APPEASEMENT AND ATONEMENT IN THE MAHADANAS, THE HINDU “GREAT GIFTS”1

BY

MARKO GESLANI*

1. INTRODUCTION

This paper aims to historicize certain practical notions of sin and mis- fortune prevalent in modern Hinduism. I will argue that the clustering of karmic sin, astrological portent, personal misfortune, and expiatory gifting operative in contemporary practice can be linked to rituals of gifting and appeasement, particularly at the royal courts of early medieval India. Thus my remarks about medieval ritual apply directly to practices found in so-called “popular” or “village” Hinduism as depicted in ethnographic literature. Two aspects of contemporary understandings of sin and expiation relevant to this discussion can be seen, for instance, in the work of Judy Pugh and Gloria Rajeha.2 The first point is the close causal connection between karmic sin and astrological portent. It is thought that prior karmas become manifest in signs observable in the natural world. These omens are inscrutable to the average person; they can only be made intelligible through the specialized calculations of astrologers. Prior karmic sins, if

* Yale University, Department of Religious Studies. 1 An early version of this paper was originally delivered at the conference “Sin and Expiation: Asian Perspectives” at Yale University, October 15th-17th 2010. I thank the organizers, Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara, for their invitation. I am also indebted to Gérard Colas and Phyllis Granoff for their helpful comments on subsequent drafts. 2 Gloria Rajeha, The Poison in the Gift: Ritual, Prestation, and the Dominant Caste in a North Indian Village (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988). For the work of Judy Pugh, see for example “Astrology and Fate: The Hindu and Muslim Experiences,” in Karma: an Anthropological Inquiry, ed. Charles F. Keyes and E. Valentine Daniel (Berkeley: UC Press, 1983).

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not corrected, “ripen” in the form of heavenly influences, which are thought to be the direct agents of misfortune. Thus personal fate and misfortune are inextricably bound to astrological processes. The interpre- tation of sin and misfortune, and the prescription of expiatory rituals, are therefore highly dependent on astrological specialists. This dependence on astrology has profound implications for another important aspect of the modern view, which concerns the means of expi- ating karmic sins and the removal of astrologically determined inauspi- ciousness. Among the many ritual forms for the removal of misfortune, ritual gifting, or dan ( dana), is commonly thought to rid the donor of the fruits of karmic fault by transferring sin and inauspiciousness to the recipient. Gloria Rajeha calls this transference of inauspiciousness through gifting the “poison in the gift”. She argues that it forms the central ritual structure in the annual cycle of contemporary village society in North India. How then did we arrive at this ritual culture in which gifts are able to ward off disasters that are themselves the fruits of past misdeeds? I con- tend that to understand this complex formation in its proper historical perspective, we need to take into account medieval understandings of sin, omens, and their ritual remedies. I will argue that modern astrological notions of sin and misfortune can be traced to the partnership between late-Vedic ritual specialists and astronomers, or purohitas and saμvatsaras, in the royal courts in early medieval India. Furthermore, this partnership is best viewed in the late ritual manuals of the . The rituals collected in these manuals, known as the AtharvavedaparisiÒ†as (AVPS), coincide, in my view, with the broader set of practices seen in the impor- tant divination treatise of the 6th century, Varahamihira’s B®hatsaμhita (BS). My analysis relies on a close reading of these two texts. Thus I will use the santi-related rituals found in Atharvan and astrological literature to help unpack the construction of the mahadanas (“Great Gifts”) in the Matsyapura∞a (MtP).3 The mahadana chapters from the MtP (274-289)

3 I have used the following editions for my citations: The ParisiÒ†as of the Athar- vaveda, eds. George Melville Bolling and Julius von Negelin, Parts I and II (Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1909, 1910); The B®hat Saμhita by Varahamihira with the Commentary of Bha††otpala, ed. Mahamahopadhyaya Sudharaka Dvivedi (Benares: E.J. Lazarus & Co., 1895, 1897); Srimaddvaipayanamunipra∞itaμ Matsyapura∞am, No. 54 in Anandasrama Sanskrit Series (Pune: Anandasrama Press, 1989). I have also consulted the edition and

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are important to the Hindu gifting tradition at large insofar as they were “canonized” in the later orthodox literature. In other words, the dana chapters from the MtP were quoted at length in the dharmasastric com- pendia of law and ritual (nibandhas) belonging to the early second millennium,4 and would therefore come to represent the orthodox forms of these rites in mainstream (smarta) Hinduism. Thus my remarks about the structure of the Great Gifts in the MtP may be relevant to the Hindu practice of gifting in general.

2. THE PROBLEM OF AUSPICIOUSNESS/INAUSPICIOUSNESS

The cluster of concepts mentioned above (sin-portent-misfortune-gift) can only be made intelligible in reference to Hindu theories of auspicious- ness and inauspiciousness. An understanding of the cultural category of auspiciousness as a theoretical concern separate from the notion of purity arose as a major outcome of the debates that spanned the 1970s, following the publication of Louis Dumont’s Homo Hierarchicus (1966 in French, 1970 in English). These discussions were primarily motivated by ethno- graphic data, although important contributions were also made by Vedic scholars. According to one part of this critique, Dumont’s argument, namely, that the caste system in Indian society is undergirded by a pure-impure

translation of the B®hatsaμhita by M. Ramakrishna Bhat, Varahamihira’s B®hat Saμhita (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1982) and the edition and translation of the Matsyapura∞a by K.L. Joshi, Parimal Sanskrit Series 93, 2 vols. (Delhi: Parimal Publications, 2007). Additionally, the passages from the Matsyapura∞a discussed in this paper are quoted in the K®tyakalpataru of LakÒmidhara, in the Danaka∞∂a and in the PratiÒ†haka∞∂a. Both texts are included (vols. 5 and 9) in K®tyakalpataru of LakÒmidhara, ed. K.V. Rangas- wami Aiyanagar, Gaekwad’s Oriental Series, 14 vols (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1941- 79). The Danaka∞∂a has recently been critically edited by David Brick, The Danaka∞∂a (“Book on Gifting”) of the K®tyakalpataru: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 2009). I am grateful to David Brick for sharing a copy of his dissertation, which has been invaluable to the preparation of this article. Finally, another important text I will discuss is the Atharvaveda Santikalpa, edited in two parts by George Melville Bolling under the title, “The Santi- kalpa of the Atharvaveda,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 35 (1904), pp. 77-127 (also including a translation) and JAOS 33 (1913), pp. 265-278. 4 See section 7, “Chronology,” below.

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polarity, contributed to a “collapse” of the theoretical distinction between purity and auspiciousness, which was otherwise nascent in ethnographic literature of the 1950s and 60s.5 Thus the focus of Dumont’s argument may have forestalled a more precise rendering of the relationship between purity and auspiciousness in the study of Indian society. It was in the late 70s and early 80s then that the category of auspi- ciousness became the object of serious scholarly reflection. The most explicit statement of this post-Dumontian concern was made in a 1980 conference on the topic of “Purity and Auspiciousness,” whose proceed- ings were published in 1985.6 There T.N. Madan offered a definitive theoretical statement of the distinction between purity and auspiciousness (suddha and subha) on the basis of ethnographic evidence.7 According to his distinction, auspiciousness-inauspiciousness is an attribute of events, whereas purity-impurity is an attribute of objects (and persons). So for instance, despite the fact that childbirth results in the impurity of the mother and child, birth itself is considered an auspicious event. Likewise, while funeral rites pollute their participants, death itself is additionally seen as a highly inauspicious event. And it is this condition of inauspiciousness, rather than the temporary condition of impurity, that causes anxiety and danger among the surviving kin of the deceased. Immediately it should be noted that Madan achieves this distinction (purity: objects | auspiciousness: events) in spite of the testimony of his informants: It would be useful to recall here two important distinctions mentioned by me earlier: first, between objects and persons as such, on the one hand, and events and performances on the other. When the devadasis are called mangalanari or the songs they sing, mangalagita, it is clear that two meanings are implied: first, and obviously (even superficially perhaps), these women and their songs contribute to an atmosphere of joy; second, they are associated with happy events whether these occur (births) or are arranged (weddings, pilgrimages). In the process they come to symbolize

5 Most notably in the writings of M.N. Srinivas. See Frédérique Marglin, “Introduction,” Purity and Auspiciousness in Indian Society, eds. John Carman and Frédérique Marglin (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985), pp. 1-11. 6 Ibid. 7 T.N. Madan, “Concerning the Categories suddha and subha in Hindu Culture: an Exploratory Essay.” Ibid., 11-29.

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auspiciousness. Though the distinction between person or act, event and symbol may be blurred in speech and in the minds of speakers, its validity must not be lost sight of by the student.8 Thus, Madan claims, despite the fact that informants call the devadasis (temple dancers and concubines of temple priests) “auspicious women” (mangalanari), and their songs “auspicious songs” (mangalagita), such terms do not denote actual properties of the women and songs, but in fact merely imply their association with auspicious events. Auspiciousness is not therefore thought in reality to adhere to objects (songs) and persons (the impure bodies of the devadasis), despite the terms used by informants to describe them. It is only through an act of symbolic reference that these objects and persons are associated with auspiciousness. As I will show, there are a number of ways in which this distinction may be complicated by the data. Nonetheless, at the outset, we may take the restriction of auspiciousness-inauspiciousness to events rather than objects as an important theoretical principle, and one of the clearest expressions of the distinctiveness of auspiciousness as a cultural category. The relative independence of auspiciousness from the Dumontian pre- occupation with purity formed the broader scholarly context for a series of studies published in the 1980s that explored how the category of auspi- ciousness “applies,” so to speak, in various ethnographic situations. I have in mind here the work of Judy Pugh, Jonathan Parry, and Gloria Rajeha, for example. Pugh and Rajeha in particular have been highly sensitive to the temporal aspect of auspiciousness-inauspiciousness, insofar as they stress the distribution of each throughout the annual cycle of the Hindu calendar. This is perhaps best seen in Judy Pugh’s analysis of the Hindu almanac (pañcanga).9 Such almanacs – which astrologers recalculate yearly – provide schedules of “moments” (muhurta) that are auspicious for undertaking various ritual events such as marriage, child naming, and entering a new home. Thus while almanacs may figure in personalized astrological consultations, it seems as if the auspiciousness or inauspi- ciousness of calendrical time figured in such calendrical texts relates

8 Ibid., 23. 9 “Into the Almanac: Time, Meaning and Action in North Indian Society,” Contributions to Indian Sociology 17: 27-49. See also Rajeha, chapter two in Poison in the Gift.

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primarily to the timing of actions, and does not necessarily become a quality of discrete persons or bodies. A calendrical rendering of the auspicious-inauspicious polarity accords well with Madan’s proposal of an event-based theory of auspiciousness. But the same group of studies also complicates the theory that auspiciousness- inauspicious applies only to events and not to people and objects. In her dissertation, Pugh herself stresses the physical and psychological dimen- sions of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness. Inauspiciousness is the direct cause, or agent, of misfortunes of the body and mind, and is thought to be the result of past karmas: What is especially important about the nature of karma is that it is a process which is imperceptible and unknowable in the interstices between cause and effect. Hindu astrologers refer to karma in this unmanifest form as “unseen” or “invisible” karma (ad®Ò†a karma), and they say that the heavens, when correctly calculated, make this “unseen” karma “visible” (d®Ò†a karma) before it actually manifests itself in event or circumstance. Also, ordinary Hindus from all walks of life say that through astrological consultation they can know their karma. Hindus believe that the heavenly bodies – the planets, constellations, and asterisms – have a natural influence on the earth and the person. Hindus commonly say that these planetary influences are the “fruit of karma.”10 The link between karma and astrological agents of misfortune (such as the planets and other celestial bodies) here proposes an altogether more physical and psychological conception of inauspiciousness. Whereas from the perspective of the almanacs, inauspiciousness is best described as an impersonal attribute of calendrical time in relation to ritual undertakings, in the view of astrological counseling (horoscopy), it constitutes a more personalized and active force: the planets themselves are agents of an indi- vidual’s misfortune, executing the dictates of that person’s prior karmas. So if physical or psychological disorders are understood to be the fruits of past misdeeds, which become manifest as divine (as in “originating in the heavens”) afflictions of the body and mind, it becomes difficult to distinguish persons from events. Inauspiciousness in particular is therefore “personalized” both in its cause (prior karma) and its effect (communal,

10 Person and Experience: The Astrological System of North India (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 1981), p.87.

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psychological, and bodily misfortune). It is not an abstract quality of time, but becomes “attached” to persons on account of their personal histories. In this way the calendrical perspective of the almanac should be comple- mented by the personal perspective of the horoscope. So in the first place, the person/event distinction is complicated by a diversity of perspectives from within the astrological tradition itself; the calendrical perspective emphasizes the temporal aspect of auspiciousness-inauspiciousness, whereas the horoscopic perspective emphasizes its personal aspect. More troubling is the practice of transferring sin and inauspiciousness through gifting (dana), as in Gloria Rajeha’s “poison in the gift” model, which seems to assume that the link between inauspiciousness and persons is somehow physical.11 A similar scenario seems to apply to the Mahabrah- mans, funerary specialists of Benares. In Jonathan Parry’s analysis, the hereditary profession of such priests requires the “consumption” of sins through the acceptance of funerary gifts.12 Parry does not directly address the mechanics of such exchanges in terms of inauspiciousness; he instead describes the “perpetual moral crisis” and the “death and impurity” that accumulate in these mortuary ritualists as a result of their acceptance of sin- laden gifts.13 But degraded though they may be through the accumulation

11 In Rajeha’s ethnography, the general category for such “poisoned” gifts, within the larger category of dan, is called ca®hapa: “Ca®hapa has two culturally postulated functions. First, in any ritual for a deity, the giving of the ca®hapa to the appropriate recipient (con- ceived of in this context as a vessel or receptacle, patra) enables the god to appropriate the offering. Second, whenever ca®hapa is given to the appropriate patra (whether or not deities are involved) after the prescribed ritual manipulations, the negative qualities and substances characterized as ‘inauspiciousness’ in the previous chapter – “afflictions” (kaÒ†), “danger” (sanka†), “disease” (rog), ‘inauspiciousness’ (nasubh), “demerits” (pap), and “faults” (doÒ) – are transferred from the donor (i.e., the jajman, the person who performs the ritual or has it performed) to the recipient. If not given to the appropriate recipient at the appropri- ate time and place, the negative qualities will even more virulently beset either the giver or receiver or both” p. 70. For specific examples, consult chapter four of Rajeha’s book. 12 Jonathan Parry, “Ghosts, Greed, and Sin” Man, New Series, Vol. 15, No. 1 (March 1980), pp. 88-111. In fact, Parry suggests that the sole duty of such specialists is not to perform the funerary rites themselves (such is the duty of the karm kandi), but rather to accompany the sponsor (jajman) during these rites and to accept sajja dan on the eleventh day of the funeral rites. Ideally, this sajja dan consists of a year’s worth of grain and other supplies, and a sum of cash. According to Parry, “…the acceptance of dan – the gifts made to the Brahman – is a perilous matter. To be sure, the dan associated with death is particularly noxious” (p. 102). 13 Ibid., 102. ff. He does note that the Mahabrahman is at once impure and inauspicious, p. 94.

