Two Reference Books on Vedic Rituals

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Two Reference Books on Vedic Rituals
Illustrated Dictionary of Vedic Rituals	A Dictionary of the Vedic Rituals (Based on the Srauta and Grhya Sutras)

The present lexicon explains the meaning and significance of ritualistic terms frequently occurring in the Srautasutras, together with a short description of the sacrificial rites connected or meant therewith. It is an outcome o the engagement of the author with the Srauta ritual for a very long time. He has not only a first hand knowledge of the texts but also a practical acquaintance with the subject acquired through participating in such sacrifices. Every term has been traced back to its original source for which exact references have been provided. A proper understanding of the technical terminology of the Vedic ritual is a precondition for understanding ritualistic texts connected with the Vedas and also the sacrificial performances mentioned therein. No proper understanding of a Srautasutra is possible without knowing the basic concepts and the details of the ritualistic terms. Sketches and photographs of Vedic implements and performances are an added advantage of this lexicon, which will help the reader immensely in understanding the related terms.

The dictionary is the first of its kind in view of its vast coverage, authenticity and reliability. We are sure that it will prove to be an indispensable asset for every scholar who wants to familiarize himself with the Vedic ritual and the philosophy behind if.

Prof. H G Ranade, Ex-Editor and Coordinator of the 'Sanskrit-English Encyclopaedic Dictionary on Historical Principles' at the Deccan College, Pune, had the honour of completing his education with first class throughout at the Benaras Hindu University (1955-61) and did his Ph. D. on A Study of the Satapatha Brahmana as a Commentary on the Vajasaneya Samhita from the University of Bombay in 1970. Being in the profession of teaching and research, he has developed a special liking for Vedic ritual, the tradition of which is dwindling day by day. After completing his first English translations of the Katyayana - and Asvalayana-srautasutras (published in 1978, 1983-86), e prepared a critical edition of the Latyayana-srautasutra with its first English translation under the auspices of the IGNCA (published in 1998).

He also regularly attended the performances of important Soma-sacrifices in India and later delivered lectures on Vedic and later delivered lectures on Vedic rituals abroad discussing problems therein with noted scholars. Enriching thus his knowledge of the Vedic ritualistic terminology through participating in the Vedic sacrifices, he purposefully devoted himself to the compilation of this Illustrated Dictionary of Vedic Rituals, his magnum opus, which is going to be a landmark in the history of the Vedic scholarship.

For his outstanding contributions towards facilitating the understanding of the Srautasutras, he was honoured as a 'Vedanga-Vidvan' by the Rashtriya Vedavidya Pratishthan. At present, he is engaged in preparing a critical edition of the Jaiminiya-brahmana with its English translation as a project of the IGNCA.

Introduction

It is more extensive in its entries o relevant lexical items. The previous works, namely the Srautapadartha Nirvacana, Joshi (ed.) 1931, the Vocabulaire du Rituel Vedique, L Renou 1954 (Paris) and the Dictionary of Vedic Ritual, CB Sen 1978, deal with hardly a thousand lexical items whereas the present dictionary comprises of about 5000 entries of technical importance.

The previous dictionaries give hardly any or at the best a very few illustrations which throw light on the technical aspects of the lexical items. Renou and Sen give the picture of a limited number of utensils employed in the Vedic rituals such as the ladles of various kinds and so on. The other works like the Yajnayudhani, Dharmadhikari (ed.), Vaidik Samsodhana Mandal, 1992 (Pune) and the Picture Album published earlier by the Mimamsa Vidyalaya, Pune include a bigger number of pictures. But they do not deal with the functional aspect of these ritual implements. For instance, the ladles Juhu and Upabhrt, are shown separately placed side by side. It is , however, necessary to show how the Upabhrt, which is a supporting ladle is held below the Juhu. One should take note of the fact that the Juhu alone is used for offering the oblations and the Upabhrt is never used for this purpose. This kind of functional presentation refers to the composition and derivation of the concerned terms. This is a distinctive feature of the present work.

