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5,30,15) and smeared all around with butter.14
In the post-samhitā period this simple sacrifice underwent a substantial change by being connected with a perhaps non-vedic or nonbrahmanical rite implying the manufacture, heating, worship, and removal of an earthen vessel called Mahāvīra. This change also implied that the secret knowledge referring to this should be passed on outside the village in the aranya,15 and that the execution, which is forbidden at a yajamāna's first Soma sacrifice, must be screened off against Sūdras and women,16 particularly, the yajamāna's wife. The said vessel, which is addressed as deva puras-caral and for which a samrād-asandi "emperor's throne"18 is prepared (this reminds us of the cakravartin), consists of three clay balls one on top of the other. The one at the top has been hollowed out and provided with an opening; the middle one is solid, and the broader lower one, which is flat at the bottom, serves as the basis. 19 A thin channel, Van Buitenen supposes, runs from the top down to the base of the lower clay ball.20 The Mahāvīra vessel, with its height of about twenty centimetres, reminds Van Buitenen of a man sitting tailor-fashion,21 also, because in SB 14,1,4,16 the vessel is expressly defined as a male:22 Vrsā vai Pravargyo, yoşā patnī, mithunam evaitat prajananam kriyate. This symbolism is no longer clear from the vessel's present form. 23 The meaning of the parigrīvam 'ring around the neck' or of the räsnä 'belt' surrounding the figure three or four fingers from the top remains obscure.24 The manufacture of the Mahāvīra, according to Van Buitenen takes place before the rains begin,25 and is done for the invigoration of the sun, which the vessel represents.26 It is made out of various kinds of earth, animal hair, and goat's milk.27 Goat's milk is used instead of cold water, against which the Pravargya must be protected.28 Then ghi is poured over it; it is set on fire, made red-hot, and is then worshipped.29
14 Van Buitenen, Ibid., 24; 26; 30. 15 Van Buitenen, Ibid., 38; 137 and 140. 1 Ibid., 40; 58. On the reason for this see Neumann 1962: 143. 17 TA 4,3,3(10) 18 ApSS 15,5,7. 19 Van Buitenen 1968: 10. 2010., 34; 59. 211d., 11, 23 sqq.; 59. 221d., 11; 22; 31. 231d., 9; plate 3:1. 24 Id., 11; 59. 25 Id., 31. 261d., 27 sq.; 31. 27 d., 57 sq. 28 Id., 30 sq. and 58. 291d., 26.