Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s2.444

v2.c4.s2.444

The number varied: the ritual literature requires sixteen priests to be employed at the greatest sacrifices (see Ṛtvij), but other rites could be accomplished with four,¹⁰⁶ five,¹⁰⁷ six,¹⁰⁸ seven,¹⁰⁹ or ten¹¹⁰ priests. Again, the Kauṣītakins¹¹¹ had a seventeenth priest beside the usual sixteen, the Sadasya, so called because he watched the performance from the Sadas, ‘seat.’ In one rite, the Sattra (‘sacrificial session’) of the serpents, the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa,¹¹² adds three more to the sixteen, a second Unnetṛ, an Abhigara, and an Apagara. The later ritual places the Brahman at the head of all the priests, but this is probably not the early view (see Brahman).