The present dictionary also provides textual references from the Vedic literature more richly than is the case with the above said works. The Srautapadartha Nirvacana does not give any textual references. It has its own definitions for various ritualistic terms. The term Isti for instance, in its Paurodasika section as compared to the Saumika one, is a rite which is performed by the four priests officiating in it: Adhvaryu, Hotr, Brahman and Agnidhra with the sacrificer as the fifth. Although this definition is rightly based on the facts of Vedic sacrifice, there is no particular Vedic text which defines the term in these words. The works of Renou and Sen also do not include references from the term in these words. The works of Renou and Sen also do not include references from the texts which explain certain terms, for instance the verses indicated, as Jyotismati or Agravati have not been supported with references, where and in what exact form they occur. Sen's 1978 Dictionary of Vedic Ritual is almost the English version of Renou's French Vocabulair du rituel Vedique, 1954, and they depend mainly on Caland and Henry's L'agnistoma as a source book. It is understandable that it could have no idea of the Srautakosa (Sanskrit and English) published by the Vaidik Samsodhana Mandal, Pune in 1960s and later. The aspect of references to Vedic texts and articles published on the terms has not unfortunately received much attention in the voluminous Srauta Kosa (Sanskrit as well as English, so far in 3 Vol.) edited by Kashikar and Dandekar respectively. They have mostly relied on symbolical terms (like Jyotismati, etc) without giving reference to original texts. The present illustrated dictionary has tried to makeup for this lacuna. The information in this dictionary is based on five aspects, as pointed out by Bss 24.1, namely Samhita, Brahmana, Pratyaya, Nyaya and Srauta Grhya and Sulba Sutras. The vocabulary is mainly collected from Visvabandhu's Vedic Index, Hoshiyarpur but care has been taken of other indices like Sulba-Index by A. Michael and those given at the end of the Vedic texts and their translations. Vedic Bibliography (5 Vols.) by Dandekar was of great help in referring to the articles on the entry-words. The Srautakosa Index (VSM, Pune) and the Index of Dharmasastra by PV Kane, Vol. II have also been consulted.

The Terms have been illustrated mainly with the hand-drawings and photographs taken at the time of actual performance of various sacrifices at different Indian sites in different years. The work of photography was undertaken during my field-work in 1982 with the financial assistance of the University Grants Commission, New Delhi. Some of the hand-drawings are presented for the first time, for instance adharamulam and anvadhana. The names of Samans have been given alongwith the sacrificial situation in which they are chanted as far as possible.

This dictionary, based on the Srauta and Grhya Sutras, attempts to explain all significant terms related to the Vedic sacrificial rituals. Besides the Sanskrit term and its transliteration in Roman as well as its meaning in English, Chitrabhanu Sen tries to describe the exact purport of the term, different usages and its correlation with other sacrificial concepts.

For the Srauta rites, this work focusses mainly on As' valayana Sutra of Aitareya Brahmana; Bandharadvaja and Apastamba Sutras of the Taittiriya Brahmana, and the Katyayana Sutra of the Satapatha Brahmana, which are code books of the Hotr, and Adhvaryu priests. For the domestic rites, the author has used Asvalayana, Kathaka, Baudhayana, Bharadvaja, Apastamba, Hiranyakesin Paraskara, Gobila and Kausika grhyasutras. All the important implements and utensils, which were used in Vedic sacrifices, also find place in Appendices.

The author was the University Librarian at North Bengal University. After his retirement, he joined the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.

Our knowledge of the vedic ritual is derived with a varying degree of accuracy from three sources: the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Srauta and Grhyasutras. But none of these books can be taken as the starting point of the vedic ritual. The earliest form of the vedic ritual remains unrecorded.

But the earliest reference to the vedic ritual is found in the Rgvedasamhita. The names of sacrificial objects are mentioned: yupa, idhma, samidh, juhu, gravanah, drona, camasa etc. The three savanas of the Sama sacrifice have been mentioned. The Rgveda also knew the existence of at least seven priests: Hotr, Potr, Nestr, Agnidh, Prasastr, Adhvaryu and Brahman. A stage was reached when the hymns, as a poet claims, could only be understood by means of a sacrifice. It is certain therefore that in the Rgvedic period the ritual was fairly extensive.

There are, on the other hand, a large number of hymns in the Rgveda which have no sacrificial use. The Rgvedasamhita was not a book of ritual. Asvalayana could not maintain the order of the hymns in his sutra. Sayana, who was brought up in the orthodox ritualistic tradition, believed that the Rgvedasamhita was a book of ritual. He took pains to prove that there was no anomaly when Asvalayana in his Srautasutra could not employ the first verse of the samhita in the first sacrifice, Darsapurnamasa he described.

