The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s8.4

v2.c30.s8.4

The offering is preceded by the choice of the priests, who are invited to come by a herald announcing the offering, and the obtaining of a place of sacrifice which the sacrificer asks from the prince, and which the latter must give on pain of the grave displeasure of the priest. Before or after this act, the consecration of the sacrificer takes place in the manner above ¹ described. The length of the consecration may last anything from one, three, or four days up to a year: he sends out people to obtain food for him in this time, and his name is absolutely taboo. Then comes the purchase of the Soma, in which takes place a pretended buying by a cow, but it is taken away from the seller: there is a clear mimicry in some measure of the winning of the divine drink from the hands of the Gandharvas. The Soma is then brought forward on a cart, and the Subrahmaṇya utters the formula, whence he derives his name, and which invites Indra to the drinking of the Soma. The guest-offering is then given to the Soma, and the priests and the sacrificer, by touching together butter taken from the guest-offering, conclude a close alliance not to prove false to one another in the rite. The Āgnīdhra brings the Madantī waters which all touch, and the sacrificer undertakes the Avāntaradīkṣā, ‘intermediate consecration’, in which he draws tighter his girdle, clasps more firmly his fist, and only drinks warm milk. Then comes the Pravargya rite, which will be described below, and three days of Upasads, in which offerings are made before and after midday with reference to the iron, silver, and golden forms of Agni. The term refers to sieges, but it is impossible to accept the suggestion of Hillebrandt ² that the rites of besieging cities have been here interpolated: the siege is a mythical one. The second Upasad day is the time for the construction of the Mahāvedi, 'great altar'. The carts, which have the Soma, are placed in it, and three paces east from its west end is the Sadas, 'seat', which is a hut covered over, in which ceremony the Udgātṛ helps the Adhvaryu as in other parts of the service. In front of the axle of the right-hand cart four sounding holes are made, which are used as an earth drum to increase the sound of the pressing of the Soma with the stones. Over the holes, which at the foot are not separated, are placed the pressing-boards, and over them again the skin on which the stones are placed. The earth thrown up from the pit serves to make six fire hearths or Dhiṣṇyas, which extend from south to north, and are appropriated to the Maitrāvaruṇa, Hotṛ, Brāhmaṇācchaṅsin, Potṛ, Neṣṭṛ and Achāvāka. Outside the Sadas, on the right side of the Vedi, is the Mārjālīya hearth, used for cleansing the utensils, and opposite it the hut for the Āgnīdhrīya fire.