Hindu Medicine c7.73

c7.73

Moreover, the magic power of the principal sacred ingredients and implements of the sacrifice to the gods is invited to join forces with the herbal arcanum as it takes effect (20): the Aśvattha tree, which yields the stick for stirring the sacred and the domestic fires; the holy grass (darbha), which is possessed with exorcising power. The latter serves to cover the altar and the seat of the Fire-god; moreover it is bundled into a brush and used to scrape clean the sacrificial ground, to remove particles of defiling matter which might harbor demonic forces obstructive to the sacrificial procedure. These powerful utensils are invoked to cooperate with the usual oblation to the gods: Soma, the nectar, which invigorates the celestials; barley-water and rice-cakes, transubstantiated into divine fare through having been offered to the gods. And the divine materials, evidently, are to be activated through the unconsumed remainders which are sprinkled upon the amulet. This medicinal ritual is to be inferred from the parallel hymns and the treatments of which they form the oral part.