The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s2.4

v2.c30.s2.4

After the Āhavanīya is set up follows, in the case of a Kṣatriya only it seems, the setting up of a Sabhya fire, one doubtless in the Sabhā, the meeting hall of the community. The ceremony for that is accompanied by the dicing for a cow as a prize by the priests perhaps or by Kṣatriyas: the game is as usual unintelligible: it seems to have amounted to a test of the power to produce even numbers.¹ In the normal case this ceremony is not performed, and the establishment of the fires ends with a full offering of butter to Agni, after which the Agnihotra can be duly performed with the fires. Twelve days afterwards, the fires being carefully maintained in the interval, may be performed the Tanūhavis offerings which are offerings to Agni in three forms, Pavamāna, Pavāka, and Çuci. As soon as the performance of the establishment is over, the sacrificer is bound to observe chastity for 3 to 12 days, maintain the fire, offer the Agnihotra, and sleep on the ground near the fire. After that he must for all his days avoid untruth, place no bad wood on the fire, eat nothing cooked by a covered fire, drink no water from a ship, and so on. If he is prosperous he must keep up the fires all his life.