The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s6.9

v1.c27.s6.9

A further important function of the fire as used at the ritual is cathartic in a different way: at the end of the offering it is desirable to remove from possibility of human contact the apparatus of the sacrifice, which has been filled by its use at the sacrifice with a superhuman character and danger. The strew of grass, which covers the altar, is burnt, and the same mode of disposal is applied to the Svāru or chip of wood, which is used for several mystical purposes at the animal offering, the ointment used for the anointing of the piler of the fire altar, the twig with which at the new and full moon offerings the calves are driven away from the cows which are to give the milk, the spits used at the animal sacrifice for holding the pieces of the victim: the idea animating these usages, and the parallel one of burying such dangerous objects, is illustrated very clearly ¹ by the rule that the spit which has been used for the heart of the victim, the seat of life, must not be laid on the earth or water, but must be buried in secret, the burier turning away without looking back. A further kind of purification is the final bath at the end of the offering and the use of washing: the sense of cleansing and destroying is seen in the practice of letting things float away on water.