Bharadvaja-srauta-sutra
by C. G. Kashikar | 1964 | 166,530 words
The English translation of the Bharadvaja-Srauta-Sutra, representing some of the oldest texts on Hindu rituals and rites of passages, dating to at least the 1st millennium BCE. The term Srautasutra refers to a class of Sanskrit Sutra literature dealing with ceremonies based on the Brahmana divisions of the Veda (Sruti). They include Vedic rituals r...
Praśna 6, Kaṇḍikā 18
1. If the sacrificer is going to perform the Āgrayaṇa sacrifice of śyāmāka grains separately, he should pour out śyāmāka grains for offering cooked śyāmāka grains to Soma after they have become ripe.
2. This same is the procedure for it.
3. The difference is only this: He should give away a garment as dakṣiṇā.[1]
4. The sacrifice should come to an end in the prescribed manner.[2]
5. The sacrificer should offer the firstjfruits of barley.
6. The procedure for the same has been explained by the offering of (the first fruit of) paddy.
7. The difference is only this: The sacrificer should consume the remnants of the oblation of barley with the verse, “The gods ploughed, with regard to Manu, this barley mixed with the sweetness of Saras-vatī. Indra, the hundred-powered, was the lord of the plough. Maruts, giving richly, were the ploughers.”[3]
8. The sacrificer should give away as dakṣiṇā the first of the calves which were born after the ekāṣtakā.
9. The sacrifice should come to an end in the prescribed manner.
10. The sacrificer should perform the New-moon sacrifice or the Fullmoon sacrifice with new grains.[4]
11. Or as the next best alternative, he should offer the Agnihotra with new grains.
12. Or as the next best alternative, he should cause the Agnihotra-cow to eat new grains, and offer the evening and the morning Agnihotra with her milk.
13. Or as the next best alternative, he should cook on the Gārhapatya fire rice of four panfuls of paddy, offer oblations to the divinities of the Āgrayaṇa sacrifice, sviṣṭakṛt Agni being the fourth divinity, and feed the Brāhmaṇas[5] (with the remaining cooked rice).
14. One should consume at his will green barley, leguminous grains, and vegetables, even though he has not offered an oblation of them.[6]
15. The first products of roots and leaves should be given away.
16. After having performed the (Āgrayaṇa) sacrifice with paddy, one should be offering paddy itself (in the New-moon and the Full-moon sacrifices) until the Āgrayaṇa sacrifice of barley. After having performed the (Āgrayaṇa) sacrifice with barley, one should be offering barley itself until the Āgrayaṇa sacrifice of paddy. Or he may be offering paddy itself.
17. In this way one should be offering each of the above-mentioned grains throughout his life.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra VI.31.5 mentions certain varieties of food as the optional dakṣiṇā.
[3]:
Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa II.4.8.7.
[4]:
This evidently is an option for the Āgrayaṇa sacrifice, cf. Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra VI.30.13. The first option mentioned in ĀpSŚ VI.30.12 is to offer Āgrayaṇa oblations combinedly with the oblations either of a New-moon or a Full-moon sacrifice.
[5]:
Four Brāhmaṇas, according to Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra VI.30.17.
[6]:
Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra VI.31.8-12 mentions a view prescribing the offering of the veṇuyavas,