The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c28.s2.1

v1.c28.s2.1

As the Dīkṣā is the beginning of the Soma sacrifice, so the end of it and also of many other offerings is the Avabhṛtha, or 'concluding bath'.² The word is found already in the Rigveda,³ and undoubtedly in the original sense, and the practice must therefore be assumed to have existed from the earliest period of the Vedic religion. The meaning of it is clear: it is the carrying down to the waters of the various things which are to be disposed of after the offering is over. The ceremony at the end of the Soma sacrifice is simple: the skins of antelope hide and the girdles, which the sacrificer and his wife have been wearing throughout the rite, are taken off, and cast into the water along with the utensils which have come into contact with the Soma and with the pressed shoots of the Soma plant. Then the two go into the water and rub the backs of each other: then they come out from the water, and thereupon put on fresh garments. The performance is made into a sacrifice by the fact that offerings are made and verses addressed to Varuṇa, claiming him as the possessor of many healing powers, imploring him to drive away hate, and to pardon sin. The bath itself is addressed as the cause of the removal of sin. But these forms are obviously mere cloaks for the fact that the washing is the chief thing, and that it concerns itself with the removal of the mysterious potency, which has clung since the Dīkṣā to the sacrificer and his wife, rendering them unfit for normal human life. That this was realized by the priest is clearly proved by the language used of the rite:⁴ the waters are distinctly said to remove the consecration and the Tapas, and it is stated that the sacrificer takes the consecration with him into the bath. The meaning is illustrated by the parallel procedure in the case of the undertaking of a vow of study by a Brahman. He then assumes a girdle, an antelope skin, and a staff, and at the end of the vow all these things are solemnly laid aside, and he takes a bath.⁵