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of ritual impurity, it is to the accumulated inauspiciousness of death, I would argue, that the danger associated with these priests should be attributed. This explains why – as both Parry and Madan note – an encounter with such a Mahabrahman is held to be highly inauspicious.14 In Madan’s view, the sight of such a person merely results in an inauspi- cious event for the observer, but Parry’s data – from the perspective of the funerary specialist himself – shows that these Mahabrahmans have irrevocably internalized a state of inauspiciousness by means of the trans- fer of funerary gifts. Hence the person/event distinction appears to be directly contradicted by the logic of these “poisoned” ritual gifts. Thus modern practice offers two specific ritual scenarios – astrological counseling and expiatory gifting – that assume a “personalization” of misfortune which is somewhat more than merely symbolic, but rather psychological and corporeal. The medieval evidence discussed in this paper offers some points of departure for historicizing the ambivalence between persons and events in contemporary theories of auspiciousness- inauspiciousness. As will become clear, while I accept Madan’s proposed link between auspiciousness and events as one theoretical principle, I will show that medieval ritual literature suggests ways in which the complex modern view may have been formed “in practice” from the interaction of different ritual specialists at medieval royal courts. Hence, this discus- sion will bear heavily on the relationship between kings and brahma∞ical ritual specialists in the medieval period. The addition of the medieval perspective helps to redress a crucial gap in the scholarship on this subject. No doubt the broader debates figured here have benefitted from a primarily synchronic mode of analysis, in which modern ethnographic data has been discussed freely alongside Vedic materials (chiefly in the work of Jan Heesterman).15 Thus interactions

14 However, if he is encountered by a party carrying a dead body for cremation, sight- ing him is believed to minimize the auspiciousness of the death and is, therefore, welcome. Madan, “Concerning the Categories Subha and Suddha,” p. 19. 15 I refer here to Heesterman’s essays of the 60s and 70s, contemporary to the Dumontian era of Indian sociology and anthropology. Many of these essays are now republished in The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985). In particular see “, Ritual, and Renouncer,” chapter two of Inner Conflict of Tradition, originally published in Weiner Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- und Ostasiens 8 (1964), pp. 1-31; and “Vratya and Sacrifice,” Indo-Iranian

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between sponsors and ritualists in contemporary Indian villages have been considered in terms of the “Vedic” relationship between and KÒatryas (or kings) (Heesterman, Rajeha, Parry),16 with the aim of theorizing the Indian caste system in the wake of Dumont’s thesis. Yet as a result, such discussions have sorely neglected the medieval, “post- Vedic,” or “early Hindu” period, precisely the era to which modern articulations of auspiciousness should be more directly traced. To date Ronald Inden has been the sole advocate of the relevance of medieval transformations of the Vedic-Hindu tradition in these larger discussions, outlining, for instance, changes in the Vedic priesthood and the emergence of the Great Gifts in early medieval Hindu state formation – both topics of great relevance for the present discussion.17 My comments may be seen as an attempt to historicize this period with greater specificity, within the ambit of Inden’s broader discussion, while applying this historicized medi- eval perspective to questions raised by contemporary ethnographic data. Hence this paper will pursue two arguments. First I will make the historical argument that modern practices for the transference of sin and inauspiciousness can be traced directly to the ritualization of astronomy in the medieval period, as seen specifically in the generation of the mahadanas, or “Great Gifts,” based on the paradigm of santi (rituals of appeasement for inauspicious signs). Second I will suggest that two different complications, or theoretical tensions, inherent in modern notions

Journal 6 (1962), pp. 1-37. Heesterman’s direct intervention in sociological debates can be seen in his brief comment, “Priesthood and the Brahmin,” part of a multi-author set of responses to Homo Hierarchicus in Contributions to Indian Sociology, New Series, 5 (1971), 1-82. 16 See for instance Poison in the Gift, p. 24 ff. and also the Conclusion, p. 248 ff. Quoting Heesterman’s “Vratya and Sacrifice,” Parry also notes that the modern “taint of dan” endured by the Mahabrahmans is “foreshadowed in the theology of the Vedic sacrifice,” “Ghosts, Greed, and Sin,” p. 105. 17 See in particular, “The Ceremony of the Great Gift: Structure and Historical Context in Indian Ritual and Society,” Asie du Sud, Traditions et Changements, Colloques Inter- nationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 582, eds. Marc Gaborieau and Alice Thorner (Paris: CNRS, 1978), pp. 131-6 and “Changes in the Vedic Priesthood,” in Ritual, State and History in South Asia: Essays in Honour of J.C. Heesterman, eds. A.W. can den Hoek, D.H.A. Kolff and M.S. Oort (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992), 556-77. Another important essay is “Kings and Omens,” in Purity and Auspiciousness, pp. 30-40. These papers have recently been republished in Text and Context: Essays on South Asian History (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006).

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of sin and misfortune can be explained as results of historical processes in the medieval period. These complications can be summed up in the following questions: [1] Does auspiciousness/inauspiciousness apply only to events, or can it adhere to persons and objects? [2] What is the role of “Hindu”18 gods in the distribution of karmic misfortune? Is mis- fortune dependent on the agency of the gods, or does it operate according to the laws of a mechanistic, “karmic economy”? I will try to show how medieval Hindu rituals of appeasement and atonement accommodate a variety of responses to both of these questions.

3. RITES FOR ASTROLOGERS: SANTI AND ATHARVAN RITUAL SPECIALIZATION

The opening argument of the AtharvavedaparisiÒ†as [AVPS 2.1-2]19 places a ritual category called santi (or “appeasement”) at the forefront of the services that the Atharvan chaplain (or purohita) could offer to an Indian monarch.20 It states that the king should appoint an Atharvan as

18 By “Hindu gods” here, I refer specifically to ViÒ∞u and Siva, who become prominent in the Pura∞as of the early medieval period and later. The relative prominence of these deities in the rituals examined in this paper bears directly on a historiographic problem, namely, the question of the emergence of the larger construct, “Hinduism” – which is closely linked to these deities, as best seen in R.G. Bhandarkar’s VaiÒ∞avism, Saivism and Minor Religious Systems (Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner, 1913) – from the older “Vedic” religion. According to a kind of logic of supercession, the deity-centred Pura∞ic religion (Saivism and VaiÒ∞avism) is sometimes characterized as radically different from Vedic reli- gion. As we will see, this seems to be the argument of some scholarship on the Mahadanas. Later in this paper (see section 8), however, I suggest that it may be problematic to view the mahadanas as strictly “Hindu” (and thus “non-Vedic”) rituals. 19 For the dating of this text, see section 7. 20 My comments in this paragraph are drawn from the following passage: “Oμ! Bowing to Brahman, the Brahmaveda (i.e., the Atharvaveda), and to the supreme Rudra, I will explain the remaining ritual instructions belonging to the Atharva. Daiva is all surpassing. Human effort is merely a secondary cause. By means of daiva, which is very secret, one is able to conquer the earth. Between daiva and human effort, daiva is the best. Therefore, a king should honor daiva in particular. Therefore a king, by giving gifts, honoring [them], and performing acts that please [them], should always select an astrologer and a purohita, who know daiva and the rituals (karma). [As the saying goes,] ‘A king without an astrologer is like a child without a father. And a king without an Atharvan purohita is like a child without a mother.’ He is as if alone in the midst of a host of enemies, or as if without a physician. A king desirous of rightfully

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his purohita because it is the Atharvan alone who can perform santi rituals, which are crucial to “the protection of the army and the prosperity of the kingdom.” As the text claims, “In that kingdom without a purohita, divine afflictions strike, the god withholds rain, and there no heroes are born.”21

conquering the entire world should choose a bhargava guru who is possessed knowledge and auspicious marks. Prajapati alone truly knows the fourfold acts, and he does not have any regard for the [other] three [AVPS 2.1]. Whatever is appeased and [?] destroyed by the Atharva, is not appeased by the other three [Vedas]. In the three worlds, knowledge arises from the Brahmaveda (alone). Atharvan discharges terrible (spells), just as he appeases omens. Atharvan protects the sacrifice. Angiras is lord of the sacri- fice. Various are omens arising in the earth, atmosphere, and heavens. One who knows the Brahmaveda is [their] appeaser. Therefore Bh®gu is the protector. The brahman alone should appease, not the adhvaryu (Yajurvedin), chandoga (Samavedin), nor the bahv®c (˛gvedin). The brahman guards against demons therefore he who knows the Atharva is brahman. Therefore for the protection of the army, for the increase of one’s king- dom, and for the sake of santi, a king should choose a bhargava priest as his guru [AVPS 2.2].” om | brahma∞e brahmavedaya rudraya parameÒ†hine | namask®tya pravakÒyami seÒam atharva∞aμ vidhim || 1 || daivaμ prabhavate sreÒ†haμ hetumatraμ tu pauruÒam | daivena tu suguptena sakto jetuμ vasuμdharam || 2 || daivat puruÒakarac ca daivam eva visiÒyate | tasmad daivaμ viseÒe∞a pujayet tu mahipatiÌ || 3 || daivakarmavidau tasmat saμvatsarapurohitau | g®h∞iyat satataμ raja danasaμmanarañjanaiÌ || 4 || apita tu yatha balas tathasaμvatsaro n®paÌ | amat®ko yatha balas tathatharvavivarjitaÌ | arimadhye yathaikaki tatha vaidyavivarjitaÌ || 5 || dharme∞a p®thiviμ k®tsnaμ vijayiÒyan mahipatiÌ | vidyalakÒa∞asaμpannaμ bhargavaμ varayed gurum || 6 || caturvidhasya karma∞o vedatattvena niscayam | prajapatir athaiko hi na vedatrayam ikÒate || 7 ||[AVPS 2.1] atharvabhinnaμ yac chantaμ tac chantaμ netarais tribhiÌ | vijñanaμ triÒu lokeÒu jayate brahmavedataÌ || 1 || atharva s®jate ghoram adbhutaμ samayet tatha | atharva rakÒate yajñaμ yajñasya patir angiraÌ || 2 || divyantarikÒabhaumanam utpatanam anekadha | samayita brahmavedajñas tasmad rakÒita bh®guÌ || 3 || brahma samayen nadhvaryur na chandogo na bahv®caÌ | rakÒaμsi rakÒati brahma brahma tasmad atharvavit || 4 || senaya rakÒa∞e tasmat svaraÒ†rapariv®ddhaye | santyarthaμ ca mahipalo v®∞uyad bhargavaμ gurum || 5 ||[AVPS 2.2] 21 ghnanti daivopasargas ca na ca devo ‘bhivarÒati | viras tatra na suyante yad raÒ†ram apurohitam || AVPS 2.3.3 || Here the term daivopasarga can be taken in the sense of a “calamity arising in the heavens,” in contradistinction to the more abstract sense of daiva discussed in the passage above in n.20.

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These santi rituals are at the same time explicitly tied to divination. They are said to appease dangers portended by omens of the “earth, atmos- phere, and heavens” (bhauma, antarikÒa, divya), the standard tripartite categorization for omens in the astrological tradition.22 In addition, the astrologer – expert in the reading of natural signs – figures as the partner of this Atharvan chaplain. The text supports the astrological profession by maintaining the inscrutability (sugupta) of the workings of “daiva,” a term which roughly corresponds to “heavenly will” or “fate,” and which is juxtaposed with “human effort” (pauruÒam).23 It is the overrid- ing power of daiva that justifies the partnership of astrologers and puro- hitas in the service of the king. The text implies that the astrologer “knows daiva” and the purohita “knows karma” (i.e. rituals). It would appear then that in this partnership, the astrologer divines the impending misfortunes that the Atharvan must then appease through santi rituals.24 Now by the period of the AVPS, santi rituals – in the Atharvan tradi- tion at least – had achieved a rather stable form.25 At the core of such

22 As seen most distinctly in BS 45.1-6, Varahamihira’s now standard definition of omens. 23 The term “daiva” in epic literature has the sense of a kind of abstract cosmic principle (like time), independent from the will of specific gods. As we will see, in the later tradition, the situation becomes more complicated as the Hindu deities assume greater prominence in the administration of fate. In the AVPS passage seen above (2.1-2) the term seems to retain the earlier abstract sense, although the astrological nature of this daiva, referring to signs and misfortunes appearing or originating in the heavens, is also implied in AVPS as a whole. This can be seen both in the prominence of omens (see next note), and also in references to the worship of the planets, which is described in the earlier Atharvan text, the Santikalpa. For a further discussion of daiva see below section 8. 24 The increasing cooperation of Atharvans and astrologers is evident in the large corpus of divinatory texts redacted into the corpus of Atharvan ParisiÒ†as. AVPS 50-72 comprise a lengthy series of omen catalogues drawn from astrological sources. As Yano and Maejima have shown, much of this material overlaps with astrological sources of the early medieval period. I show in the second chapter of my dissertation that AVPS 50-72 regularly prescribes the mahasanti ritual from the Santikalpa (twenty-six times, to be exact) as a means of appeasing these inauspicious omens. See The Ritual Culture of Appeasement: Santi Rites in Post-Vedic Sources (PhD dissertation, 2011). 25 In the first chapter of my dissertation (The Ritual Culture of Appeasement), I trace the emergence of the santi ritual which is rooted in the production of “santi waters” (santyudaka) in the earliest Atharvan ritual text, the Kausikasutra (1.9). The preparation of such waters forms the core of a consecration ceremony that is framed by the basic Vedic fire ritual (darsapur∞amasa iÒ†i) in a text called the Santikalpa, the earliest text in the Atharvan ritual corpus concerned with an explicitly-named santi ritual category. The

