History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.152

v5.c71.s1.152

*Homa* (sacrifice into fire). The Tai. Ā. (II 7-8) describes¹⁰² the kūsmāṇḍa homa and dīkṣā and II. 8 prescribes that the man who regards himself as impure should offer a sacrifice with the kūsmāṇḍa mantras (mentioned in Tai Ā. II. 3-6, viz 'yaddevā deva-hedanam' (Vāj. S 20 14-16 = Tai. Ā. II 3.1) The Mahārṇavakarmavipāka (folio 8 a) prescribes the procedure of Kūsmāṇḍa homa taken from Jamadagni which is brief. It is as follows.—After shaving the hair on the head and the moustache and taking a bath in holy water one should offer the ājyabhāgas and then offer oblations of clarified butter with the three *Anuvākas* beginning with 'yad devā devahedanam,' and then he worships fire with the verses beginning with 'Vaiśvānārāya pratipādayāmi' He then offers *samidh* with the mantra 'yadadīvayam' and then he repeats the Jayā mantras. He has to observe the rules for a dikṣita viz not eating flesh, avoiding sexual intercourse, not telling a falsehood and not sleeping on a cot. He has to subsist on milk (if he is a brāhmaṇa), on barley gruel if a kṣatriya and on āmikṣā if he is a vaiśya. The Kūsmāṇḍa-homa as prescribed by Baudhāyana is a longer one The Baud. Dh. S. III. 7 1 prescribes that he who considers himself impure should offer burnt oblations reciting the kūsmāṇḍa mantras, that he who has had forbidden intercourse becomes even like a thief or even like a slayer of a learned brāhmaṇa and that (by performing homa with kūṣmāṇḍas) he becomes free from any sin that is less than the murder of a learned brāhmaṇa Yāj III. 309 provides that whenever a twice-born man feels himself mixed up in heavy sins he should perform a homa with sesame with the sacred Gāyatrī *mantra*. The Mit following a verse of Yama says that one lakh of offerings of sesame must be made. Both Manu XI. 34 and Vas 26 16 say that a brāhmaṇa becomes free from all distresses by Vedic recitations (japa) and sacrifices (homa). When the wife confessed to the existence of a paramour, the Śat. Br. II. 5 2. 20 states that she made an offering into the *Dakṣiṇāgni* with the mantra (Vāj S. III 45) 'whatever¹⁰³ sin we have committed, whether in the village, in the forest, in society or by the organs of sense, we cast that away by this sacrifice, svāhā.' Both Manu (VIII. 105) and Yāj (II, 83) prescribe that when a witness tells a falsehood in order to prevent an accused person from being sentenced to death, he should offer for expiating his perjury an oblation of boiled rice to Sarasvatī There are other homas also prescribed such as the Gaṇahoma, in which such verses as 'agne naya supathā' from the Taittirīya śākhā are recited (Mahārṇava).