Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 46 — Vedic Hymns, Part II / Hymns to Agni (Oldenberg, page scans)

the i'astras — though, no doubt, the stotra is sometimes said to belong to the priest who recites the ^astra in response to it — and this paragraph of the Brahmazza reads almost like the echo of an old discussion as to whether or not there should be recitations for the Hotrakas at the evening service of a complete Soma-sacrifice. If, in this way, the question of ' uktha or no uktha ' had become a sort of catchword for ritualistic controversy, one could understand how the term came ultimately to be applied to the three additional stotras and ^astras.

Not unfrequently, the Ukthya is treated merely as a redundant Agnish/oma, as an ' Agnish/oma>& soktha//,' or Agnish/oma with the Ukthas \ Considering, however, that the term Agnishfoma, properly speaking, belongs only to a Soma-sacrifice which ends with the Agnish/oma (saman), and that the addition of the Uktha-stotras also involves considerable modifications in the form of most of the pre- ceding chants, a new term such as Ukthya, based on the completing and characteristic chants of this form of sacri- fice, was decidedly more convenient. In regard to the composition of the preceding stotras, with the exception of the Madhyandina-pavamana and the Agnish/oma-saman, the Ukthya, indeed, may be said to constitute a parallel form of Sacrifice beside the Agnish/oma 2, the succeeding sa^sthas following the model of either the one or the other of these two parallel forms.

The Sho^/a^in-sacrifice requires, as a third victim, the

1 See, for instance, Tandya Br. XX, i, I.

2 Perhaps the most characteristic point of difference between these two forms in which the fundamental stotras are chanted is the first (or Hotrz's) Vrishtfa- stotra at the midday service. Whilst the Agnishfoma here requires the Ra- thantara-tune chanted on the text, Sama-veda S. II, 30, 31 ; the "Ukthya, on the other hand, requires the text, S. V. II, 159, 160, chanted to the Brzhat-tune. Professor Hillebrandt, I.e., p. 22, has, indeed, tried to show that these two tunes play an important part in early India in connection with the celebration of the solstices. A similar alternation of samans to that of the Hotrz's Frhht/ia.- stotra obtains at the third, or Brahmawa^Mawsin's PrcshMa-stotra ; the Nan- dhasa-saman (II, 35, 36) being used at the Agnish/oma, and the 6yaita-saman at the Ukthya-sacrifice. As regards the second (or Maitravaruwa'.s) and fourth (or A&Mavakas) PrzshMa-stotras, on the other hand, the same saman — viz. the Vamadevya (II, 32-34) and Kaleya (II, 37, 38) respectively— is used both at the Agnish/oma and Ukthya.

Introduction. Xv11

immolation of a ram to Indra ; and one additional chant, the sho^a.ri-stotra, with its attendant .sastra and Soma-cup. The most natural explanation of the name is the one supplied, in the first place, by Ait. Br. IV, i (as interpreted by Saya^a) — viz. the sacrifice which has sixteen, or a six- teenth, stotra \ But, as the name applies not only to the sacrifice but also to the stotra and ^astra, the Brahma^a further justifies the name by the peculiar composition of the sho^/aj-i-^astra in which the number sixteen prevails 2. Very probably, however, the name may have belonged to the sacrifice long before the ^astra, for symbolic reasons, had assumed the peculiar form it now presents.

In this summary of the characteristic features of the forms of Soma-sacrifice presupposed by the Va^apeya, no mention has yet been made of the Atyagnish/oma, or redundant Agnish/oma, which usually occupies the second place in the list of sa^sthas. This form of sacrifice is indeed very little used, and there can be little doubt that it was introduced into the system, as Professor Weber suggests, merely for the sake of bringing up the Soma- sa;/zsthas to the sacred number of seven. This sacrifice is obtained by the addition of the shoda.ri-stotra to the twelve chants of the Agnishfoma, as well as of the special Soma- cup and sacrificial victim for Indra, connected with that chant. It may thus be considered as a short form of the Sho^a^in-sacrifice (though without the full complement of stotras implied in that name), which might have suited the views of such ritualists as held the sastras of the Hotrakas at the evening service to be superfluous 3.