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rituals, a person afflicted by adverse astrological influences is “sprin- kled” (pra-ukÒ), “consecrated” (abhi-Òic), or “bathed” (sna) with special “appeasement waters” (santyudaka). Descriptions of Atharvan santi rituals are greatly concerned with the production of these special waters, over which are recited, and into which are mixed the remains of fire offerings.26 Perhaps because of this latter detail – the mixing of sacrificial remnants (saμpata) with consecrated waters – santi consecrations regu- larly occur within the frame of the traditional Vedic fire offering, the or iÒ†i. By the early medieval period we see a proliferation of what I would call “apotropaic consecrations” – that is, bathing or sprinkling rituals meant to protect their sponsor from a variety of ills – which are based on this basic consecratory scheme.27 I will argue below (section 5) that some

consecration ceremony described in this text is framed by an iÒ†i and called the mahasanti. It is said specifically to remedy omens of the earth, atmosphere and heavens, and may represent the first use of the term “santi” to refer to a ritual. The close technical links between the Santikalpa and the earlier Atharvan ritual text, the Kausikasutra, suggest an attempt to repackage Atharvan ritual techniques within a single ritual category. The AVPS form the third strata of ritual literature in this progression. Apart from their use of the term “santi” to denote a category of rituals, they also feature a series of “santi-style” consecra- tions that apply to the calendrical cycle of royal rituals. This material forms the basis of my second chapter. I take the mahasanti, as described in the Atharvan Santikalpa, as the para- digm for the consecrations discussed here. The Santikalpa appears to have been well known to the AVPS, where the mahasanti ritual is prescribed twenty nine times, and also serves as the paradigm (tantra) for another ritual, the ko†ihoma (AVPS 31). Hence we may surmise that it had attained a canonical status within the Atharvan tradition by the time of the AVPS. 26 The remains of sacrificial offerings, or saμpatas, are, in Bahulkar’s view, “perhaps a specialty of the Atharva∞ic ritual.” See Medical Ritual in the Atharvaveda Tradition (Pune: Tilak Vidyapeeth, 1994), p. 43 and p. 73 n.3. They are used regularly throughout the Kausikasutra in a number of different ritual contexts, including rituals of battle, healing, fertility, and rites associated with childbirth. The remainders are alternatively mixed with water, smeared on amulets, food, and even the bodies of sick persons. Hence in the early Atharvan tradition, saμpata remainders are employed more or less independently from santi waters (though they are already used in conjunction with water as sprinkling agents; the phrase udapatre∞a saμpatavata, “with a water pot having saμpatas” occurs seven times in Kausikasutra in a variety of rituals). In the Santikalpa, they are added directly to the pot that holds the santyudaka, and thus form one part of the preparation of the santi waters used in the consecration. In the AVPS we find a number of rituals in which the such remainders of fire offerings made with various groups – especially the santi group – are mixed into consecratory waters. The tulapuruÒa, discussed below, is exemplary in this regard. 27 I employ the term “apotropaic consecration” in contradistinction to the earlier empowering consecrations of the Vedic tradition. Whereas the Vedic inaugurations are

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key mahadanas, or “Great Gifts” of the Hindu tradition, represent variants of this larger category of santi or apotropaic consecrations. The AVPS, as I have said, are greatly concerned with the promotion of the santi category, yet they also include a large and somewhat miscel- laneous set of rituals. This varied collection in fact forms a calendar of regular and occasional rites meant to structure the life of the king. My reading of the AVPS suggests that as a result of the aggressive campaign to promote santi as the paramount ritual concern of kingship, the santi ritual also had to be incorporated with other ritual schemes that may have conventionally belonged to a generic program of royal rituals in early India. The AVPS includes, for instance, the royal coronation, daily rituals of waking and sleeping, and royal processions.28 Some of these rituals are mentioned in the and in early texts on kingship such as the Arthasastra and other treatises of the early Indian legal tradition (dharmasastra).29 Hence this set of royal rituals may have been at first independent of santi rites.

focused on the empowerment of the subject into the office of kingship (see for instance AV 4.8, the original Atharvan consecration hymn), later regular and occasional conse- crations aim at a broader set of goals, including appeasement of omens portending dis- aster (santi), health (puÒ†i), atonement for sin (prayascitta), and protection from sorcery (abhicara). Thus while they may be seen to emulate the form of the traditional Vedic coronation, the varied category of “apotropaic consecrations,” which inflect the aims of the original service, can be applied to a larger set of occasions. The AVPS for instance prescribe a series of consecrations for the king in addition to the “first” consecration, or inaugura- tion (rajaprathamabhiÒeka, AVPS 3): Regular Consecrations: “PuÒya Consecration,” (puÒyabhiÒeka, AVPS 5); “Birthday [Consecration]” (janmadina, 18b.1); “Ritual for the Full Moon of Srava∞a” (srava∞apur∞amasa, AVPS 18b); “Ten-Ga∞a Mahasanti” (dasaga∞i mahasanti AVPS 18b – daily). Occasional Consecrations: “Gift of the Earth,” (bhumidana, AVPS 10); “Gift of [the Donor’s] Weight [in Gold]” (tulapuruÒa, AVPS 11); “Golden Embryo (hira∞yagarbha, AVPS 13); “1000 Cows” (Gosahasra, AVPS 16); “Blanket of Ghee” (gh®takambala, AVPS 33); mahasanti (various). These rites are dis- cussed at length in my dissertation. They were highly influential over Pura∞ic texts such as Matsya and ViÒ∞udharmottara. See my dissertation, Ritual Culture of Appeasement, chapter two. 28 See AVPS 3 (rajaprathamabhiÒeka) for the royal coronation. AVPS 4 (purohitakarma∞i), 6 (piÒ†aratryaÌ kalpaÌ), 7 (aratrikam), 8 (gh®tavekÒa∞a) describe the daily rituals such as the svastyayana (morning blessing) and the gh®tavekÒa∞a (“gazing into ghee”). AVPS 19 describes the “Festival of ,” (indramahotsava). 29 Of course the various forms of the royal consecration are attested from key texts of the Vedic period, for a survey of which see for instance pp. 8-12 of Michael Witzel’s “The Coronation Rituals of Nepal, With special reference to the coronation of King Birendra”

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4. GIFTS AND EXPIATION

Another ritual scheme that the late Atharvan tradition appears to have inherited was the expiatory gift. AVPS 4 prescribes two such gifts, namely, the daily gifts of gold and grain (suvar∞adana and tiladana). Each of these gifts operates according to a logic of expiation, according to which the sins of a king may be destroyed, either through physical contact with the object of gifting or by the sheer power of the gift itself. The first mechanism is most clear in the gift of gold. The key passage in the text says: Taking with his left hand a golden coin having the weight of a k®Ò∞ala berry, rubbing the gold on his body while reciting the mantra, “Let it burn up all [my] sins, be they misdeeds or corruptions,” he should give it to the priest with his right hand, together with a healthy cow.30 Immediately following this text, the “gift of sesame” (tiladana) demon- strates a similar expiatory logic in which the king requests that whatever mistake he has committed – whether knowingly or unknowingly – be burnt up by the gift of sesame.31

in Hertiage of the Kathmandu Valley, eds. Niels Gutschow and Axel Michaels (St Augustin: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag, 1987), pp. 414-467. But some of the other rites mentioned here, may belong to a slightly later period. For example, the svastyayana (morning blessing), described in AVPS 4, is mentioned at Arthasastra 16 (19).26 as part of the king’s daily schedule. AVPS 4 also describes, as part of this ceremony, the showing of “eight auspicious objects” (mangalani aÒ†au, AVPS 4.1.22-23) to the king. This may be related to a statement by Gonda that the king “should allow people to give him auspicious objects which were intended to enhance his power and to ward off evil.” Gonda references the Mahabharata here, but the passage does not seem to match the critical edition. See p. 31 of “Ancient Indian Kingship from the Religious Point of View,” Part 3, Numen 4.1 (Jan 1957), pp. 24-58. A ritual called svastyayana appears also at Gautamadharmasutra 11.17, one of the earlier specimens of its genre. The Arthasastra, recently dated to the Gupta period by Michael Willis, also mentions a ritual called nirajana, the “lustration” of royal horses (Arthasastra 2.30) and elephants (2.32), which are also described in AVPS 17-18 as part of the royal ritual calendar. I have not yet undertaken a comprehensive search of epic period literature, but I surmise that such a search would yield further evidence of such royal rites in Gupta and pre-Gupta periods. 30 suvar∞aniÒkaμ k®Ò∞alaμ va vamahastena saμg®hya || yad duÌk®taμ yac chabalaμ sarvaμ papmanaμ dahatv ity || anena mantre∞a suvar∞aμ sarire nigh®Òya dakÒi∞ena hastena vipraya dadyad || dhenuμ carogam ||AVPS 4.2.5-8|| 31 “Placing a large (lit. “immeasurable”) amount of grain in a golden or copper vessel, he addressing it with the mantra, ‘Whatever [corruption], unknown…’ should give it to a Brahma∞a. [the full mantra follows:] ‘What sin I have done, whether knowningly or unknowingly, may all that be burnt up by the gift of grain.’ As B®haspati says, ‘O King! [?]

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These two closely related daily rituals then, express the notion that gifts of gold or sesame can expiate, literally “burn up” the sins of a king – whether by the physical transfer of sin through the gift, or by the sheer power of the gift itself. As no aspect of the rites necessarily relates to appeasement or omen divination, I take them as demonstrative of a more or less independent theory of the expiatory gift, separate from santi rites that were the special preserve of the Atharvan priest.32 Elsewhere in the same collection of texts, but separate from these ritual gifts, however, we find the first explicit notice in Atharvan sources of an astrologically oriented notion of sin. The relevant passage occurs in the daily rite of “gazing into ghee (gh®tavekÒa∞a),” in which, during a fire sacrifice, the king gazes at his reflection in a vessel of ghee, which is also said to be the “best remover of sin.” Touching his head and heart with curds, he recites, “Whatever sin (kalmaÒa) has come from the earth, atmos- phere, or heavens, may all that be obliterated from the touch of ghee.”33 In this recitation, we find personal sin juxtaposed with the tripartite

The earth filled with grain should be given, according to one’s ability, to a Brahma∞a who is expert in the Veda. having enjoyed various pleasures, obtaining the earth girdled by the seven oceans, that king should be liberated like the moon.’” aparimitagu∞an tilan sauvar∞amaye tamramaye va patre sthapayitva yad ajñanad ity abhimantrya vipraya dadyat || yad ajñanat tatha jñanad yan maya sabalaμ k®tam | tat sarvaμ tiladanena dahyatam iti hi prabho || bhumis ca sasyasaμpanna brahma∞e vedaparage | yathasakti pradeya hi b®haspativaco yatha || sa bhuktva vividhan bhogan saptasagaramekhalam | p®thiviμ prapya modeta candravat p®thivipatiÌ ||AVPS 4.2.9- 12|| The distinction between intentional and unintentional sins or mistakes is common in dharmasastric sources. The text seems to end with a general praise of gifting. 32 These expiatory gifts perhaps belong to an older and independent culture of gifting. A survey of early gifting is beyond the scope of this paper. Apart from the subject of dakÒi∞a, or sacrificial fees, which have been discussed at length by Heesterman, the Anusasan- aparvan of the Mahabharata (see for instance chs. 57 ff. in the BORI critical edition by V.S. Sukthankar et al.), already extols royal gifts of cows, gold, grain, and land to brahma∞as. As with the Vedic dakÒi∞a, such gifts are said to destroy sins. See also P.V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Institute, 1968-75), Vol. II; Jan Gonda, “Gifts,” Continuity and Change in Indian Religion (London: Mouton & Co., 1965), pp. 198- 228; Vijay Nath, Dana, Gift System in Ancient India (C. 600 BC- C. 300 AD) (Delhi: Mun- shiram Manoharlal, 1987). 33 ajyaμ tejaÌ samuddiÒ†am ajyaμ papaharaμ param | ajyena devas trpyanti ajye lokaÌ pratiÒ†hitaÌ || bhaumantarikÒadivyaμ va yat te kalmaÒam agatam | sarvaμ tad ajyasaμsparsat pra∞asam upagacchatv iti || AVPS 8.1.6-7||

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classification of omens belonging to astrological sources. It therefore implies an identity between mortal misdeeds and natural disasters portended by omens. Thus while the passage makes use of the same mechanics as the gift of gold, in which the king’s sins are destroyed from contact with a specific substance, it more importantly places these sins in a broader rela- tionship with the omens of the natural world, and thus implicates royal sin in the natural or cosmological mechanisms of fate and misfortune. Again, this “gazing into ghee” rite is not a called a “dana” or gift.34 It may therefore be distinguished from the gifts of gold and grain described above. Furthermore, while the notion of sin as portent presented in this rite appears to be novel, at least in the Atharvan corpus, a likely source for this theory lies in the Indian Astrological tradition, which had grown considerably by the mid first millennium CE.35 In the B®hatsaμhita we find the same pair of verses above (describing the relationship between sin and omens) in what seems to be a closely related ritual of bathing the king with butter.36 This act forms part of the so-called “bath of health” (puÒyasnana, BS 47), which the text explicitly calls a santi rite.37 Hence we may infer that the astrological theory of sin was already operative within a broader set of santi related rituals in the astrological tradition of the sixth century at the latest. What I have described so far is the inclusion in the AVPS of expiatory gifts on the one hand, with another type of expiation, involving ghee, that connects sins and omens. These ritual texts are merely coexistent, redacted

34 In fact, there are indications from the text that link it to the astrologically-minded category of santi rituals. In particular, the text at AVPS 8.1.3 states that the ritual takes place in a structure called the santi-house (santig®ha). 35 Particularly as influenced by the translation of several Greek horoscopic texts in the 2nd-4th centuries CE. B®hatsaμhita in the 6th century can already be seen as a synthesizer of divinatory, horoscopic, and mathematical-astronomical traditions. See David Pingree, JyotiÌsastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1981). 36 BS 47.52-53. This particular bath, which occurs as a preliminary bath within the puÒyasnana (“Bath of Health”), seems to correspond with an independent ritual from the AVPS, called the gh®takambala (“Blanket of Ghee”). In the ritual, the king is bathed with a large quantity of clarified butter placed in a pot. 37 The introduction to the chapter says: “Listen to that santi that svayaμbhu told to the preceptor of the gods for the sake of Indra, just as V®ddhagarga, having obtained it, told it to Bhaguri” (ya vyakhyata santiÌ svayambhuva suraguror mahendrarthe | taμ prapya v®ddhagargaÌ praha yatha bhagureÌ s®∞uta ||BS 47.2||).

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together in a larger collection, and, hypothetically, forming a more-or-less heterogeneous program of rituals to structure the daily life of the king. Presently I will examine rituals in which logics of gifting and appease- ment appear to have been more fully integrated.

5. SANTI AND THE “HINDU” MAHADANAS

A more thorough synthesis of expiatory gifts and astrological notions of sin is first seen in a series of elaborate danas appearing in the same collection. AVPS 9-16 describe seven such ritual gifts.38 In an early medi- eval text, the Matsyapura∞a (hereafter MtP, chapters 274-289), the same rituals would account for seven of the sixteen so-called “mahadanas” or “Great Gifts.”39 From this Pura∞ic source, these rituals were incorporated into the dharmanibandhas, mainstream compendia of Hindu law and ritual of the second millennium.40 The mahadanas, as Ronald Inden has shown, were crucial to medieval state formation, replacing earlier Vedic state rituals such as the asvamedha.41 But if we look carefully, I believe that we can also see them as iterations of the santi paradigm found in Atharvan texts (the Santikalpa and the AVPS), and therefore highly

38 “[Gift] of a Cow Made of Sesame” (tiladhenu, AVPS 9); “Gift of [an Image of] the Earth” (bhumidana, AVPS 10); “Gift of [the Donor’s Weight in Gold]” (tulapuruÒa, AVPS 11); “Golden Embryo” (hira∞yagarbha, AVPS 13); “[Gift of an] Elephant Chariot” (hastiratha, AVPS 14); “[Gift of a] Horse Chariot” (asvaratha, AVPS 15); “[Gift of] 1000 Cows” (gosahasra, AVPS 16). AVPS 12, the “[Gift of] a Sun-Cake” (adityama∞∂aka) is the odd one out in the series. It is not included in the sixteen mahadanas of the MtP. AVPS 18b.17 prescribes it as a weekly ritual for the king. 39 The rituals listed in n. 38 can be compared with the following texts from MtP: tulapu- ruÒadanam (MtP 274); hira∞yagarbhadanam (MtP 275); gosahasradanam (MtP 278); asvarathadanam (MtP 281); hemahastirathadanam (MtP 282); p®thividanam (MtP 284). The “Cow of Sesame” (tiladhenu, AVPS 9) likely finds its counterpart in the “Jeweled Cow” (ratnadhenudanam, MtP 288). This correspondence is evident in a number of details, including in the use of jewels for the various parts of the cow, and also its construction on a black antelope skin (k®Ò∞ajinam, AVPS 9.1.3, MtP 288.3). 40 See for instance the Danaka∞∂a of LakÒmidhara’s K®tyakalpataru (12th Century). 41 “The Ceremony of the Great Gift: Structure and Historical Context in Indian Ritual and Society,” Text and Practice: Essays on South Asian History (Oxford: OUP, 2006). See also his discussion of the RaÒ†raku†as in “Reconstructions,” chapter six of Imagining India (2nd Edition) (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000).