There are instances that the meaning and purpose of the hymns were disregarded or arbitrarily altered when a hymn was employed in a rite. The word kasmai, an interrogative pronoun, meaning to whom, when used in a rite was turned to a deity. Ka became Prajapati. Max Muller comments: But soon a new adjective was formed, and not only the hymns, but sacrifice also, offered to the god, were called Kaya or who-ish. In course of time the word kaya was legitimatized, and Panini had to frame a rule to form the word. In the sacrificial practice the Rgvedasamhita has been assigned to the Hotr, one of the principal priests, whose duty it is to recite certain hymns called sastras, distinctly with proper accent.

The Atharvavedasamhita, which contains popular spells, has no practical use in the srauta rites. Consequently, the Brahman priest to whom the samhita has been assigned remains silent most of the time during the service. His duty it is to supervise the sacrifice. Keith observes: A deliberate attempt was later made to bring the Atharvaveda into the-circle of the three orthodox Vedas by the addition to the collection of book XX which contains the hymns to be used by the Brahmanacchamsin priest in the ritual of the Soma sacrifice. But despite the attempts it remained beyond the pale of orthodoxy. In many grhya rites, however, a large number of the verses of the Atharvaveda have been used.

But the case with the samhitas of Yajurveda and Samaveda is quite different. In the very arrangement of these later samhitas the ritualistic bias can easily be seen. The Adhvaryu and his assistants who carried out the manual operations of the sacrifice required a special type of formulas. These formulas consisting of prose and verse were collected in a separate samhita called Yajurveda, and the formulas were called the yajus. This was obviously a priestly creation. The samhita of Yajurveda which has been preserved in two schools, sukla (white or pure) and krsna (black), in five recensions, were created exclusively for the ceremonial purpose. The verses of the Yajurvedasamhitas are mostly borrowed from the Rgvedasamhita for the sacrificial purpose of the Adhvaryu, in many cases without any real propriety and with deliberate alterations to adapt them to the ritual.

In the ritual application of the verses a significant change occurred. The accentuation of the verses is entirely ignored. The Adhvaryu simply mutters the verses in accentless tone, and no one at a distance can hear or understand him. This mode of pronunciation is called upamsu. Evidently, the system of accentuation which was an integral part of the text lost its force in the ritual. So is the case of all other hymns when used as mantra. It is enjoined that all mantras except japa etc. are to be pronounced in ekasruti (q. v.), monotone. The grammarians were, however, sticklers for the use of accents, and they insisted on it. As a note of warning to the delinquents Patanjali quotes a verse in his Mahabhasya: dustah sabdah svarato varnato va mithyaprayukto na tamarthamaha. sa vagvajro yajamanam hinasti yathendrasatruh svarato' paradhat. An interesting legend is repeatedly cited to show what would befall a person who put a wrong accent on a wrong place. Vrtra performed a sacrifice to punish Indra who desicrated his sacrifice by forcibly drinking soma juice without being invited. The mantra was indrasatrur-varadhasva, "O Agni, the foe of Indra," prosper, and the word indrasatru being a tatpurusa compound should have acute accent on its last syllable. But Vrtra pronounced the mantra with a misplaced acute accent on the first syllable of Indrasatru, and as a result the word became a bahuvrihi compound, meaning having Indra as a foe prosper. Vrtra himself was killed.

In spite of the views of the grammarians a fundamental change occurred, and the mantras had lost the accents. It follows therefore that the Adhvaryu who is the most important functionary in the manual operations of the sacrifice did not have to learn the accents of his prayer book. With a penchant for variety the priests introduced another methed of pronunciation which is said to be a little louder than upamsu. This is called dhvana, murmur, in which vowels and consonants can be distinguished but as a whole the letters cannot be distinguished. It is certainty a sign of decay.

The Samavedasamhita is also a liturgical collection. But by no means it is an original one. It is almost entirely a verbatim copy of the Rgvedasamhita. Of the total 1810 verses or 1549 verses (261 verses are repetitions) contained in arcika and the uttararcika all but 75 are found in the 8th and 9th mandalas of the Rgvedasamhita. The Samavedasmhita has been assigned to the Udgatr priests who chant the verses called stotras set to a melody called saman chiefly in the Soma sacrifice. The Udgatr priests have hardly any role in the sacrifice apart from chanting the stotras. While the Adhvaryu priests have discarded the accent of the Yajurvedasamhita, the Udgatr priests adopt a peculiar fashion in chanting the stotras. The verse is broken up in various parts called prastava, udgitha, pratihara, upadrava and nidhana, and then by repetition of the padas (see stoma) and interpolations of syllables (see stobha), the chant assumes a bizarre form. It is so intricate that it is almost impossible to determine its exact nature. A stage of stagnation has been reached when no new literary piece can be created, and the technicalities of recitation or chanting are the primary aims.

