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 10, Kaṇḍikā 11
1. The sacrificer should pray to the rising sun with the verse, “O Agni, I send you (whom) the brilliant sun (is accompanying), according to portions, the speech which, among the animals, first rested in a bull. May the auspicious speech return to us.”
2. After the sun has risen and after the vrata has been milked out, the sacrificer should release his speech with the calling out,“Do you fetch the vrata.”
3. In this manner he should consume vrata at midday.
4. When the rays of the sun are hovering over the tops of trees, one, who is going to give the vrata to the sacrificer, should cause the sacrificer to restrain his speech (with the call), “Do you enkindle the sacred fires; O sacrificer, do you restrain speech; O sacrificer’s wife, do you restrain speech.”
5. Similarly (should he act) hereafter.
6. The sacrificer should consume vrata (milk) at midnight and at midday.
7. Similarly at sunrise.
8. When the rays of the sun are hovering over the tops of trees, one, who is going to give the vrata to the sacrificer, should cause the sacrificer to restrain ḥis speech.
9. There is a view that there is no consuming of the vrata on the pressing day. There is another view that there is.
10. The sacrificer, while he is going to lie down, should recite over the Āhavanīya fire the formula, “O Agni, do thou be awake; may we rejoice. Guard us to prosperity; give us back to the awakening.”[1]
11. After having awakened, he should murmur the verse, “O god Agni, thou art the guardian of the ordinances among the mortals. Thou art to be honoured in the sacrifices;”[2] and also the formula, “All gods have turned towards me.”[2]
12. He should say, “O god Agni, thou art the guardian of ordinances among mortals. Thou art to be honoured in the sacrifices,”[3] when he is going to sleep, or after having slept, or after having awakened, or if he has uttered speech not fit to be uttered by the consecrated.
13. Hereafter this should be the procedure of lying down and of awakening.
14. With the formula, “Pūṣan with gain, Soma with gift,”[4]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.2.3.1.
[2]:
Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.2.3.1.
[3]:
Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.2.3.1.