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continuous with late-Vedic ritual. In this sense, my approach contests the supposedly “abrupt” break between Vedic ritual culture and that of the “Hindu” Pura∞as, in order to highlight the common practices that span both Vedic and Pura∞ic rites.

i. (Maha)danas in the AVPS

A study of these gifts in the AVPS, in comparison with the canonical versions which appear in the MtP, reveals that they were intimately con- nected with what I would call the “ritual culture of appeasement.” The first and most important indication of this connection is that the form of these ceremonies as they appear in the AVPS is determined by the conse- cratory paradigm of Atharvan santi rituals. Five of these rituals, the - dana, the gosahasra, the tulapuruÒa, the hira∞yagarbha, and the hastiratha,42 are explicitly structured around a sprinkling consecration. As an example, I will discuss first the tulapuruÒadana, the gift of the donor’s weight in gold. This specific gift may be particularly illustrative, since the MtP takes it as the archetype for the entire category of mahadanas. Its ritual structure thus frames each of the other fifteen Great Gifts in their canonical form. In AVPS 11 the ritual takes the form of a consecration of the sponsor with a water pot that has been prepared with special mantras and into which are mixed the remainders of a fire offering: having prepared the requisites; having performed the first half of the fire offering up to the end of the pair of ajyabhaga offerings; having made an offering with the santi [ga∞a] possessing the mahavyah®tis and the savitri hymn, and with the hymn brahma jajñanam (AV 4.1.1); he should lead the remainders into the water pot while reciting “agne gobhir” (AVP 1.39.1), “agne ‘bhyavartinn” (KS 72.14), and “agneÌ prajatam” (AV 19.26); he should mix the remainders into the consecration pots. He should sprinkle him while reciting “atha ‘sye ‘ndro gravabhyam” (AV 6.138.2c). Having sprin- kled him while reciting “idam apo” (AV 7.89.3), “yathe ‘ndro” (AV 6.58.2); having had him smeared with pigments and oils, he should bind on him the garment and a garland of flowers [my emphasis].43

42 The latter four of which are the most important mahadanas that appear in epigraphic records. 43 saμbharan upakalpya praktantram ajyabhagantaμ k®tva || mahavyah®ti-savitri-santiμ brahma jajñanam iti hutva || agne gobhir agne ‘bhyavartinn agneÌ prajatam iti saμpatan ||

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Technical details of this consecration are drawn directly from existing santi rituals elsewhere in the Atharvan tradition. First the consecration itself takes place within the frame of a fire offering (homa or iÒ†i), as seen by the phrase, “having performed the first half of the fire offering up to the end of the ajyabhaga” (praktantram ajyabhagantaμ k®tva).44 Second, the set of mantras recited during this offering is none other than the specialized “santi-group” (santiga∞a) of mantras that is elsewhere employed in the production of santi waters, the paradigmatic agents of appeasement conse- crations and thus the technical core of the santi category.45 In accordance

udapatraniyabhiÒekakalaseÒu ninayed || athasyendro gravabhyam ity abhiÒecayed || idam apo yathendro bahubhyam ity abhiÒecayitva || yathoktam añjanabhyañjananulepanaμ karayitva vaso gandhasrajas cabadhniyat || AVPS 11.1.4-9 || 44 The ajyabhaga are a series of offerings that mark the end of the introductory services in any simple fire sacrifice in the domestic (g®hya) tradition, which is ultimately based on the paradigm of the “full and new moon sacrifice” (darsapur∞amasa iÒ†i), the basic ritual unit of the classical “solemn” (srauta) sacrifice. See above, n. 25. 45 The recitation of the “mantra group” (mantra-ga∞a) is closely associated with the santi ritual category in Atharvan sources. Each ga∞a is comprised of several individual hymns or verses drawn variously from the Atharvaveda, all of which are thus directed towards a single purpose, such as appeasement (santi, AVPS 32.1,20,26,27), long life (ayuÒya, AVPS 32.9), or the destruction of bad dreams (duÌsvapnanasana, AVPS 32.8). The use of such groups became fully formulated in AVPS 32, which lists 31 such ga∞as. One of the earliest instances of ga∞a use appears to be in the Kausikasutra 1.8.23-1.9.4. 1.8.23-25 lists three groups of hymns, the vastoÒpatiya, the mat®nama, and the catana mantras. 1.9.1-4 gives what the later tradition takes as two separate santi groups of mantras (according to AVPS 32.26-27, the “b®hat” and “laghu”-santi ga∞as), or mantras meant to produce appeasement. AVPS 32 adds two additional santi ga∞as (AVPS 32.1 and 20). The tulapuruÒavidhi discussed here seems to employ the santi ga∞a given in AVPS 32.1. As it says, “having made an offering with the santi [ga∞a] possessing the mahavyah®tis and the savitri hymn, and with the hymn brahma jajñanam (AV 4.1.1).” This can be taken in two ways. On the one hand, it may mean the santi ga∞a that includes the mahavyah®tis (the syllables, oμ bhur bhuvaÌ suvaÌ) and the savitri hymn (the famous hymn RV 3.62.10, which begins, tat savitur vare∞yaμ). This would correspond to the sa∞tiga∞a from AVPS 32.1: “oμ bhus tat savituÌ saμ no deviÌ santa dyauÌ saμ na indragni saμ no vato vatu uÒa apa svasus tama iti santiga∞aÌ.” In this interpretation, the hymn AV 4.11 (brahma jajñanam) would be additional to the santi ga∞a from AVPS 32.1. On the other hand, we may take the entire sentence to refer to either one of the “greater” or “lesser” santiga∞as from Kausikasutra 1.9, each of which contains AV 4.11. This possibility is permissible accord- ing to the rules of the Kausikasutra. After listing the mantras in each of the two versions of the santi ga∞a, Kausikasutra 1.9.7 reads ubhayataÌ savitry ubhayataÌ saμ no devi, “at both [ends] the savitri, at both the verse saμ no devi.” Darila’s commentary makes the reading explicit: santer adyantayoÌ ‘tatsaviturvare∞yaμ’ iti savitri kartavya | ubhayataÌ savitryaÌ ‘saμ no devi’ | kramaÌ santeÌ punaÌ saμ no devi savitri santi savitri saμ no

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with typical directions for the preparation of santyudaka, the remainders of the fire offering accompanied by the recitation of these santi mantras are then mixed with the consecratory waters, just prior to the consecration itself. A brief consideration of the mantras employed in the consecratory act itself demonstrates the complex meanings taken on by what I have termed the “apotropaic consecrations.” The earlier Vedic consecrations were positive rituals, meant to confer attributes such as varcas (glory, preem- inence) or ayus (long life) on the king.46 These ideas are clearly seen in the original Atharvan consecration mantra, AV 4.8.47 But the mantras

devi || “At the beginning and end of the santi[ga∞a] the savitri, namely ‘tatsaviturvare∞yam’ is to be made. At both ends of the savitri, ‘saμ no devi’ [is to be made]. Again the order of the santi[ga∞a] is saμ no devi, savitri, santi, savitri, saμ no devi.” Hence both santi ga∞as, according to Darila, should be framed by the savitri. The detail of the mahavyah®ti syllables disposes me to favor the first alternative. At any rate, the specific mention of a santi ga∞a together the savit®i is unmistakably connected to the santi ga∞a, and thus the employment of santyudaka from the Kausikasutra. 46 See especially Yasuhiro Tsuchiyama, “AbhiÒeka in the Vedic and post-Vedic Rituals,” chapter two in From Material to Deity: Indian Rituals of Consecration, eds. Shingo Einoo and Jun Takashima. (New Delhi: Manohar, 2005), pp. 51-93. 47 Whitney’s translation: “The being (bhuta) sets milk in beings; he has become the overlord of beings; Death (the god M®tyu) attends the royal consecration (rajasuya) of him; let him, as king, approve this royalty [1]. Go forward unto [it]; do not long away, a stern corrector, rival-slayer; approach, O increaser of friends; may the gods bless thee [2]. Him approaching all waited upon; clothing himself in fortune, he goes about, having his own brightness; great is the name of the virile Asura; having all forms, he approached immortal things [3]. A tiger, upon the tiger’s [skin], do thou stride out unto the great quarters; let all the people want thee, the waters of heaven, rich in milk [4]. The waters of heaven that revel with milk, in the atmosphere or also on the earth – with the splendor of all those waters do I pour upon thee [5]. The heavenly waters, rich in milk, have poured upon thee with splendor; that thou be an increaser of friends, so shall Savitar make thee [6]. Thus, embracing the tiger, they incite the lion unto great good-fortune; as the well-being ones the ocean that stands, do they rub thoroughly down the leopard amid the waters [7].” bhuto bhuteÒu paya a dadhati sa bhutanam adhipatir babhuva | tasya m®tyus carati rajasuyaμ sa raja anu manyatam idaμ || 1 || abhi prehi mapa vena ugras cetta sapatnaha | a tiÒ†ha mitravardhana tubhyam deva adhi bruvan || 2 || atiÒ†hantaμ pari visve abhuÒaμ chriyaμ vasanas carati svarociÌ | mahat tad v®Ò∞o asurasya nama visvarupo am®tani tasthau || 3 || vyaghro adhi vaiyaghre vi kramasva diso mahiÌ | visas tva sarva vañchantv apo divyaÌ payasvatiÌ || 4 ||

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employed in the apotropaic consecrations of the AVPS are concerned with a wider set of aims, including purity, atonement, sorcery and appeasement. For instance, in the tulapuruÒa, only one of the four verses that accompany the consecration itself, AV 6.58.2, seems explicitly connected with the acquisition of glory.48 As for the remaining verses, AV 6.138.2c is con- nected in the Kausikasutra to rituals of sorcery (abhicara).49 The second verse, AV 7.89.3 is concerned with the removal of impurity (mala) and shame (avadya, lit., “blameworthy”): “O waters, do ye carry forth both this reproach and what is foul, and what untruth I have uttered in hate, and what I have sworn fearlessly.”50 This specific verse may therefore suggest a connection between the sprinkling consecration and the removal of sin and impurity. In fact, the hymn from which this verse is drawn (AV 7.89) appears elsewhere in a number of generic bathing and purifica- tion rites.51 The final quarter verse recited in the consecration, AV 2.33.2d

ya apo divyaÌ payasa madanty antarikÒa uta va p®thivyam | tasaμ tva sarvasam apam abhi Òiñcami varcasa || 5 || abhi tva varcasasicann apo divyaÌ payasvatiÌ | yathaso mitravardhanas tatha tva savita karat || 6 || ena vyaghraμ pariÒasvajanaÌ siμhaμ hinvanti mahate saubhagaya | samudraμ na sub- huvas tasthivaμsaμ marm®jyante dvipinam apsv antaÌ || 7 || 48 Whitney translates the verse as follows: “As Indra is possessed of glory in heaven- and-earth, as the waters are possessed of glory in the herbs, so among all the gods may we, among all, be glorious,” (yathendro dyavap®thivyor yasasvan yathapa oÒadhiÒu yasas- vatiÌ | eva visveÒu deveÒu vayaμ sarveÒu yasasaÌ syama || AV 6.58.2 ||) 49 In the Kausikasutra, the hymn from which this verse is drawn (AV 6.138) is recited during a sorcery (abhicara) ritual. The connection with spiritual warfare is clear in Whitney’s translation: “then let Indra with the (two) pressing stones split both his testicles” (athasyendro gravabhyam ubhe bhinattv a∞∂yau). 50 idam apaÌ pra vahatavadyaμ ca malaμ ca yat | yac cabhidudrohan®taμ yac ca sepe abhiru∞am || AV 7.89.3 || (Whitney’s translation). 51 The association of this hymn with cleansing seems well precedented in Atharvan ritual. Most prominently, at Kausikasutra 5.6 [42].12, the entire hymn AV 7.89 is addressed to the santi water used during the samavartana the ritual of the student’s return home from his period of studentship. The rite ends in a bath (hence a householder is called snataka). Additionally the specific verse used here (AV 7.89.3), is recited at the washing of the hands in the upanayana ceremony (Kausikasutra 7.8 [57].24), or at the start of the period of studentship. Additionally the first three verses are used in another act of cleans- ing at Vaitanasutra 3.18. For these and further references see Whitney’s comments in his translation of this hymn, Atharva-Veda Saμhita, Vol. 1, p.453 The same verse occurs in another closely related santi consecration, the gh®takambalam (“Blanket of Ghee”) at AVPS 33.6.4.

