The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s18.9

v2.c30.s18.9

At the Viṣuvant the sun is honoured with offerings, but the Mahāvrata¹ is much more fully known to us. The rite is according to the ritual allowed to be performed variously as a one-day rite, an Ahīna, or in a Sattra, and the latter is its natural place. It is clearly an old festival of the winter solstice, and not even originally, as Hillebrandt holds, of the summer solstice, when the strengthening of the sun was an essential duty. There is beaten an earth drum, doubtless to scare away the demons who might attempt to overthrow the power of the sun; the Hotṛ sits on a swing and is swung to and fro, to represent the path of the sun in the sky, and strengthen its power to perform it; ritual abuse is exchanged for fertility purposes, between a student or, in a later usage, a Māgadha, and a hetaira; there is actually carried out sexual intercourse; the consecrated persons are alternately praised and reviled; there is a mimic fight between an Aryan and a Çūdra for the possession of a white round skin which is declared to be a symbol of the sun;² the skin of an unfruitful cow is hung up or stretched out and warriors pierce through it with arrows, perhaps as a rain spell.³ Women celebrate to the sound of the lute in the south the patrons of the ceremony: maids dance round the fire with water pitchers, while the Stotra is being performed: they pour the water on the fire, and their song shows that they desire richness in milk with water for the cows. The desire of heat and rain seems clearly united: the position of the sun nearest earth is indicated by the priest, who touches the board of the swing and the earth with one hand, and says, ‘The God hath united with the goddess’.¹