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II KÂNDA, 5 ADHYÂYA, 3 BRÂHMANA, 17.
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food ? may eat (of the pap); or the officiating priests may eat it; or, if there be abundant pap, other Brâhmans also may eat of it. The pot having then been covered, before it is quite emptied, they put it away in a safe place, for the full-spoon ceremony.' Thereupon they let the calves together with their mothers; and thus the cattle take that nourishment. That night he performs the Agnihotra with ricegruel. In the morning they milk a cow, which suckles an adopted calf, for the purpose of the offering to the fathers.
17. Thereupon, in the morning, either after or before the performance of the Agnihotra-whichever he pleases-he cuts out (the remaining rice-pap) with the darvi-spoon 8 from the unemptied pot, with the text (Vág. S. III, 49), 'Full, O spoon, fly away, well filled fly back to us!
1 That is, those who have been invested with the sacrificial cord. According to Taitt. Br. I, 6, 7, 1 the mistress of the house is not to eat of it, but an additional (prativesa) pap is to be cooked specially for her on the Dakshina fire.
8. In the morning they tie up the (adopted) calf of a nivânya (cow suckling a strange calf),' Kanva text.
The Darvi-homa, or oblation of a darvi-spoonful of boiled rice to Indra, the associate of the Maruts, may be considered as part of the Grihamedhîya ishti, being, as it were, an offering of remains (or scrapings, nishkâsa, Taitt. Br. I, 6, 7, 3); cf. Kâty. V, 6, 33. Like all Guhoti-offerings, the darvi-homa is performed by the Adhvaryu while seated on the north side of the fire. According to Taitt. Br. I, 6, 7, 3, it is to be offered in the Garhapatya, but according to Katy. V, 6, 38 (comm.) in the Ahavaniya. If the concluding ceremonies of the Santapaniya ishfi (from the offering of the Barhis) have not already been performed on the previous night, they have to be performed after the conclusion of the darvihoma. If, however, only the offering of the Barhis was then omitted, the darvi-homa, if performed before the Agnihotra, is followed immediately by that oblation.
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