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seems to derive from a hymn meant to remove disease (yakÒman).52 Hence in addition to the waters that are prepared with a group of santi mantras (above, n. 45), the consecration itself makes use of three verses which are concerned with sorcery, purification, and the removal of disease – all in addition to a verse directed to the more traditional consecratory aim of glory and preeminence. The actual weighing of the sponsor in gold – for which the rite is named – occurs only after this rather complex consecration.53 Nonetheless it is the entire ritual structure, consecration and gift, that is called tulapu- ruÒavidhi (“Instruction for the TulapuruÒa”), and praised for its efficacy to destroy sin: This excellent [gift] was previously given by Indra for the obtainment of imperial overlordship, for the destruction of all sins, and for the increase of all merit. This gift is unsurpassed among all the Great Gifts (mahadanas)54

52 Whitney’s translation of the full verse, AV 2.33.2 “From my neck, nape, vertebrae, backbone, (two) shoulders, (two) fore-arms, I eject thee the yakÒma of the arms.” Athar- vaveda, Vol. 1, p. 76. 53 The next sentence in the text reads: “Sprinkling the scale and the gold with the pavit- ras, he makes him mount with the seven verses, ‘puruÒasaμmito ‘rtha’ (?).” tulaμ hira∞yaμ ca pavitrair abhyukÒya puruÒasaμmito ‘rtha iti saptabhis tadarohayed || AVPS 11.1.10 || “puruÒasaμmito ‘rtha” is cited at Kausikasutra 13.27 [119].4, but does not seem to appear in either Atharvan Saμhita (Saunaka or Paippalada). The seeming heterogeneity between consecration and gift should not be taken to mean that the two were originally separate. The close relationship between the consecration and gift is shown in particular by the employment of AV 19.26 during the mixing of the saμpatas with the consecratory waters. This verse is elsewhere associated with gold. In the Santikalpa, AV 19.26 is employed in the agneyi variant of the mahasanti ritual. This par- ticular mahasanti is said to be performed in the case of danger from fire, or for the attain- ment of all desires (AVSK 2.17.1). The verse is employed during the part of the ceremony where the sponsor is bound with an amulet, and in the case of the agneyi, this amulet takes the form of a gold earring (AVSK 2.19.1). According to Whitney, the verse is meant “For long life, etc: with something golden.” Hence the preparation of the santi water in the tulapuruÒa of AVPS 11 seems to acknowledge the connection between the consecration and the gift of gold. Whitney’s translation of AV 19.26: “The gold that, born out of the fire, immortal, maintains itself over mortals – whoso knows it, he verily merits it; one that dies of old age becomes he who wears it [1]. The gold, of beauteous color by the sun, that men of old with their progeny sought – that, shining, shall unite thee with splendor; of long life becomes he who wears it [2]. For life-time thee, for splendor thee, and for force and for strength – that with brilliancy of gold thou mayest shing out among the people [3].” 54 Incidentally, this is the only use of the term mahadana in the AVPS. Unfortunately the context of the passage does not suggest that the term denotes a specific group of danas, as in the Pura∞ic sense of the term.

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and excessive gifts (atidanas). It is most excellent and bestows imperishable fruit; it increases the welfare of the donor. All that sin committed in his family by three groups of seven relatives55 is quickly destroyed like a tuft of grass in the fire. Having obtained a healthy state insurmountable by the gods, good deeds or gold, he of golden splendor, free from sin, reigns in Suryaloka like Indra in heaven.56 This passage seems to demonstrate an orthodox understanding of sin and expiation, according to which the destruction of sin leads to a better rebirth. In this sense, it makes the foregoing ritual akin to the prayascittas, or “atonements” of the dharmasastric tradition.57 Hence the Atharvan ver- sion of the tulapuruÒa, the great gift of a man’s weight in gold, demon- strates most clearly, and perhaps for the first time,58 the combination of a ritual of appeasement with a ritual of expiatory gifting. The basic structure I have outlined here, namely, the combination of a sprinkling consecration with an elaborate ritual gift, recurs in most of the other gifts of the AVPS.59 Most conspicuous is the hira∞yagarbha, the “[Gift of] the Golden Womb” (AVPS 13). This elaborate ceremony once again includes a consecration framed by a fire sacrifice, which is offered to four gods: Hira∞yagarbha, , Brahman, and Prajapati. In

55 A passage quoted in the k®tyakalpatru would seem to suggest that the three groups belong to the past, present and future: sapta jatan naro hanyad vartamanaμs tu sapta ca | atikrantan sapta hanyad aprayacchan pratisrutam || danaka∞∂a 1.50 || I thank Dave Brick for sharing this reference. 56 indre∞edaμ pura dattam adhirajyaptaye varam | sarvapapapra∞asaya sarvapu∞yaviv®ddhaye || mahadanatidananam idaμ danam anuttamam | akÒayyaphaladaμ sreÒ†haμ datr˜∞aμ sreyavardhanam || yat papaμ sve kule jatais triÌ sapta puruÒaiÌ k®tam | tat sarvaμ nasyate kÒipram agnau tulaμ yatha tatha || anamayaμ sthanam avapya daivair alanghaniyaμ suk®tair hira∞mayaiÌ | suvar∞atejaÌ pravimuktapapo divindravad rajati suryaloke || AVPS 11.2-5 || 57 As for instance in the Manavadharmasastra 11-12. 58 See section 7 below for chronological considerations. 59 The only exceptions, not mentioning a consecration, would seem to be the tiladhenu (AVPS 9, “[Gift of] a Cow of Sesame”), the text of which appears to be missing its ritual instruction, and the asvarathadana (AVPS 15, “Gift of a Horse Chariot”). We can infer, however, by analogy with the hastirathadana (AVPS 14, “Gift of an Elephant Chariot”), which seems to represent the model for the former rite, that the asvarathadana also includes a consecration.

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this case, the consecration takes the form of a bath in this “golden womb,” which has the form of a large vessel made of gold. The relevant passage is as follows: Bathing the king in the golden [vessel]60 with mantras having the word “gold” in them; pouring into that [golden vessel] water [and] pañcagavya, with golden pots; mixing in the remainders of the fire offering while reciting the hira∞yagarbha, the amhomuca, and the santatiya hymns, and with the five names.61 The king is addressed with the names of the four gods in the offering, and then in a golden vessel he is bathed with unspecified mantras containing the word “gold” (hira∞yavat). Then water, together with the “five cow products” (pañcagavya),62 is poured into the same vessel with golden pots. Finally, the remainders (saμpata) of the offering to Hira∞yagarbha, Agni, Brahman, and Prajapati are also mixed into the golden vessel63 while three hymns are recited: the hira∞yagarbha (AV 4.2), the santatiya (AV 4.13), and the aμhomuca (AV 19.42.3-4?). The Hira∞yagarbha hymn (AV 4.2) is of obvious thematic relevance to the larger ritual.64 Again, however, I would highlight what the other mantras further reveal about the purpose

60 That hira∞maye (“thing made of gold”) here refers to the golden vessel is likely from the details of the preparations for the ceremony, given earlier in the text, after the king and his priest are directed to sleep for the evening on the sacrificial space: “On the following morning at the hour of abhijit setting down a golden, circular, vessel, waist-high, with a cover.” svo bhute ‘bhijinmuhurte hira∞mayaμ ma∞∂alak®ti nabhimatraμ patram adhaya sapidhanam || AVPS 13.1.9 || 61 hira∞maye rajanaμ hira∞yavatibhiÌ snapayitva || hira∞yakalasais tasmin pañcaga- vyam apa asicya || hira∞yagarbhasuktenaμhomucena santatiyena pañcabhis ca namabhiÌ saμpatan aniya || AVPS 13.2.4-6 || 62 As Einoo observes, the “five cow products” in fact include six ingredients: cow’s urine, cow dung, milk, curd, clarified butter, and water mixed with kusa grass. See “Notes on the Installation Ceremonies Described in the G®hyaparisiÒ†as,” From Material to Deity, pp. 95-113. 63 The phrase is saμpatan aniya. The verb a/ni “to bring, pour, mix” is the common partner of the saμpatas. Often the verb implies the mixing of the remainders in waterpots (as in KS 1.3.17; 9.4[72].32), but it can also be used for their application on body parts (for example KS 2.1 [10].17, on the palate of a newborn; KS 4.2 [26]. 39, on the head of a person “possessed by Varu∞a”), or on objects (KS 3.3 [20].12, on a furrow; KS 13.28[120].10, on a crack in a house). 64 AV 4.2 appears to be a version of RV 10.121, which begins with the words, “In the beginning the golden embryo arose (hira∞yagarbhaÌ sam avartatagre).” This verse is relocated to verse seven in the Atharvan version.

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of the rite. The Santatiya hymn (AV 4.13)65 is literally concerned with expiation from sin and removal of disease. It forms part of the two original santiga∞as employed in the production of santi water at Kausi- kasutra 1.9, and is also included in the so-called ayuÒya ga∞a, or “health group” of mantras in AVPS 32.66 The aμhomuca, the “freeing from distress” hymn is more difficult to identify, but may refer to AV 19.42.3- 4.67 Nonetheless, the connection between the gift and santi consecrations should be clear: technically speaking, the king is bathed in what amounts to a life-sized “santi pot.”68 This pot is interpreted as the cosmic Hira∞yagarbha out of which the king will momentarily be reborn.69 And yet the protective

65 Whitney’s translation: “Both, O ye gods, him that is put down, O ye gods, ye lead up again, and him that hath done evil, O ye gods, O ye gods, ye make to live again [1]. These two winds blow from the river as far as the distance; let the one blow hither dexterity for thee; let the other blow away that complaint [thou hast] [2]. Hither, O wind, blow healing; away, O wind, blow what complaint [there is]; for thou, all-healing one, goest [as] the messenger of the gods [3]. Let the gods rescue this man, let the troops of Maruts rescue, let all beings rescue, that this man may be free from complaints [4]. I have come unto thee with wealful- ness, likewise with uninjuredness; I have brought for thee formidable dexterity; I drive away for thee the yakÒma (fever) [5]. This is my fortunate hand, this my fortunate one, this my all-healing one; this is of propitious touch [6]. With (two) ten-branched hands – the tongue [is] forerunner of voice – with (two) diesease removing hands: with them do we touch thee [7].” 66 Kesava, a medieval exegete of the Kausikasutra, further considers it part of the so called aμholinga verses used for medicinal rites in KS 4.8[32]. See Bahulkar, Medical Ritual in the Atharvaveda Tradition, p. 227. The aμholinga ga∞a is prescribed for general medical rituals. 67 aμhomuce pra bhare maniÒam a sutrav∞e sumatim av®∞anaÌ | imam indra prati havyaμ g®bhaya satyaÌ santu yajamanasya kamaÌ || 3 || aμhomucaμ v®Òabhaμ yajñiyanaμ virajantaμ prathamam adhvara∞am | apaμ napatam asvina huve dhiya indriye∞a ta indriyaμ dattam ojaÌ || AV 19.42.3-4 || Alternatively, the aμhomuca may be related to the aμholinga verses (for the removal of disease) mentioned in the previous note. 68 The treatment of the hira∞yagarbha as a santi pot becomes more explicit from the canonical version of the ritual, where the vessel is placed over a bed of rice, a convention for santi pots beginning in the non-Atharvan parisiÒ†as. 69 Following this consecration, the priest requests the attending brahma∞as as fol- lows: “the king seeks the essence of the golden womb, may you be agreeable to him” (hira∞yagarbhatvam abhipsaty asmin bhavanto ‘numanyantam iti | AVPS 13.2.8 ||). Having thus obtained their permission, the king enters the golden womb accompanied by the reci- tation of the first two verses AV 13.1, a hymn to the sun (Whitney’s translation: “Rise up, O powerful one that art within the waters, enter into this kingdom that is full of pleasant- ness; the ruddy one that generated this all – let him bear thee, well borne, unto kingdom.

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and rejuvenating effect of the ritual can no doubt be attributed to the variant of santi waters that form the “amniotic fluid” of this “golden womb.”

ii. The Mahadanas of the Matsyapura∞a

Now I will show how the argument that the danas of the AVPS may be seen as variations of santi rituals applies directly to the mahadanas of the Matsyapura∞a (MtP). In the first place, the basic consecratory structure of the Atharvan gifts also forms the core of each of the sixteen canonical mahadanas found in the MtP. The consecration – or “bath,” in the language of the text – is highly standardized, and represents a major point of continuity among the sixteen chapters, which are otherwise con- cerned with describing specific details of each of the elaborate gifts. The consecration itself is usually contained in a single half-verse, such as “then with auspicious sounds he is bathed by Vedic experts” (MtP 274.58ab), or slightly more elaborately, “then with auspicious sounds and with the hum of Vedic recitations he is bathed by Vedic experts with water containing all herbs” (MtP 275.9).70 With only rare exception, each of the mahadanas

Up hath arisen the power that is within the waters; mount the clans that are sprung from thee; assuming the soma, the waters, the herbs, the kind, make thou the four footed, the two footed ones to enter here”). Then the priest uttering the verse AV 19.27.10 (an exhortation to heroism) instructs the king: “having restrained [your] speech, and having withdrawn the sense organs from their objects, with the mind meditate on the highest lord, the golden man, Hira∞yagarbha” (vacaμ niyamya pratisaμh®tya cendriya∞i viÒayebhyo manasa bhagavantaμ hira∞mayaμ hira∞yagarbhaμ parameÒ†hinaμ pauruÒaμ dhyayasveti || AVPS 13.3.3 ||). When the king agrees, he is enclosed in the vessel for a period of 17 (unspecified) intervals (saptadasamatrantara). Following the king’s emersion in the golden vessel, he is pressed down with a golden disc accompanied by verses (AV 5.30.15 and AV 3.11.8c-f) that request freedom from death. The king is saluted by Brahma∞as as being dear to and favored by Hira∞yagarbha (brahma∞a bruyur uttiÒ†ha hira∞yagarbhanug®hito ‘sity || AVPS13.3.14 ||). Then the second offering is made with the apratiratha hymn (AV 19.13), a hymn for success in war, and the fire offering scheme is completed. 70 tato mangalasabdena snapito vedapumgavaiÌ | triÌ pradakÒi∞amav®tya g®hitakusumañjaliÌ ||274.58|| tato mangalasabdena brahmaghoÒarave∞a ca | sarvauÒadhyudakasnanasnapito vedapum- gavaiÌ ||275.9|| homadhivasanante ca snapito vedapumgavaiÌ | imam uccarayen mantraμ triÌ k®tva ‘tha pradakÒi∞am ||276.13||

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prescribes the bath of the sponsor (king) in roughly identical terms. Invar- iably the text employs the verb /sna, “to bathe.” Hence the king is “bathed” (snataÌ), or “made to be bathed” (causative, snapitaÌ),71 usually “by those who are eminent in the Vedas” (vedapuμgavaiÌ), or once “by twice-borns” (dvijaiÌ, here meaning brahma∞as).72 Often the bath is said to be accom- panied by auspicious sounds (mangalasabdena) and/or “vedic recitations” (brahmaghoÒarave∞a, mangalavedaghoÒaiÌ).73 Furthermore, the bathing waters are thrice said to contain “all herbs.”74 These last two details are

homadhivasanante ca snapito vedapumgavaiÌ | triÌ pradakÒi∞am av®tya mantram etad udirayet ||277.12|| pu∞yakalaμ samasadya gitamangalaniÌ svanaiÌ | sarvauÒadhy udakasnanasnapito vedapumgaviÌ ||278.12|| snatas tato mangalavedaaghoÒaiÌ pradakÒi∞ik®tya sapuÒpahastaÌ |279.10ab| tataÌ sarvauÒadhisnanasnapito vedapumgavaiÌ | imam uccarayen mantraμ g®hitakusumañjaliÌ ||280.7|| pu∞yakalam athavapya purvavat snapito dvijaiÌ || triÌ pradakÒinam av®tya g®hitakusumañjaliÌ |281.10c-11b| tatha mangalasabdena snapito vedapumgavaiÌ || triÌ pradakÒinam av®tya g®hitakusumañjaliÌ | imam uccarayen mantram brahmebhyo nivedayet ||282.10c-11|| tathaÒ†adasa dhanyani samantad adhivasayet | tataÌ pradakÒi∞ik®tya g®hitakusumañjaliÌ || imam uccarayen mantram atha sarvaμ nivedayet |283.11-12b| ityevaμ karayitva tam adhivasanapurvakam || suklamalyambaradharaÌ suklabhara∞abhuÒitaÌ | pradakÒi∞aμ tataÌ k®tva g®hitakusumañjaliÌ ||284.9c-10|| tato mangalasabdena snataÌ suklambaro g®hi | homadhivasanante vai g®hitakusumañjaliÌ ||285.13c-f|| tato mangalasabdena snato suklambaro budhaÌ || triÌ pradakÒi∞am av®tya mantram etam udirayet |286.13c-f| tato varu∞ahomante snapito vedapumgavaiÌ || triÌ pradakÒi∞am av®tya mantran etan udirayet |287.10c-11b| evaμ viracitaμ k®tva tadvad dhomadhivasanam | ®tvigbhyo dakÒi∞aμ dadyad dhenum amantrayet tataÌ ||288.14|| snatvadhivasanante tu mantram etam udirayet |289.11| 71 See previous note. snapitaÌ occurs in MtP 274-78, 280-82, 287; snataÌ at MtP 279, 285, 286. The difference between the causative and non-causative participle appears to derive from considerations of metre and composition. snatva occurs once in MtP 279. Only three of the sixteen Great Gifts (MtP 283, 284, 288) omit the term for bathing, though these passages all mention the adhivasana, which as I will show, seems to be understood to include the bath itself. 72 The instrumental plural vedapuμgavaiÌ occurs most commonly, MtP 274-79, 282, 287; dvijaiÌ occurs only at 281. The agents of the bathing are altogether omitted in MtP 280, 281, 283-86, 288, 289. 73 mangalasabdena, MtP 274, 275, 279, 282, 285, 286. brahmaghoÒarave∞a, MtP 275; mangalavedaghoÒaiÌ 279; gitamangalaniÌsvanaiÌ, “songs and auspicious sounds,” 278. 74 sarvauÒadhyudakasnana, MtP 275, 278; sarvauÒadhisnana, 280.

