The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s10.1

v2.c30.s10.1

This is a special form⁶ of the animal sacrifice which takes the place of the simpler ritual observed in the Agniṣṭoma, when it is preferred to use eleven for the one victim there prescribed. In that case the ceremony is lengthened by the performance for each of the victims of the formal rite of the slaying, &c.: the general parts, such as the fore-offerings, are not repeated for each. Thirteen posts are used in place of one: the twelfth, the Upaçaya, is not set up, and the thirteenth is reserved under the name of Pātnīvata for an offering at the end of the ceremony. The middlemost post is placed near the fire, then one on either side, the rule being that the height increases from north to south: the Upaçaya is bound round with two cords, and placed at the southern post with maledictions on an enemy. To the centre post is tied the victim for Agni, north to it the sheep for Sarasvatī, south the goat for Soma, and so on, ending with the victim for Varuṇa on the south: mentally a beast of the wild, such as a mole, is attributed to the Upaçaya. After the offering of the omentum of the Anubandhyā cow, preparations are made for an offering of a victim to Tvaṣṭṛ at the Pātnīvata post, but the victim, which must be reddish brown, after the carrying round of fire is allowed to go free, being replaced by butter, with the offering of which the rite ends, unless it is stopped sooner at the carrying round of the fire.