The distinctive feature of the Atiratra-sacrifice, as the name itself indicates, is an c overnight ' performance of chants and recitations, consisting of three rounds of four stotras and .rastras each. At the end of each round

1 This is also the explanation of the term given by Saya?/a in his commentary on T&ndya. Br. XII, 13, 1.

2 See this translation, part ii, p. 402, note 1.

3 See part ii, p. 402, note 2, where it is stated that the tenth and last day of the Da^aratra is an Atyagnish/oma day, called Avivakya, i. e. one on which there should be no dispute or quarrel.

XV111 SATAPATHA-BRAHMAiVA.

(paryaya) libations are offered, followed by the inevitable potations of Soma-liquor. That the performance, indeed, partook largely of the character of a regular nocturnal carousal, may be gathered from the fact, specially mentioned in the Aitareya Brahma^a, that each of the Hotrzs offering- formulas is to contain the three words — 'andhas/ Soma- plant (or liquor), i pa,' to drink, and ' mada,' intoxication. Accordingly, one of the formulas used is Rig-veda II, 19, I apayy asyaUndhaso madaya, ' there has been drunk (by Indra, or by us) of this juice for intoxication.' The twelve stotras, each of which is chanted to a different tune, are followed up, at daybreak, by the Sandhi-stotra, or twilight- chant, consisting of six verses (Sama-veda S. II, 99-104) chanted to the Rathantara-tune. This chant is succeeded by the Hotrz's recitation of the Aj-vina-.yastra, a modification of the ordinary ' pratar-anuvaka/ or morning-litany, by which the pressing-day of a Soma-sacrifice is ushered in l. The Atiratra also requires a special victim, viz. a he-goat offered to Sarasvati, the goddess of speech. As regards the ceremonies preceding the night-performance, there is again a difference of opinion among ritualists as to whether the sho^a^-i-stotra, with its attendant rites, is, or is not, a necessary element of the Atiratra 2. Some authorities 3, accordingly, distinctly recognise two different kinds of Atiratra, — one with, and the other without, the shodzsm. In Katyayana's Sutra, there is no allusion to any difference of opinion on this point, but, in specifying the victims required at the different Soma-sacrifices, he merely remarks (IX, 8, 5) that, < At the Atiratra there is a fourth victim to Sarasvati.' This would certainly seem to imply that there are also to be the three preceding victims, including the one to Indra peculiar to the Sho^a^in. A^valayana (V, 11, 1) also refers incidentally to the sho^a^in as part of the

1 See part ii, p. 226 seq. On the present occasion the Pratur-anuvaka is, how- ever, to consist of as many verses as, counting their syllables, would make up a thousand brzhati- verses (of thirty-six syllables each). The three sections of the ordinary morning-litany from the body of the A-rvina-jastra which concludes, after sunrise, with verses addressed to Surya, the sun.

2 Cf. La/y. St. VIII, i, 16 ; IX, 5, 23 with commentary.

3 Notably TaWya Br. XX, 1, 1 seq.

Introduction. Xix

Atiratra, though it is not quite clear from the text of the sutra whether it is meant to be a necessary or only an optional feature of that sacrifice. The Aitareya Brahma/za (IV, 6), on the other hand, in treating of the Atiratra, enters on a discussion with the view of showing that the night-performance of that sacrifice is in every respect equal to the preceding day-performance ; and accordingly, as the three services of the day-performance include fifteen chants and recitations (viz. the twelve of the Agnishfoma, and the three Ukthas), so, during the night, the three rounds of in all twelve stotras, together with the sandhi-stotra, here counted as three stotras (triplets), make up the requisite fifteen chants. This Brahma/za, then, does not recognise the shodasm as part of the Atiratra, and, indeed, the manuals of the Atiratra chants which I have consulted make no mention of the sho^a^i-stotra, though it is dis- tinctly mentioned there among the chants of the Va^apeya and the Aptoryama. The passage in the Aitareya, just referred to, also seems to raise the question as to whether the Atiratra is really an ekaha, or whether it is not rather an ahina-sacrifice. On this point also the authorities seem to differ ; whilst most writers take the Atiratra, and the analogous Aptoryama, to be 'one-day' sacrifices, the Tandya Br&hma«a (XX) and Laty. IX, 5, 6 class them along with the Ahinas x ; and they may indeed be regarded as intermediate links between the two classes of Soma- sacrifice, inasmuch as, in a continued sacrificial performance, the final recitations of these sacrifices take the place of the opening ceremony of the next day's performance. Such, for instance, is the case in the performance of the Atiratra as the opening day of the Dvada^aha, or twelve days' period of sacrifice ; whilst in the performance of the twelfth and concluding day, which is likewise an Atiratra, the concluding ceremonies of the latter might be considered in