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decidedly vague, precisely where the Atharvan ritual texts are most elabo- rate: in the provision of specific mantras to be recited during the consecra- tion, and in the description of the preparation of consecratory mixtures.75 Nonetheless each of these brief prescriptions – consistent throughout the sixteen mahadanas – offers a highly consistent pattern: a bath performed by Vedic specialists with Vedic recitations and with specially prepared waters. If we expand our attention to include the larger set of instructions surrounding these passages, we consistently find the bath at the center several other details, which together help clarify the general construction of the mahadanas. First, a fixed series of acts directly follows the spon- sor’s bath. The freshly bathed sponsor dons a white garment and cir- cumambulates the intended gift three times while holding flowers. Then he addresses each gift with a specific set of non-Vedic verses. In most cases, the text concludes with the donation of the gift itself. This basic sequence holds for all of the gifts in the MtP. Hence it seems to be the opinion of the text that any ritual categorized as a “mahadana” neces- sarily requires the bathing of the sponsor prior to the donation of the gift itself. Second, and more important, the standardization of the bathing pro- cedure appears to be related to the formalization of a preliminary ritual sequence known as the adhivasana. This term, or some variation of it, appears repeatedly among the sixteen mahadanas of the MtP in close con- junction with the bath itself. A detailed discussion of this sequence will help further demonstrate the connection between the canonical mahadanas and santi rituals. “Adhivasana” is perhaps better known as the “inhab- itation,” a ritual sequence that forms the first half of the image installa- tion ceremony, or pratiÒ†ha.76 In the mahadanas the adhivasana likewise

75 I would suggest that this lack of detail stems from an impartiality with respect to which Vedic specialists may be employed in the ritual, unlike the Atharvan sources, which seek everywhere to establish an Atharvan monopoly over santi-related rites by prescribing mantras found only in the Atharvaveda. 76 Instructions for this latter ceremony, including the adhivasana, begin to appear in what Shingo Einoo has described as the “parisiÒ†a-level” of late Vedic ritual texts. These Vedic versions of the ritual are roughly similar to the many versions of the ritual that appear in the Pura∞as. Recent discussions of the pratiÒ†ha can be found in the volume, From Material To Deity, especially Einoo, “Notes on the Image Installation Ceremonies

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comprises a fixed set of ritual acts built into the structure of each of the sixteen “great gift.” It is described at length in the context of the tulapu- ruÒa, which, as we have seen, serves as a paradigm for the other fifteen danas. The adhivasana-sequence described in that text (MP 274) can be outlined as follows: [1] the pronouncement of the benediction by brahma∞as (brahma∞avacana);77 [2] the construction of a “pavilion” (ma∞∂apa), which contains an altar (vedi) and is surrounded by four fire pits (ku∞∂a) and an additional altar in the northeast direction;78 [3] the decoration of this structure with banners, four archways and four pairs of pots;79 [4] the preparation of the golden scale to be used in the tulapuru- Òadana;80 [5] the appointment of lead officiant (guru) of the rite and priests from each of the four Vedas to control the four fire pits;81 [6] offerings in the fire pits to the deities of the Hindu cosmos followed by the invocation of these deities with mantras;82 [7] the distribution of golden ornaments to the officiating priests and the guru, and the recitation;83 and finally [8] the recitation of the santikadhyaya (RV 7.35) by a group of “reciters” (japaka).84 To summarize briefly the following argument, I will show that the above details together represent the formalized infrastructure of mature santi rituals, at least from the perspective of the Atharvan tradition that I have adopted here. There are two major pieces of evidence in favor of this interpretation. The first is a passage from the AVPS 21 describing the construction of a “pavilion” (ma∞∂apa) and relating it to santi rites. The second is the description of yet another adhivasana ceremony from the MtP (265), which shares important similarities with the adhivasana of the

in the G®hyaparisiÒ†as,” chapter three, pp. 95-113. Michael Willis has also recently dis- cussed the ceremony in the context of Gupta period epigraphy, The Archaeology of Hindu Ritual (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 128 ff. For an interpretation of the structure of this ceremony and its relationship with santi rituals, see the final chapter of my dissertation. 77 MtP 274.25ab 78 MtP 274.25c-29 79 MtP 274.30c-31 80 MtP 274.32-36b 81 MtP 274.36c-39 82 MtP 274.40-54 83 MtP 274.55-56b 84 MtP 274.56cd

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mahadanas, while more clearly exemplifying the structure of Atharvan santi rites.

a) AVPS 21: ma∞∂apa and the “santi house” In late-Vedic and Pura∞ic rituals, the ma∞∂apa is generally understood as a “bathing hut” (snapanama∞∂apa, MtP 265.7). Descriptions of this structure are highly consistent. The MtP describes it as a structure measur- ing sixteen, twelve, or ten hastas (cubits) in length, with an altar of seven or five hastas, and four fire pits in the cardinal directions.85 Moreover, it is surrounded by flags and four pairs of pots. The AVPS describes a similar ma∞∂apa, identical in size with that of the MtP, but the text explicitly calls it the “santi house” (santig®ha):86 On the banks of a river, or better, at the place where the river meets the ocean, at a blameless [spot] in the north or northeast direction, the per- former should purify the earth at a pleasing [spot] sloping to the northeast. Having carefully purified the eastern direction, there he should have the ma∞∂apa made. [It should] consist of nine equal compartments, or measure sixteen hastas. [It should] be square with four doors or have only a single high door. Then in the northeast corner a bathing altar should be made. The altar should be of twelve hastas, or of the same measure as the canopy. The main pillars should be four times as high, and the secondary pillars on the side [?] are known to be half that size. Pots are to be given with these pil- lars, the doors in each direction are known to be as one wishes, the height of the sponsor or half of that height. He should make the hut in the shape of the fire pit, wrapped in two layers. [There should be] a wicker [cover?] in all directions, but it should not cover over the fire pit. [There are] twelve pillars all around and four in the middle. It is praised and worshipped in santi rites as the santi-house, adorned with a canopy such as a netra,87 and

85 These dimensions, given at MtP 274.26, are identical with the dimensions of the ma∞∂apa described in MtP 264.13-14. This latter ma∞∂apa is used in the consecration of the image during the adhivasana in MtP 265 that I will discuss in the following section. 86 The tora∞a and the santig®ha in particular are described in the AVPS 21 and in AVPS 18. See Einoo’s discussion of the ma∞∂apa in “Formation of Hindu Ritual,” pp. 13-20, where he offers a discussion of the same passage quoted here. I have relied on his sugges- tions in my own translation, although many parts of the passage remain uncertain. The ma∞∂apa is used most clearly in conjunction with the nirajana, the ceremonial (sprinkling) consecration of the royal horse or elephant. See AVPS 18.1.5-12. A similar structure appears in the version of the same ritual found in the B®hatsaμhita, (see BS 43.5-6). 87 Perhaps a kind of silk cloth? (Hindi “uttama resmi kapa∂a” according to the Paia- sadda-maha∞∞avo).

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filled with various colored banners. The sixteen flags are known to be red, yellow, smoke, black, dark blue, yellowish white, motley, and emerald colored. Sixteen flags are known to be rainbow, grey, black, dark blue, yellowish white, yellow, red, white, and dark green. Above the sixteen water pots there is a big banner. One should cover the water pots with cloth and [put] gold separately in each, with gems and pearls, pleasing flowers, and sweet fruits. And also [the ma∞∂apa] is adorned with lamps set down in all directions.88 The first point I mean to make on the basis of this lengthy quotation is that the structure here described in the Atharvan text is technically quite similar to the ma∞∂apa of the MtP. In the first place both structures share the same basic dimensions (sixteen hastas, with an altar of seven or five hastas), and in the second place, both are surrounded by colored flags and water pots (twice as many pots in the Atharvan text). So despite differences in the number and placement of the fire pits – which I will discuss later on – we can be fairly certain that we are dealing with the same ma∞∂apa in these two sources.

88 nadita†e samudrasya saμgame va viseÒataÌ | anindye digvibhage ca uttare vaparajite ||4.3|| bhumiμ saμsodhayet karta pragudakprava∞e subhe | praciμ saμsodhya yatnena ma∞∂apaμ tatra karayet ||4.4|| navakoÒ†haμ samaμ vapi hastaiÌ Òo∂asabhir mitam | caturasraμ caturdvaram ekordhvad- varam eva va ||4.5|| tata isanako∞e tu snanavediμ samacaret | dasadvadasahastaμ va yathavitanam eva va ||5.1|| caturgu∞occhrayas caiva mulastambhas tu ye tataÌ | upastambhas tu ye parsve tadard- hena prakirtitaÌ ||5.2|| kumbhaÌ stambhais tatha deyaÌ kamair dvaraμ disaμ sm®tam | yajamanocchrayaμ vapi tadardhena prakirtitaÌ ||5.3|| ku∞∂ak®ti g®haμ kuryad dvigu∞aμ pariveÒtitam | sarvadikÒu plavaμ caiva ku∞∂asyordhvaμ na chadayet ||5.4|| parito dvadasasthunaμ catu[Ì]stambhaμ tu madhyataÌ | arcitaμ pujitaμ nityaμ santau santig®haμ sm®tam ||6.1|| netradyullocasobhiÒ†haμ nanavar∞adhvajakulam | rakta pita ca dhumra ca k®Ò∞a nilatha pa∞∂ura ||6.2|| vicitra hindranilabha patakaÌ Òo∂asa sm®taÌ | [aindrayudhadhumrak®Ò∞anilapa∞∂uravar ∞akaÌ] ||6.3|| [pitaraktasitaÌ syama patakaÌ Òo∂asa sm®taÌ |] kalasan Òo∂asan tatra upariÒ†an mahad- hvajaÌ ||6.4|| vastre∞achaditan kuryat sahira∞yan p®thakp®thak | ma∞imuktaphalaiÌ puÒpair h®dyais ca madhuraiÌ phalaiÌ ||6.5|| samantad dikÒu vinyastaiÌ pradipais capy alaμk®tam |6.6ab||AVPS 21.4.3-6.6b||

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But to accept the close relationship between these two versions of the ma∞∂apa leads us to further consider the ritual purpose of such a structure, which in the Atharvan text is explicitly meant to house santi rituals. As the text says, “This is always praised and worshipped in santi rituals, known as the santi house.” The meaning of this statement comes into better focus if we look again to the broader context of the above passage. AVPS 21 is called the sambharalakÒa∞a, or “Characteristics of the Requisite [materials for sacrifice].” But this seemingly innocuous title, I think, belies a more specific purpose. For in the guise of a description of sacrificial materials in general, the text instead enumerates the physical requisites of santi rituals, which are treated as if they were variations of the regu- lar sacrificial requisites. We might render these santi related variations in Sanskrit as santika-vikalpa (“variations in the case of santi rites”).89 For instance, the text says of the kusa grass required at all sacrifices: “[He should prepare] kusa blades that are unbroken, damp, and which are uniformly emerald in color. But the wise say that [kusa blades that are] dry and white-colored produce santi” (AVPS 21.1.2). In this way the text lays out santi related variants for the number of priests in the ritual (twice as many as usual),90 the size and type of wood used for kindling,91 and the shape and material of the offering spoon (sruva) and ladle (sruc).92 The description of the location of the ritual and the construction of the ma∞∂apa, which I have quoted above, follows directly this enumeration of sacrificial objects. Thus the ma∞∂apa, or santi house as it is called by the text, forms one of a larger class of requisite objects for santi rituals. More specifically, the conclusion of AVPS 21 further proves that in the Atharvan scheme, the ma∞∂apa houses santi rituals:

89 As such the description in AVPS 21 can be seen as part of a larger attempt to reframe the basic Vedic sacrifice in terms of santi in similar descriptions given in AVPS 21-29. I have discussed this issue at length in chapter two of my dissertation. 90 “[There should be] sixteen, eight, or four experts in the four Vedas, called ®tviks (Vedic priests), endowed with the qualities of health and good conduct. [But there should be] thirty two, sixteen, or eight [®tviks] in the case of an omen requiring santi.” (Òo∂asaÒ†au ca catvaras catur∞aμ vedavittamaÌ | 21.1.8ab| ®tvijas tu samakhyata vayaÌsilagu∞anvitaÌ | dvat®μsat Òo∂asaÒ†au va santikarye tathadbhute || 21.5|| Based on Bolling and von Negelin’s reconstruction.) Hence the text prescribes twice as many ritualists for santi rituals. 91 AVPS 21.2.3. 92 AVPS 21.2.5.

