History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.175

v4.c62.175

The Nītimayūkha pp. 4-5, Rājanītiprakāśa pp. 42-43, Rājadharmakaustubha pp. 335-336 quote a passage from the Gopatha Brāhmaṇa¹⁰⁶ on the rites of coronation as follows:—We shall expound the rite of the coronation of the king. Having collected the materials required such as bilva fruit, viz. sixteen jars, sixteen bilva fruits, earth from an ant-hill, all kinds of husked grains, all liquids, and all kinds of grains (unhusked). There should be four jars each of gold, silver, copper and clay. Having filled them, keeping their mouths up, with water from a deep reservoir of water or a lake to the accompaniment of the mantra ‘nāmaināma’ (?) and having put the jars down on the surface of the altar, he (the priest) should place one bilva fruit apiece in each of the 16 jars and cast (into the jars) the husked and unhusked grains and all fluids, adding them (to the water) in the golden jars with the mantras called Abhaya (Atharvaveda 19.15), Aparājita, Āyuṣya (Atharvaveda I. 30) and Svastyayana¹⁰⁷ (Atharvaveda I. 21, VII. 85. 1, VII. 86. 1, VII. 117. 1), in the silver jars, with the mantras called saṁsrāvya (Atharvaveda 19.1) and Saṁsiktiya (Atharvaveda II. 26), in the copper jars with the mantras called Bhaiṣajya (Atharva VII. 45 ‘janād’) and Aṁhomuc and in the earthen jars with Saṁveśa, Saṁvargya and Saṁtātīya mantras and with the Prāṇa hymn (Atharvaveda XI. 4). He should then bathe the king with (the water of) the jars held by very holy and learned brāhmaṇas (śrotriyas). He should consecrate the king seated on the throne with the mantra (Atharvaveda IV. 22. 1) ‘O Indra, make this my kṣatriya prosper’. (The king) being thus bathed should eat the several liquids, should make gifts of a thousand cows to the brāhmaṇa priests who assist the chief priest, bestow a good village on the chief priest. He (the king) thereby acquires great glory, enjoys the earth and always vanquishes his foes’.