wind outside the vedi to the east and the three winds thus caught are represented as yoked to the chariot like horses, the mantra being Vāj. S. XVIII. 45, Tai. S. IV. 7. 12. 3 (Kāt. XVIII. 6. 1-3, Āp. XVII. 20. 11).