1 The Aitareya Brahmarca (VI, 18) in discussing the so-called sampata hymns inserted in continued performances, with the view of establishing a symbolic connection between the several days, curiously explains the term ' ahina,' not from ' ahas ' day, but as meaning ' not defective, where nothing is left out ' (a-hina).

XX SATAPATHA-BRAHMAiVA.

a manner superabundant. It is probably in this sense that La/y. (IX, 5, 4) calls the overnight performance of the last day of an ahina (e. g. the Dvada^aha) the ya^Tzapu^Ma, or tail of the sacrifice, which is to fall beyond the month for which, from the time of the initiation, the ahina is to last.

The A ptorya ma-sacrifice represents an amplified form of the Atiratra. It requires the sho<fa.ri-stotra and the ceremonies connected with it as a necessary element of its performance ; whilst its distinctive feature consists in four additional (atirikta-) stotras and ^astras, chanted and recited after the A^vina-i-astra, the concluding recitation of the Atiratra. These four chants are arranged in such a manner that each successive stotra is chanted to a different tune, and in a more advanced form of composition, from the trivrzt (nine-versed) up to the ekavi^^a (twenty- one-versed) stoma. In the liturgical manuals, the Aptor- yama, moreover, performs the function of serving as the model for a sacrificial performance with all the ' prishthas V Though this mode of chanting has been repeatedly referred to in the translation and notes, a few additional remarks on this subject may not be out of place here. When performed in its ' prisht/ia. ' form, the stotra is so arranged that a certain saman (or chanted triplet) is enclosed, as the 'garbha' (embryo), within some other saman which, as its ' prisht/ia. ' (i. e. back, or flanks), is chanted a number of times before and after the verses of the central saman. The tunes most commonly used for forming the enclosing samans of a Przsh^a-stotra are the Rathantara and Brz'hat; and along with these, four others are singled out to make up the six Prz*sh//£a-samans kut igoxnv, viz. the Vairupa (with the text Sama-veda II, 312-13), Vaira^a (II, 277-9), ^Vakvara2 (chanted on the Mahanamni verses,

1 From Ai-valayana's rule (IX, u, 4), < If they chant in forming the garbha (i. e. in the ' prishtka. ' form), let him (the Hotrz or Hotraka) recite in the same way the stotriyas and anuriipas,' it seems, however, clear that the Aptoryama may also be performed without the P^'sh/^as.

2 The original text of the 6akvara-saman is stated (by Sayawa on Aitar. Br. IV, 13 ; Mahidhara on Va^-. S. X, 14, &c.) to be Sama-veda II, 1151-3, 'pro shv asmai puroratham,' but the Sama-veda Ganas do not seem to give the tune

Introduction. Xxi

Aitar. Ar. IV), and Raivata1 samans. These six samans are employed during the six days' sacrificial period called Przsh^ya-sha^/aha, in such a way that one of them, in the order in which they are here enumerated, is used for the first, or Hotrz's, Pr/sh/^a-stotra on the successive days of that period. In that case, however, these stotras are not performed in the proper ' przsht/ia. ' form 2, i. e. they have no other saman inserted within them, but they are treated like any other triplet according to the particular stoma, or mode of composition, prescribed for them. But, on the other hand, in the Aptoryama, when performed ' with all the Przsh/^as,' not only are a number of stotras chanted in the proper 'przsh//£a' form, but the {przsh//£a' element asserts itself in yet another way, viz. by the appearance of all the six * Przsh//za-samans ' in the course of the performance of the different stotras, in this way : — the Rathantara-tune forms the middlemost of the seven triplets of which the Madhyandina-pavamana is composed;