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Being worshipped with incense, bali offerings and the victorious shouts of heralds, the sounds of conches and instruments, lutes, drums, and laughter, the King should enter [the ma∞∂apa] with his purohita. Then making san- tyudaka with the catana mantra-group, sprinkling [him?] with mantras as prescribed, he should then bring the two sticks [for producing the fire]. When the fire has been churned according to rule, performing a homa offering with santyudaka and mantras, he should observe the signs as mentioned.93 In this passage we see that the king and his purohita enter the ma∞∂apa. Santi water is produced, and the fire is kindled by friction. Finally, the signs of the fire are interpreted. The text concludes with a description of how to interpret the various possible signs – a practice perhaps requiring the presence of an astrologer.94

b) MtP 265: Adhivasana of the Deity-Image The Atharvan description of the ma∞∂apa does not offer an explicit explanation of the link between this structure and the consecration, but the MtP itself furnishes ample evidence of such a connection. MtP 265 is entitled “Instruction for the Adhivasana” (adhivasanavidhi). Specifically, this adhivasana is described in the context of an image installation cer- emony (pratiÒ†ha), instructions for which span MtP 264-266. Hence it should be understood that the object of this particular adhivasana is the

93 dhupair balyupaharais ca jayaghoÒais ca bandinam || 21.6.6 || sankhaturyaninadais tu vi∞adundubhisasmitaiÌ | pujyamano hi n®patiÌ praviset sapurohi- taÌ || 6.7 || tataÌ santyudakaμ k®tva catanenanuyojitam | saμprokÒya vidhivan mantrair anayed ara∞i tataÌ || 6.8 || mathite ‘gnau vidhanena santyudakena samantrakam | homaμ k®tva yathoktaμ tu nimit- tany upalakÒayet || 7.1 || 94 I discuss in my dissertation (chapter two) similar partnerships between vedic ritualists (purohitas) and astrologers from the BS. See especially chapter 42, the indradhvaja, “Fes- tival of Indra’s Banner;” BS 47, the nirajana “Lustration of Horses;” and BS 47, the puÒyasnana “Bath of Health.” In these ceremonies, the astrologer is often required to read the signs of the sacrificial fire after it has been kindled by the purohita. In this sense, the purohita performs the ritual which the astrologer scrutinizes for signs of success or failure. One may see here a reversal of the division of labor of the traditional Vedic sacrifice, in which the Brahman (the Atharvan ritual specialist in late Vedic rites, and a precursor to the purohita) observes the performance for imperfections. In the early medieval astrological rites, as envisioned by the BS, the purohita has become a mere “performer” while the astrologer takes over the interpretive and administrative role.

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image of a Hindu deity, in contrast to the adhivasana of the mahadanas, which center on the king.95 Nonetheless this difference does not alter the basic structure of the rite. Here it will suffice to show how MtP 265, the adhivasana of the image (which also occurs in a ma∞∂apa), culminates in such a sprinkling consecration. Hence I am suggesting, by analogy with this adhivasana of the image, that the consecration of the king at the heart of the mahadanas in fact forms the culmination of the adhivasana sequence which precedes it, and which is performed in the ma∞∂apa. In the adhivasana of the image described in MtP 265, the ma∞∂apa structure quite clearly houses a consecration. After describing the qualifi- cations of the image-installers (murtipa or sthapaka),96 the text says “Then bringing the [Siva-] linga or [anthropomorphic] image to the bathing ma∞∂apa, there he should perform the bath with the sounds of auspicious songs.”97 In fact the sequence following this verse seems to include at least two preliminary rounds of bathing the image with a number of different concoctions, followed by a final consecration at the culmination of the adhivasana.98

95 The relationship between kings and images is an important topic for understanding the structure of the image installation ceremony itself, in which images may have been seen as ritually equivalent with kings. See Witzel, “Coronation Rituals,” p. 428. In my dissertation I argue that the adhivasana portion of the image installation ceremony is was modeled on santi-style “apotropaic consecrations.” See Ritual Culture of Appeasement, chapter three. 96 MtP 265.2-6. Note that the text here prescribes the same number of ritualists (32, 16, or 8) for the performance of the adhivasana as are prescribed in AVPS 21 for the perfor- mance of santi rites. The term “sthapaka” (“placer”) generally denotes a specific class of specialists dedicated to the material transport of the image during the installation ceremony. For instance, in the pratiÒ†ha of the BS, “the Sthapaka should arrange the image on a well- strewn couch” (pratimaμ svastir∞ayaμ sayyayaμ sthapakaÌ kuryat | BS 59.14cd |). As Gerard Colas notes, a text of the Vaikhanasa Vedic tradition, the Khiladhikara, calls this specialist murtidharaka (“bearer of the divine body”). See ViÒ∞u, ses Images et ses Feux: Les Métamorphoses du Dieu Chez les Vaikhanasa (EFEO Press: Paris, 1996). 97 tato lingamatharcaμ va nitva snapanama∞∂apam | gitamangalasabdena snapanaμ tatra karayet || MtP 65.7 || 98 In the first set of baths (MtP 265.8-9), the image is bathed with pañcagavya, pañ- cakaÒaya, clay, and water mixed with ash. Secondly, the image is “anointed” with honey, ghee and mustard (MtP 265.26-27). This second “bath” – if we may call it that – reminds me of the gh®takambala bath in the puÒyasnana of BS 47. That bath – as is the case here in the MtP – also precedes a final consecration, and requires covering the consecrated person in a cloth.

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Most importantly, a consideration of this final consecration of the image helps to explain the relationship between the fire offerings (homa) and the act of consecration itself. Here the adhivasana in MtP 265 (for the image) and that of MtP 274 (for the king-sponsor of the mahadanas) show a number of important similarities. First, as in the mahadana-adhivasana, in the image-adhivasana priests of the four Vedas are located in the car- dinal directions.99 Second, as in the mahadanas, MtP 265 requires a series of offerings at fire pits (ku∞∂as), which surround the main altar in the ma∞∂apa.100 But the text of the image-adhivasana suggests a more explicit material connection between the offerings in these fire pits and the consecration of the image itself. After describing the characteristics of these nine fire pits surrounding the altar,101 MtP 265 instructs that offerings (homa) are to be made, first to the guardians of the directions (lokapala), and second to the eight presiding deities of the image (murtyadhideva).102 Then each

99 MtP 265.24c-29. Based on this passage, the representative of the ˛gveda (bahv®ca) is located in the East; the Yajurveda (adhvaryu) in the South; the Samaveda (chandoga) in the West; and the Atharvan in the North. These are precisely the same directions assigned to the Vedic specialists in the mahadanas at MtP 274.39. Interestingly, MtP 265 acknowl- edges that the santikadhyaya (RV 7.35, AV 19.10-11) can be found in both the ˛g and Atharva Vedas. 100 The presence of ku∞∂as in all the directions is clear from the following passage: “The image consecration experts (murtipa) in all directions should carefully do [as follows, stationed] at fire pits, [each of] which [should] measure one hasta, have a girdle and be covered by a yoni” (hastamatreÒu ku∞∂eÒu murtipaÌ sarvato disam | samekhaleÒu te kuryur yonivaktreÒu cadarat || MtP 265.33 ||). 101 MtP 265.34-36. 102 “For the purpose of santi (santaye), those ones (i.e. the murtipas, image installation specialists), facing northward, are to make offerings to the images of the Lokapalas (Guardians of the Directions) in order, in the directions belonging to Agni, Sakra, and Yama (southeast, east, and south?). Also he, being concentrated, should make an offering for the presiding deities of the image. Vasudha, Vasuretas, Yajamana, Divakara, Jala, Vayu, and also Soma and Akasa are the eight [presiding deities]. He should recall the images of these eight presiding divinities of the god at the fire pits.” agneyasakrayamyeÒu hotavyam udagananaiÌ | santaye lokapalebhyo murtibhyaÌ kramasas tatha || 37 || tatha murtyadhidevanaμ kuryat samahitaÌ | vasudha vasuretas ca yajamano divakaraÌ || 38 || jalaμ vasus tatha soma akasas caÒ†amaÌ sm®taÌ | devasya murtayas tv aÒ†av etaÌ ku∞∂eÒu saμsmaret || 39 || MtP 265 || The version of MtP 265 quoted LakÒmidhara’s PratiÒ†haka∞∂a gives the metrical equivalent murtipair in the place of santaye in this passage, thus “The image protectors,

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of these presiding deities is assigned a “protector deity” (adhipa), who is also called (or perhaps identified with) an image protector, or murtipa.103 Then the text prescribes a third set of offerings: He should perform Homa individually for these [image protectors] with Vedic mantras. Likewise he should make a santi pot (santigha†a), and he should place it down at each fire pit. After 100 or 1000 [offerings], a full ladle (pur∞ahuti) should be poured. Standing firm on the earth and internally calm he should throw it [?]. He should toss the remainder (saμpata) of the offerings into the full water pots. With that [water] he should sprinkle the god (i.e. the image) on the lower, middle, and upper limbs. And he should bathe [the god] standing up104 with that water containing the offering- remainders.105

facing northward, are to make offerings to the lokapalas in order, in the directions of Agni, Indra, and Yama.” 103 “Next I will explain the protector deities of these [presiding deities], the purifiers of images. Sarva protects P®thivi (Vasudha), and Pasupa [protects] Agni (Vasuretas). Like- wise, Ugra protects Yajamana and Rudra [protects] Aditya (Divakara). Bhava always protects Jala, and Isana thus [protects] Vayu. Likewise Mahadeva protects Candra and Bhima thus [protects] Akasa. These are the Murtipas in the installation ceremonies of all gods.” etasam adhipan vakÒye pavitran murtinam ataÌ | p®thviμ pati ca sarvas ca pasupas cagnim eva ca|| 40 || yajamanaμ tathaivogra rudras cadityam eva ca | bhavo jalaμ sada pati vayum isana eva ca || 41 || mahadevastatha candraμ bhimas cakasam eva ca | sarvadevapratiÒ†hasu murtipaÌ hy eta eva ca || 42 || MtP 265 || The last sentence in particular suggests that these protector deities are identified with the murtipa officiants described at the beginning of the ceremony (see above n. 96). Additionally, the offering of three consecutive sets of offerings to these groups com- prising eight deities confirms the fact that this adhivasana requires eight fire pits, twice as many as in the tulapuruÒa. This suggests that eight of the nine fire pits mentioned previ- ously are located in the cardinal and intermediate directions, with an additional ninth fire pit likely located somewhere in the center of the ma∞∂apa, perhaps adjacent to the main altar and the central image. 104 The image has previously been lying down, “put to sleep,” as it were, on a bed. MtP 265.13-17. 105 etebhyo vaidikair mantrair yathasvaμ homam acaret | tatha santigha†aμ kuryat pratiku∞∂eÒu sarvataÌ || 43 || satante va sahasrante saμpur∞ahutir iÒyate | samapadaÌ p®thivyaμ tu prasantatma vinikÒipet || 44 || ahutinaμ tu saμpataμ pur∞akumbheÒu vai nyaset | mulamadhyottamangeÒu devaμ tenavasecayet || 45 || sthitaμ ca snapayet tena saμpatahutivari∞a | 46ab | MtP 265.43-46b ||

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While parts of the passage are difficult to interpret, the following sce- nario is clear. First a large series of offerings is made to the image protec- tors (the pronominal etebhyo clearly referring to the deities listed in the previous verse). Second, a final “full ladle offering” (sampur∞ahuti) is poured into each of the fires. The next phrase is a little vague,106 but the text goes on to specify rather explicitly that the remainders of these offer- ings (ahutinam saμpata) are mixed into “full water pots” (pur∞akumbheÒu) and that these “waters having the offering-remainders” (saμpatahutivari∞a) are instrumental in the bathing and consecration of the image. It seems likely that the so-called “water pots” mentioned here are in fact the same “santi-pots” (santigha†a) that were placed down at each ku∞∂a earlier in the same passage. The implication seems clear. As in the santi rituals seen in the AV, the adhivasana in MtP 265 requires the bathing of the image- deity with a kind of “santi-waters” that have been blended with the remains of fire offerings. Hence in this adhivasana, the offerings in the fire pits surrounding the image seem to have two functions: [1] to propitiate the eight “image protectors” and [2] to provide materials for the preparation of santi waters for an apotropaic consecration. It seems then that the image-adhivasana in MtP 265 relies on the tech- nical logic of santi, which I have described above from Atharvan sources. The so-called “Vedic” fire offerings at the fire pits (ku∞∂a) surrounding the ma∞∂apa structure are meant to protect the image – not only by pro- pitiating the godly protectors themselves, but more directly insofar as the remains of these protective offerings are directly applied (in the conse- cratory waters) to the “body” of the consecrated subject, in this case the image, or body of the god. The sacrificial remainders may thus be said to form the active ingredient in a Pura∞ic version of “santi waters.” Such a description is justified by the text’s description of the consecratory water pots as “santi pots.” This extended consideration of the adhivasana of the image allows us better to contextualize the preparatory adhivasana in the mahadanas of

106 If we take vinikÒipet as synonymous with nyaset from the following line, it would seem that the text is specifying the stance and internal disposition of the performer as he places the remainders in the water-pots. The PratiÒ†haka∞∂a gives the incomprehensible tatorddhastu for p®thivyaμ.

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the same text, which I summarized above (section 5.ii). First, we have seen that in AVPS 21 the ma∞∂apa itself was thought to house santi related rituals. The ma∞∂apa described there resembles closely the same struc- ture referred to in the MtP text on the Great Gifts. Second, the conse- cratory nature of the adhivasana is explicitly demonstrated in MtP 265, the adhivasana of the image. That ritual, like the adhivasana of the patron of the mahadanas (MtP 274) includes the performance of fire offerings at fire pits surrounding the ma∞∂apa. As we have seen, these offerings are preliminary to the consecration of the image. Hence I would argue that the consecration of the royal sponsor of the mahadanas should also be seen as a santi-style consecration. I should be clear here that adhivasana in the tulapuruÒa mahadana does not explicitly mention the remainders of the offerings, nor their use in santi pots during the king’s bath (though such a scenario may be assumed). But even without explicit mention of this parallel, the basic fact that the king’s bath occurs at the end of the adhivasana (and is sometimes assumed to be a part of the adhivasana sequence107), together with the construc- tion of the bathing hut and the performance of a series of protective fire offerings, strongly suggests that we might see the MtP versions of the mahadanas as santi-style consecrations. The recitation of the santikad- hyaya immediately after the fire offerings in the eight directions, and prior to the king’s bath, makes the connection between santi and the canonical mahadanas decisive.108

6. MEDIEVAL THEORIES OF APPEASEMENT AND ATONEMENT

In the foregoing discussion I have tried to identify the practical features of santi rituals – seen most clearly in the AVPS – that are present within

107 While as I mentioned above the bath of the sponsor is regularly mentioned in each of the sixteen gifts, on three occasions the bath is omitted, but reference to the adhivasana is retained (283.11, adhivasayet; 284.9, adhivasanapurvakam; 288.14, tadvaddhoma- dhivasanam). 108 MtP 275.53cd: japeyuÌ santikadhyayaμ japakaÌ sarvatodisam | “Reciters should recite the santikadhyaya hymn in all directions.” The santikadhyaya (RV 7.35), is also found in the Atharvaveda as AV 19.10-11. In the Atharvan ga∞amala, this mantra appears prominently in the two shorter santiga∞as, AVPS 32.1 and 32.20.

