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30
GRIHYA-SÛTRA OF GOBHILA.
15. Having touched water, he then sits down on the Brahman's seat, with (the words), ‘I sit down on the seat of wealth.
16. Facing the fire he sits silently, raising his joined hands, till the end of the ceremony.
17. Let him speak (only) what refers to the due performance of the sacrifice.
18. Let him not speak what is unworthy of the sacrifice.
19. If he has spoken what is unworthy of the sacrifice, let him murmur a verse, or a Yagus, sacred to Vishnu.
20. Or let him only say, 'Adoration to Vishnu!'
21. If one wishes, however, to do himself the work both of the Hotri and of the Brahman, he should in the same way place on the Brahman's seat a parasol, or an outer garment, or a water-pot, or a
parison of parallel texts leaves no doubt as to the correctness of this view. Thus Hiranyakesin says (I, 1): etasmin kâle brahmâ yagnopavîtam kritvâpa âkamyâparenâgnim dakshinatikramya brahmasadanât trinam nirasya, &c. Comp. also the corresponding passages of the Srauta ritual given by Hillebrandt, Neu- und Vollmondsopfer, p. 17. I do not think it probable, however, that we should read brahmâssanât, so that it would be distinctly expressed by the text that the Brahman is the subject (comp. Dr. Knauer's Introduction, p. viii). For we read in this same Satra brahmåsanât trinam abhisamgrihya; in Sūtra 15, brahmâ sana upavisati; in Sätra 21, brahmâsane nidhaya: of these passages it is in the second made probable by the sense, and it is certain in the third, that brahmâsana is to be understood as a compound equal to brahmasadana. Thus it would, in my opinion, be unnatural not to explain it in the same way also in the first passage. Parâvasu is opposed to Vasu (Sūtra 15) in the same way as some texts, for instance Âpastamba, oppose Paragvasy to Arvågvasu.
16 seqq. Khâdira-Gríhya I, 1, 19 seqq. 21. In the same way' refers to the cereinonies stated in Sätras
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