History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s2.t2.27

v1.c26.s2.t2.27

The Gṛhya and Śautra vedic sacrifices enshrined in the *Sūtras* employed an enormous number of utensils of rigidly specified design and structure. These are shown in Table 1 (Vesci, 1985; Sen, 1978). The soma rites were performed three times a day, and employed twelve main vessels for various types of cooking, like *sthālīpāka*, cooking in a pot, and *śutagrāva*, roasting on a spit. The *pravargya* rite, which is part of the soma sacrifice, required the making each time of a special, round, fired clay vessel with a wide mouth called a *mahāvīra*, which is heated intensely in the course of the rite (Vesci, 1985, p. 215). For the *ajamedha*, or goat sacrifice, a special clay cauldron called the *gharma* had to be made for cooking the meat (Vesci, 1985, p. 69). The *aśvamedha* or horse sacrifice also called for a huge square clay cauldron termed the *ukha* for cooking the flesh, and hollow metal skewers for roasting certain organs after their dissection (Vesci, 1985, p. 32). In contrast to the potter’s wheel that was in use much earlier to turn clay in the Indus Valley, these large clay vessels had all to be kneaded by hand to exacting schedules using certain special clays (e.g. from an ant-hill, or from a place snouted open by pigs). Similarly the *aṣṭaka* cake had to be made with exactly four full *śaravas* of rice. The sacrificial *puroḍāśa* cake of rice or barley flour had to be baked in a flat clay vessel with a specific number of hollows of various shapes for different purposes (Apte, 1939, pp. 95-102).