324 OWEN BERKELEY-HILL
As Monier Williams ^ observes: *An orthodox Brahman's craving for religious ceremonial is not by any means satiated by the tedious round of forms he has gone through in the early morning. A pause of an hour or two brings him to the time when preparations for another solemn rite have to be made. This is the ceremony which ought to precede the midday meal*. This ceremony is divided into two parts which are known as the Vais- vadeva and Bali-harana. The detail of botli as given in the most trustworthy manuals is as follows: *
The worshipper begins by the usual sippings of water (acamana) and breathing exercise* (page 310), and by declaring his intention of performing the ceremony thus : 'I will today perform the morning and evening Vaisvadeva with the cooked food (siddhana) cast into the fire, for the purification of that food and for my own purifi- cation, and to make expiation of the five destructive domestic implements (Panca-suna), » and to obtain the reward prescribed by the Sruti, Smriti and Puranas.' Then a small moveable fire- receptacle is brought and the service begins with an invocation of the god of fire. After this invocation a covered dish of uncooked rice is brought in and the cover removed. Then the sacred fire is placed in the receptacle. Consecrated fuel is then put on and the fire fanned while the following remarkable text from the Rig- Veda IV, 58, 3, is recited : ' Four are his horns, three are his feet, two are his heads, seven are his hands. He the triply-bound bull roars. The mighty deity enters mortals'. The collecting together and spreading of the consecrated fuel and sacred Kusa grass employed in the ceremony are then made ; and water is sprinkled round in a circle. Next, the rice about to be eaten is consecrated by the sprinkUng of water and placed on the fire. After this prayer oflferings are made with the usual reverential ejaculations. Next, the worshipper, after purifying his person and washing his hands, makes offerings to all the gods, throwing portions of cooked rice — each portion about equal to a mouthful — into the fire. The next act is the taking up of ashes from the fire in a deep-bowled spoon
- Monier Williams: op. cit.
- Idem: op. cit.
- The five places, or domestic implements, through the use ot which
animals may be accidentally destroyed in the process of preparing food, are, (1) the fire place, (2) the slab for grinding corn, (3) the pots and pans, (4) the pestle and mortar, (5) the water pot.
