Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 389

300
HENNING MEMORIAL VOLUME Baudhayana Sulva Sūtra (3.217) adds that the square ones are furnished with handles, the round ones with ostha.4 Accordingly, the drona-shaped altar would look like the following figure:
N
.
S
The word tsaru in the sense of 'handle of a vessel is well attested in the śrauta literature. In the sense of 'hilt' of a sword it is common in the epics and later literature.
It is thus clear that what we read in the Maitra. Saṁ. as caru really stands for tsaru. The passage in question prescribes, as is made clear by the later sūtras, that the trough-shaped fire-altar is to be provided with a handle so that it acquires the perfect form of a vessel (anurūpatvāya).
The normal sandhi between paścāt and tsaruḥ should simply have given paścăttsaruh. If instead we find paścăccaruh in the Maiträ Sam., this indicates that at some time in the oral transmission of the Samhitā text the initial consonant cluster ts of tsaru was pronounced as an affricate. It is very likely that this was a palatal affricate, since its combination with a precedingt resulted in cc. But on this point, i.e. whether the affricate pronunciation was originally palatal or dental, we may not be able to do anything better than speculate. What is certain, is that the text as read today points to an affricate pronunciation of the cluster is in the oral transmission of the Maitrāyani Samhitā.
It is interesting to note that at another place in the Maitrā. Saṁhitā (3.8.2) where t and ts come together, the combination has given a different result. The passage runs as follows: yatra púram yúdhyeyus tád etábhir juhuyāt sará vá eşá yajñásya tásmād yát kimca práctnam agnīsomlyāt tad upāmśú caranti. 'Where they besiege a fortified place, then let him give these offerings. This, verily, is the sarā of the sacrifice. Therefore whatever precedes the agnișomiya offering, that is done in a low voice.' The context is that of the three upasad offerings which are given morning and evening on three days preceding the pressing of the Soma in a Soma sacrifice. The word sará here presents a difficulty. It is not recorded in the available lexicons. Schroeder does not note any variant for it. But in another passage in the
+ Pandit, n.s. I, 626 (tsarumanti caturasrani parimandalāny oșthavanti).
Madhu Vidyā/364