It is a very fond practice of the priests to render a word unintelligible by a peculiar process of permutation and combination. Thus the summons samsava, let us praise, becomes somsavom or sosomsavom or somsavo (see ahava & partigara). It becomes a meaningless jargon.

It is no wonder therefore that long before the Buddha there grew a strong resentment against the ritual practice: Then the seers, the kavaseyas, knowing this, say, 'To what end shall we repeat the veda, to what end shall we sacrifice? For we sacrifice breath in speech, or in breath Speech'. Or again: People say, Hymn, Hymn. The hymn is indeed the earth. For from it all that exists springs.

Apart from the technicalities which were constantly developed, changed and added, the sacrifice itself suffered a considerable transformation. The sacrifice once represented the social activity of the worshippers. It was a web of practices, emanating from the social thinking and emphasizing particular aspects of life. But with the decay of the society and the change in the social life the sacrifice, in abstraction, drifted to its natural death. We shall find that within a sacrifice various rites have been combined indiscriminately. They have no logical bearing on the sacrifice in which they are included. Keith observes: As a result of the constant development of the ritual, the festivals of the srauta type are full of details which are of no consequence with regard to the meaning of the sacrifice: practically in no case is an important rite addressed to one god only: the effort on the contrary was clearly to find as much room as possible for as many gods as possible.

The proliferation and transformation of the vedic sacrifice that took place have been confirmed by the ritualists. Some sacrifices are considered models and called prakrti. These sacrifices form the basis of other rites which are looked upon as modifications and called vikrti. Only the prakrti form of a sacrifice is described in detail in the Sutras. Thus it is held that the Darsapurnamasa is a model of all other sacrifices known as Isti, and so is the Agnistoma of all other Soma sacrifices.

Oldenberg has pointed out: It shows how much system there is in the Indian sacrifices, and how fully and minutely that system must have been elaborated, before it assumed that form in which we find it in the Brahmanas and Sutras. On account of the detailed exposition of the prakrti class of sacrifices it must not be supposed, however, that these sacrifices are historically the most ancient.

It is held that the animal sacrifice belonging to the Soma sacrifice the agnisomiya or saumya is a model of all other animal sacrifices. Therefore the so called independent animal sacrifice known as the Nirudhapasubandha is termed as nirmita, made (see Pasu). But the Nirudhapasubandha itself becomes the prakrti of all other animal sacrifices other than the savaniya and anubandhyapasu. Similarly, the Pravargya is really an independent rite but incorporated into the Soma sacrifice. Apastamba treats it separately; and does not consider it as an essential part of the Agnistoma.

According to the sacrificial theory some rites within a sacrifice are marked as pradhana, main and the others as anga, limb. These minor anga rites may recur in various other sacrifices as ancillary rites. The anga rites are called the web of a sacrifice (see tantra).

But the most significant change in the arrangement of the sacrifice that occurred in the recorded period was the interpolation of the diksa rite in the Soma sacrifice. The central feature of the rite is the ritual rebirth of the sacrificer. The idea of rebirth has been vividly emphasized in the Brahmanas. The sacrificer becomes an embryo. He closes his fists like a foetus in the womb, which is represented by the shed for the initiate (diksitavimita), he gets a piece, of cloth, a covering which stands for the placenta. He mimics stammering (parihvala). The Satapatha Brahmana says: he who is consecrated becomes an embryo.

The etymology of the word diksa has drawn much more attention of the scholars than the nature of the rite itself. The diksa rite has obvious affinities with the ceremony of initiation pracused by the primitive people all over the world. In the hunting stage of economy of the primitive society the birth of a child, specially a male child, was a very important event. A male child would augment the food supply by hunting. It is no wonder therefore that so much emphasis has been laid on the domestic rites relating to the child birth: Simantonnayana, Pumsavana Jatakarman.

Far more important is the event in the tribal life when the boy is an adolescent. He is now ready to accept his share of social and economic responsibilities of the society. In the tribal belief every stage of the physical change is the death and the rebirth of the novice. The initiation rite by which the novice is ushered into the next stage of life is a drama of life and death.

The initiation rite was so important that even when the vedic society had moved forward from the tribal life the vedic ritual could not discard it altogether. As a relic of the past it found its place in the preparatory rite which consecrates the sacrificer to the Soma sacrifice.