Praśna 7, Kaṇḍikā 18

1. “O immolator, is the oblation cooked?”^[1]

2. The immolator should reply, “Yes, it is cooked.”

3. After he has shaken the organs three times, he should keep the heart above all.

4. He should go round towards the north, and pour out pṛṣadājya on the heart with the formula, “Let thy mind (be united) with the minds (of gods); let thy breath with the breath. May this offering, rich in ghee, be pleasing to the gods and Indra-Agni, svāhā.”^[2]

5. He should recite over the steam issuing out (of the pitcher) the formula, “To the non-staggering of the steam, svāhā.”

6. If the organs were bruised, he should recite over them the same formula.

7. He should pour out clarified butter on the organs with that verse with which it is prescribed to be poured on the sāṃnāyya,^[3] take them down with that verse with which it is prescribed to be taken down,^[4] carry them from between the cātvāla and the rubbish-heap, and between the sacrificial post and the Āhavanīya fire, and place them on the southern buttock of the altar with the pañcahotṛ^[5] formula.

8. A twig of plakṣa should be placed upon the Barhis.

9. On the middle part of the twig, he should make the cuttings of the organs.

10. He should spread the clarified butter as base in four utensils—in the Juhū, in the Upabhṛt, in the pan called samavattadhānī and in the ladle called vasāhomahavanī.

11. Having put the pieces of gold into the Juhū and the Upabhṛt, he should say (to the Maitrāvaruṇa),“Do you recite for Manotā the verses in connection with the oblation being cut out.”

12. First of all he should take out cuttings of the heart; then those of the tongue; then those of the sternum; then those of the left fore-arm; then those of the two thoracic walls; then those of the liver; then thos [those?] of the two kidneys; then those of the right buttock; and then those of the rectum with anus.^[6]

13. He should take two cuttings of each of the organs.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā VI.3.10.1. Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra VII.23.5: He should inquire for the second time at half the distance and for the third time after reading the place.

[2]:

Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.3. 10.1.

[3]:

II.10.6.

[4]:

I.14.2.

[5]:

Taittirīya-āraṇyaka III.1. cf. Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa II.2.8.2.

[6]:

According to Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra VII.24.2-4, after the sternum, he should cut them in any order; the rectum with anus, should, however, be cut as the middle one of all organs. Or in that order in which the organs were extracted out of the animal.