The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s18.1

v2.c30.s18.1

The rite of twelve days, Dvādaçāha,³ may be performed either as an Ahīna or a Sattra, and all rites with more than twelve pressing days are Sattras: the number of years they may be continued extends to thirty-six or more up to 1,000. The Sattras all differ from other forms of the Soma sacrifice, because all the performers must be consecrated and must be Brahmans: there is therefore no separate sacrificer: all share in the benefits of the offering: each bears the burden of his own errors, whereas at the ordinary sacrifice the sacrificer receives the benefit and the evil results of errors alike. Moreover, they should usually be Brahmans who perform the same kinds of rites, and have the same deity, Tanūnapāt or Narāçaṅsa, at the Āprī invocation; if not, the deity of the majority is adopted. During the Sattra all other sacrifices cease to be performed by the priests taking part in the rite: any sexual intercourse is forbidden, as are swift movements, laughing without holding the hand before the mouth, untruth, connexions with non-Aryans, and so forth. One of them plays the part of sacrificer: the others hold on to him when he does those acts which only one man can perform. The Adhvaryu consecrates the sacrificer, and so on until a student consecrates the Unnetṛ. The wives of the priests are also consecrated each with her husband. There are no fees: instead the priests go south saying as they shake black skins, ‘What here from my life departeth, that, O Agada, I bring to thee as a fee,’ evidently a device to secure long life. The aims of the Sattras are most various: the obtaining of wealth, of cattle, of offspring, of prosperous marriage, and many other things. Much as they are, it is clear, elaborated by the priest, they reflect here and there primitive conceptions of sacrifice.