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 18
1. The Adhvaryu should take away the king (Soma) from the Soma-dealer with the formula, “Thou art self-born; thou art self-existent; thou art born for this rite; I take thee with order; guard me with order.”[1]
2. After the Soma has been bought, the sacrificer should take off his upper garment.[2]
3. He should then hand over his staff to the Maitrāvaruṇa.
4. According to some teachers, he should hand it over on the day preceding the pressing day.
5. He should recite the formula, “Come to me as a friend, giving good friends,”[3] over the Soma being taken up.
6. The Adhvaryu should place the Soma on the right lap of the sacrificer with the formula, “Do thou enter upon the right lap of Indra, longing for one who longs you and favourable to one who is favourable to you.”[4]
7. The Sacrificer should ask the Adhvaryu, “O Adhvaryu, are you capable (of taking away the Soma)?”
8. The Adhvaryu should say, “Yes, we are capable.”
9. The sacrificer should ask, “How are you capable?”
10. The Adhvaryu should hold the Soma with the verse, “We have chanted the Sāman in the Bṛhatī metre for Viṣṇu; we have pronounced the formulas. The mountains have burst open; I have descended into well-fordable waters.”
11. The sacrificer should turn round the Soma-cow with the formula forming the remaining portion of the Anuvāka, “May Rudra turn thee on the way of Mitra. Do thou, who hast Soma as the friend, come back together with wealth.”[5]
12. The Adhvaryu should buy her off with another cow, and send her forth in the sacrificer’s stable.
13. The Soma-dealer should be driven away hit with a spotted leather-whip.
14. According to some teachers, he should be bit with clods; according to others, with logs.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Taittirīya-saṃhitā VI.1.10.4. Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra X.26.16, following Caraka-kaṭha-saṃhitā XXIV.6 adds: if the Soma-dealer creates trouble, one should take away the Soma by force.
[3]:
Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.2.7.1.
[4]:
Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.2.7.1,2.
[5]:
Taittirīya-saṃhitā I.2.4.2.