०३

1 ¹ . To six persons the Arghya reception is due: to a teacher, to an officiating priest, to the father-in-law, to the king, to a friend, to a Snātaka.

2 ² . They should honour them (with the Arghya reception) once a year.

3. But officiating priests (they should receive) whenever they intend to perform a sacrifice.

4. Having ordered a seat to be got (for the guest), he says, ‘Well, sir! sit down! We will do honour to you, sir!’

5. They get for him a couch (of grass) to sit down on, another for the feet, water for washing the feet, the Argha water, water for sipping, and the honey-mixture, i.e. curds, honey, and ghee, in a brass vessel with a brass cover.

6 ³ . Another person three times announces (to the guest) the couch and the other things (when they are offered to him).

7. He accepts the couch.

8 ⁴ . He sits down thereon with (the verse), ‘I am the highest one among my people, as the sun among the thunder-bolts. Here I tread on whosoever infests me.’

9 ⁵ . With the feet (he treads) on the other (bundle of grass).

10. When he is seated on the couch, he washes (for his guest) the left foot and then the right foot.

11 ⁶ . If (the host) is a Brāhmaṇa, the right first.

12 ⁷ . (He does so) with (the formula), ‘The milk of Virāj art thou. The milk of Virāj may I obtain. (May) the milk of Padyā Virāj (dwell) in me.’

13 ⁸ . He accepts the Arghya water with (the words), ‘Waters are ye. May I obtain through you all my wishes.’

14. Pouring it out he recites over (the waters the formula), ‘To the ocean I send you; go back to your source. Unhurt be our men. May my sap not be shed.’

15. He sips water with (the formula), ‘Thou camest to me with glory. Unite me with lustre. Make me beloved by all creatures, the lord of cattle, unhurtful for the bodies.’

16 ⁹ . With (the formula), ‘With Mitra’s’ (Vāj. Saṃh., Kāṇvaśākhā II, 3, 4) he looks at the Madhuparka.

17 ¹⁰ . With (the formula), ‘By the impulse of the god Savitṛ’ (Vāj. Saṃh. l.l.) he accepts it.

18 ¹¹ . Taking it into his left hand he stirs it about three times with the fourth finger of his right hand with (the formula), ‘Adoration to the brown-faced One. What has been damaged in thee, when the food was eaten, that I cut off from thee.’

19. And with the fourth finger and the thumb he spirts away (some part of the Madhuparka) three times.

20. He partakes of it three times with (the formula), ‘What is the honied, highest form of honey, and the enjoyment of food, by that honied, highest form of honey, and by that enjoyment of food may I become highest, honied, and an enjoyer of food.’

21 ¹² . Or with (the verses) that contain the word ‘honey,’ verse by verse.

22 ¹³ . Let him give the remainder (of the Madhuparka) to a son or a pupil who is sitting to the north.

23 ¹⁴ . Or let him eat the whole of it (himself).

24 ¹⁵ . Or he should pour out (the remainder) to the east, at an unfrequented spot.

25. Having sipped water, he touches his bodily organs with (the formula), ‘May speech dwell in my mouth, breath in my nose, sight in my eyes, hearing in my ears, strength in my arms, vigour in my thighs. May my limbs be unhurt, may my body be united with my body!’

26. When (the guest) has sipped water, (the host), holding a butcher’s knife, says to him three times, ‘A cow!’

27. He replies, ‘The mother of the Rudras, the daughter of the Vasus, the sister of the Ādityas, the navel of immortality. To the people who understand me, I say, “Do not kill the guiltless cow, which is Aditi.” I kill my sin and N.N.’s sin,’ - thus, if he chooses to have it killed.

28. But if he chooses to let it loose, he should say, ‘My sin and N.N.’s sin has been killed. Om! Let it loose! Let it eat grass!’

29 ¹⁶ . But let the Argha not be without flesh.

30. On the occasion of a sacrifice and of a wedding let (the guest) say, ‘Make it (ready).’

31 ¹⁷ . Even if he performs more than one Soma sacrifice during one year, let only priests who have received (from him) the Arghya reception, officiate for him, not such who have not received it; for this has been prescribed in the Śruti.