The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s7.40.3

v1.c27.s7.40.3

The Adhvaryu in his turn has a certain number of formulae, normally in prose, to repeat as the several acts of the sacrifice proceed, in order to avert evil and invoke prosperity, but his main duty must have at first been, and even in the later ritual was, the management of the practical part of the offering, the preparation of the cakes and the straining and purifying of the Soma, the arranging of the many utensils, and the actual pouring of the offerings in the fire appropriate to each. In this work he had the constant aid of the Agnīdh, whose name denotes him as specially concerned with the kindling of the fire. This priest with the Adhvaryu, the Hotṛ, and the Brahman to oversee it all, managed many of the lesser offerings, and he was specially in these cases concerned with the keeping of fire burning, but naturally did much else beside. The position in which he stood to the Adhvaryu is neatly shown by the procedure, which was gone through before the Hotṛ said his Yājyā verse: he must be told to do so by the Adhvaryu, but before this takes place the Adhvaryu must address the Agnīdh with the words, ‘Om: make him hear’, to which the Agnīdh replies solemnly, ‘Be it so. Let him hear’. The episode is deliciously significant of the absurdities of the developed ritual.³ The close union of the two priests is perhaps the explanation of the two Adhvaryus in the list of priests already mentioned, though in the later tradition the second was the Pratiprasthātṛ.