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The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s19: § 19. The Sautrāmaṇī

The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s19

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§ 19. The Sautrāmaṇī

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The Sautrāmaṇī⁶ is not a Soma sacrifice, but is classified by the Sūtras as a Haviryajña, though its chief characteristic in its form as recorded is the offering of Surā. It has two distinct forms, the Kaukilī, which is an independent offering, the other the Carakā, an offering which forms part of another offering, as the Rājasūya and the Agnicayana. It is prescribed for various occasions, but the characteristic ones are the rites for a man who is vomiting Soma, or from whose nose, ears, &c., Soma flows as a result of over-indulgence in the drink. The Carakā form seems clearly a reference to the school of the Black Yajurveda, which is often so named: the view of Hillebrandt¹ that it alludes to the medical teacher Caraka, in whose school Surā was used as medicine, is improbable and unsupported by any evidence. The differences between the two forms are of detail: thus the Kaukilī is marked by the singing by the Brahman of certain Sāmans. The use of the Surā is accompanied by offerings of animals, to Indra a bull, to Sarasvatī a sheep, and to the Açvins a goat. These are offered on the fourth day of the rite, which is modelled on the fourth-day Soma sacrifice, along with oblations of milk, of Surā, and of animal fat. The goat for Agni and Soma, which in the Soma sacrifice precedes the pressing day, is replaced by a bull for Agni, and the barren cow at the end of the Soma rite is replaced by a bull for Indra Vayodhas. In the Surā, which is prepared from various kinds of herbs in a wonderful way, are mixed hairs² of a lion, a tiger, and a wolf, to confer corresponding characteristics on the partakers of the cups of Surā. The Fathers also receive an offering of the Surā. After the libation to Vanaspati in the animal offering, a throne of Muñja grass is set down between the two Vedis, which, as at the Varuṇapraghāsas, are used in this rite, and on this the sacrificer sits down with silver under his left and gold under his right foot: the offerings, thirty-two in number, of fat are then made, while the remainder is used to sprinkle the sacrificer, so that it flows from his mouth. The Adhvaryu then touches the sacrificer, who calls on his servants with their ritual names, and they lift him up first knee high, then navel high, and then as high as the mouth. He then steps on to a tiger-skin as establishing himself in the lordship: the thirty-third cup of fat is offered, a Sāman is sung, and all join in the finale. A milk offering to Mitra and Varuṇa, and a bull for Indra Vayodhas conclude the rite.

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⁶ BÇS. xvii. 31–8; MÇS. v. 2. 4, 11; ApÇS. xix; HÇS. xiii. 24; KÇS. xv. 9. 27 ff.; xix; ĀÇS. iii. 9; ÇÇS. xv. 15; LÇS. v 4. 11 ff.; Vait. xxx.

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¹ *Rituallitteratur*, p. 159. Windisch (*Buddha's Geburt*, pp. 51, 52) thinks that the medical school has its name from the Vedic school in which, he thinks, medicine was much studied. Of this, however, there is not the slightest proof. Cf. also Keith, ZDMG. lxii. 135 ff.; *Taittirīya Saṁhitā*, i. p. cxxii. The two kinds in MÇS. are Kaukilī and Aiṣṭikī.

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² Cf. the use of hairs of a bull in feeding the newly born child; below, Chap. 21, § 3.

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It is conjectured by Hillebrandt³ that the rite was taken over by the Indians from a non-Brahmanical tribe, and then remodelled on the basis of the Soma ritual: he thinks that the Surā was once a drink akin to the Madhu, and offered to the Açvins. The Açvins are not prominent as Soma-drinkers, but they certainly are connected with the Madhu, and the Surā seems from the evidence of the Avesta to have been once a sacred and honoured drink. The Madhu or Surā cult, he thinks, may have flourished on the banks of the Sarasvatī, where the Vasiṣṭhas show little anxiety about the Soma cult, and may not originally have practised it, but have learned it from later intruders. The hypothesis, however, is not supported by any evidence of value,¹ and there are clear traces that the rite was based on myth, that of the effects on Indra of over-indulgence in Soma and the resulting illness which was cured by the efforts of the Açvins and Sarasvatī, a fact alluded to in the Rigveda.

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³ *Ved. Myth.* i. 250 ff. On the Avestan Hurā see Geiger, *Ostiran. Kultur*, p. 233.

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¹ Bloomfield, *JAOS.* xv. 193 ff.; Keith, *Taittirīya Saṁhitā*, i. pp. cxxii ff.

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