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the structure of the canonical Great Gifts of the MtP. But this line of interpretation should not be taken merely as an attempt to reduce the mahadanas to variants of santi. In fact the larger thesis I want to pursue here concerns the very complexity of these ceremonies, in which the logics of appeasement and atonement appear to be operating simulta- neously. This complexity can be seen in the canonical mahadanas of the MtP. In addition to the basic techniques of appeasement I have described, these texts are also insistent and repetitive in their description of the six- teen mahadanas as “removers” or “destroyers of sin” (sarvapapahara, sarvapapakÒayakara).109 I suggest that we should read such descriptions as more than passing priestly hyperbole. As I have shown, the daily gifts of gold and grain from the AVPS clearly imply the notion that gifts can expiate sins, either through a logic of transference or through the attain- ment of merit that accrues from well-intentioned donations. In fact, a hint of the logic of transference may be seen in the following passage from the tulapuruÒa text (MtP 274): “A wise person should not keep the con- secrated110 gold in [his] house for long, since, should it remain [there, it would become] a vehicle for danger, causing the grief and disease of men. From quickly making [it] the property of someone else, a man obtains good fortune (sreyas).”111 As with Gloria Rajeha’s “poisoned gifts,” this passage suggests that the gold meant as a gift (being consecrated, or “sprinkled” in the mahadana ceremony) is a dangerous substance, pro- ductive of disease and grief. Its physical removal through redistribution is therefore essential to the efficacy of the ceremony. Other passages from MtP 274-289 claim that after the ritual the sponsor is “cleansed of all his sins” (sakalapapavidhauta), and his “body is purified from the

109 Such descriptors are employed regularly among the instructions for these rituals: sarvapapakÒayakara at MtP 274.4; mahapatakanasana, 275.1, 276.1, 279.1, 281.1, 283.1, 285.1, 286.1, 289.1; sarvapatakanasana, 277.1; sarvapapahara, 278.1; papakÒayakara, 284.1; sarvapapapra∞asana, 287.1. 110 The MtP does not specify details, but the Atharvan text of the tulapuruÒa (AVPS 11.1.10) clearly states that the scale and the gold are to be sprinkled following the king’s consecration (tulaμ hira∞yaμ ca pavitrair abhyukÒya). 111 na ciraμ dharayed gehe suvar∞aμ prokÒitaμ budhaÌ || 63ab|| tiÒ†hed bhayavahaμ yasmac chokavyadhikaraμ n®∞am | sighraμ parasvikara∞ac chreyaÌ prapnoti manavaÌ || 64 || MtP 264 ||

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destruction of sins (ogha) and difficulties (durita) in this life” (bhava- duritaughavighatasuddhadehaÌ). Such language may perhaps be taken to refer to the “cleansing” effects of the apotropaic bath. However the removal of sin may be expressed, it is clear that the mahadana rituals contain an expiatory logic. But given the form of these ceremonies, we may begin to see how the Great Gifts such as the tulapuruÒa may have taken this basic expiatory logic one step further. By reframing expiatory gifts within the structures of appeasement, the mahadana texts (both Atharvan and canonical) offer a ritual infrastructure conducive to a new astrological theory of sin. According to such a theory, karmic faults were identified as omens por- tending imminent misfortunes. Hence the ritual frames of expiation and appeasement become deeply intertwined, and what may have originally been two somewhat heterogeneous ritual logics become theoretically uni- form. We have already seen some indication of this theorizing in the mantra from the ritual of gazing into ghee, in which sin was described, like omens, as originating in the earth, atmosphere or heavens. A more explicit articulation of this logic can be found in the definition of omens from the B®hatsaμhita: The misfortunes of men arise from the sins that accumulate by their misdeeds. Omens of the earth, atmosphere and heavens indicate [these misfortunes]. The gods, displeased by the misdeeds of men, create these [omens]. In order to counterstrike them, the king should practice santi in his realm.112

The logic here is already – in the 6th century – identical with that of Judy Pugh’s informants in 20th century Benares.113 In addition, three verses hence, the same text testifies to the rather decisive amalgamation of gifting and appeasement by including “large gifts of gold, food, cows, or land” (prabhutakanakannagomahidanaiÌ) among the rituals that “appease even celestial portents” (divyam api samam upaiti), which are the most serious of the three classes of omens

112 apacare∞a nara∞am upasargaÌ papasañcayad bhavati | saμsucayanti divyan- tarikÒabhaumas ta utpataÌ || manujanam apacarad aparakta devataÌ s®janty etan | tatpratighataya n®paÌ santiμ raÒ†re prayuñjita || BS 45.2-3 || 113 As quoted above, p. 6.

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(the other two being terrestrial and atmospheric).114 I suggest that we see this link between gifts and celestial portents as the background for the prescription of the mahadanas during an eclipse, in both the MtP and AVPS.115 Chapter five of BS describes at length many forms of eclipses, all of which have calamitous effects of varying scope. And we will see below that the eclipse was a regular occasion for the performance of the mahadanas in the epigraphical record. But the other occasions mentioned appear to have been equally inauspicious, all of them representing poten- tially dangerous moments of transition in the Hindu calendar. For instance, BS prescribes that a wedding, the most auspicious of events, should not be performed on the vyatipata or vaidh®ti day – both of which are rec- ommended for the great gift. Likewise, the saμkranti, the passing of the sun into a new zodiac (rasi), may also have been considered a dangerous event.116 Thus the Great Gifts as represented in the MtP may have oper- ated according to a consistent theory of “gift-as-appeasement,” correcting calendrical moments of inauspiciousness. Hence from the “theoretical” perspective of the 6th century astrological tradition (as represented by the B®hatsaμhita) karma and portent, and therefore atonement, gift and appeasement are all seamlessly integrated. And this integration seems to be a basic assumption of the canonical Great Gifts of the MtP.

114 divam api samam upaiti prabhutakanakannagomahidanaiÌ || BS 45.6ab || 115 The MtP prescribes the performance of the mahadanas on the following occasions: “On the auspicious ayana or viÒuva, on the vyatipata, on the omitted day, at the begin- nings of the yuga and manvantara, during eclipses, on the saμkranti, on vaidh®ti days, on the fourteenth or eighth day of a fortnight, on the eighth day after a full moon, on the twelfth day of a full moon, on the parvan days, and on the fifteenth day of a bright fortnight, on the performance of sacrifices, festivals, marriages, and when dreams or omens are sighted….the mahadanas are to be given.” ayane viÒuve pu∞ye vyatipate dinakÒaye || yugadiÒuparageÒu tatha manvantaradiÒu | saμkrantau vaidh®tidine caturdasyaÒ†amiÒu ca || sitapañcadasiparvadvadasiÒvaÒ†akasu ca | yajñotsavavivaheÒu duÌsvapnadbhutadarsane || dravyabrahma∞alabhe va sraddha va yatra jayate | ti®the vayatane goÒ†he kuparamasaritsu ca || g®he vayatane vapi ta∂age rucire tatha | mahadanani deyani saμsarabhayabhiru∞a ||MtP 274.19c-23|| I have taken dinakÒaya, tentatively as the “omitted day,” or kÒayadina, the lunar day on which no sunrise occurs. See p. 387 of Michio Yano, “Calendar, Astrology, and Astronomy” in Gavin Flood, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Oxford: Blackwell 2003), pp. 376-392. 116 The MtP 98 prescribes a bathing gift similar to the mahadanas on each of the twelve saμkrantis (passage of the sun into a new zodiac).

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7. CHRONOLOGY

So far I have discussed the set of rituals, known in the MtP as the “Mahadanas”, as described in two separate texts of the medieval period, the AVPS and the MtP.117 The only stable dates for these particular descriptions of the rites come from their quotations in commentarial literature of the second millennium. Most importantly, the portions of the MtP discussed here, namely chapters 274-289, concerning the mahadanas, and chapter 265, describing the adhivasana, are quoted in LakÒmidhara’s K®tyakalpataru. We know with some certainty that this important and early nibandha (medieval compendium of orthodox law and practice) was composed in the mid-twelfth century in north-central India (likely Benares or Kanauj) under the rule of the Gaha∂avala king, Govinda- candra.118 MtP 274-289 is quoted in the Danaka∞∂a, the section of the text dealing with gifting, while MtP 256 appears in the PratiÒ†haka∞∂a, dealing with image-installation. The Danaka∞∂a is the earliest text in the nibandha genre dedicated to gifting, but the MtP is thereafter quoted in several other such orthodox compendia of gifting practices, including the Danasagara of Ballalasena (1169 CE), and the Danaka∞∂a of Hemadri’s Caturvargacintama∞i (13th century). This series of quotations from the MtP in the orthodox nibandhas establishes with certainty my first point, namely, the medieval promotion of rituals expressing an astrological notion of sin and its transference through gifting. The mahadanas discussed here seem well established by the early centuries of the second millennium CE. The fact that these compendia were composed under the patronage of the Gaha∂avalas and the Senas, who were also sponsors these mahadanas in the historical record,119 also raises the possibility that instances of these rites mentioned

117 The same sixteen gifts as given in the MtP also appear in the Lingapura∞a (2.28- 44.). 118 See Brick, Introduction to Danaka∞∂a, pp. 63-67. 119 Among the Gaha∂avalas, Candradeva, Govindacandra, and Jayacandra are all said to have performed the tulapuruÒamahadana, spanning the 12th century. Govindacandra seems to have been the patron of LakÒmidhara. He and his successor, Jayacandra, appear to have been hereditary patrons of a lineage of “mahapurohitas.” For among the twenty- one copper plates published by Kielhorn (Epigraphia Indica 4, pp. 97-129), Govinda and Jaya together made sixteen separate land grants to mahapurohitas, Jagusarman and his son

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in inscriptions were actually performed according to the instructions found in the MtP, though inscriptions do not usually contain specific details of a given ritual performance. Additionally, inscriptions from the same period also attest to the popularity of solar and lunar eclipses as the occasions for the mahadanas, and also to the granting of sacrificial fees to purohitas and astrologers.120 All of this would suggest that the complex ritual formations that I have described were “common” among royal courts in the early second millennium, at least one generation prior to the composition of the gifting compendia of the twelfth century.121 Less conclusive evidence further suggests at least the possibility that the tradition of the mahadanas may have been quite older. I have already shown how the theoretical connection between omens and sins, which may have been assumed in the MtP, is attested somewhat earlier, in the 6th century B®hatsaμhita. This text, however, does not mention the mahadanas, though it may coincide with the rather hypothetical date of the mahadana chapters of the MtP, as proposed by Hazra (550-650 CE).122 While we cannot connect the production of these texts to datable inscrip- tions (as in the case of the dana-nibandhas above), it would seem appro- priate to consider early inscriptions mentioning the tulapuruÒa mahadana, since this rite serves as the paradigm for the Great Gifts in the MtP, and

Praharajasarman, the latter receiving half of a village for the performance of a tulapuruÒa- mahadana. As for the Senas, Vilasadevi, the mother of Ballalasena (author of the Danasagara), is said to have sponsored both the tulapuruÒa (during a lunar eclipse) and the hemasvaratha (during a solar eclipse) mahadana at the end of the 11th century. Ballalasena’s son also performed a hemasvaratha. For summaries of, and references to, these dynastic sponsors of the tulapuruÒa, see pp. 175-76 of Annette Schmiedchen, “The Ceremony of TulapuruÒa: The Pura∞ic Concept and the Epigraphical Evidence,” Script and Image: Papers on Art and Epigraphy, eds. Adalbert J. Gail, Gerd J.R. Mevissen and Richard Salomon. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2006). pp. 145-184. Other references can be had in Chitralekha Gupta, The Brahma∞as of India: A Study Based on Inscriptions (Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan, 1983). 120 See previous note. 121 Based on the patterns of sponsorship seen above in n.119, it is clear that the rulers who sponsored (or authored) the dana-nibandhas (Govindacandra and Ballalasena) were not inventing a new orthodoxy surrounding the mahadanas, but rather inherited the practice from previous generations in their lineages. 122 Studies in the Pura∞ic Record of Hindu Rites and Customs ( p. 176). He dates the corresponding chapters from the Lingapura∞a to a somewhat later period, likely 800- 1000 CE (p. 180).

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may hence be clearly related to the canonical tradition of the second mil- lennium.123 Recently over 100 epigraphic references to this rite, from the 7th to 16th centuries CE have been surveyed by Annette Schmiedchen.124 According to her analysis the earliest occurrences of this ritual appear in the 7th and 8th centuries CE in the Deccan, particularly at the courts of the contemporary, and at times rival dynasties, the Pa∞∂yas and RaÒ†raku†as. Some of the details of these early inscriptions seem at least to fit within the general parameters of the mahadanas that I have described. For instance, the 7th century Pa∞∂ya king, Cendan claimed to have celebrated the “mahadanas” of “hira∞yagarbha,” “gosahasra,” and “tulabhara,” and his great grandson further suggests that Cendan was freed from all sin as a result of his liberality.125 Among the RaÒ†raku†as, famously performed the hira∞yagarbha at Ujjain upon his conquest of Malwas in the mid 8th century.126 The hira∞yagarbha was again not the only great gift known to this dynasty; Dantidurga himself is said to have performed the tulapuruÒa, while Govinda III performed the tulapuruÒa on the occasion of a solar eclipse in 800 CE. And Govinda III’s son AmoghavarÒa I also performed the same mahadana during a solar eclipse in 862, after which he granted a village to an astrologer.127 The use of the term “mahadana” to describe the group “gosahasra, hira∞yagarbha, and tulabhara” in the earliest inscription, suggests an understanding in this period of the term “mahadana” as a category governing a series of rituals. Thus evidence from the 7th-9th centuries CE appears tentatively to support both the expia- tory function and the astrological timing of the mahadanas as described in the MtP. These parameters remain consistent up until the modern period.128

123 There are earlier references to the gosahasra and the hira∞yagarbha, but these refer- ences cannot corroborate textual instructions. 124 Cited above, n. 119. 125 K.G. Krishnan, Inscriptions of the Early Pa∞∂yas c. 300 BC to 284 AD (New Delhi: Northern Book Centre, 2002), p. 3. The inscription is in Sanskrit and Tamil, but the terms gosahasra, hira∞yagarbha, tulabhara, and mahadana appear in Sanskrit. 126 D.R. Bhandarkar, “The Sanjan Plates of I: Saka-Samvat 793,” Epigraphia Indica 18, pp. 235-257. 127 Schmiedchen, “The Ceremony of TulapuruÒa,” pp. 173-4. 128 Ibid., pp. 165-7, also notes performances of the tulapuruÒa from the Mughal period up until the 20th century. An understanding of the precise mechanisms for the popularization of these rituals in village Hinduism would be required to connect the medieval mahadanas to ethnographic data more precisely.

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Ronald Inden and Vijay Nath have drawn on some of these early medi- eval epigraphic references to the mahadanas – in particular, the perfor- mance of the tulapuruÒa by the RaÒ†raku†a Dantidurga – in order to describe the activities of so-called “Hindu” kings.129 But even if these rites became emblematic of Hindu kingship, it does not suffice to under- stand them as “Hindu” inventions, in contradistinction to the earlier “Vedic” sacrifices. The ritual texts seem more intent on advertising the expiatory and protective effects of the Great Gifts, rather than distin- guishing themselves from earlier forms of state ritual. They are, as I have shown, logically and formally dependent on techniques found in late Vedic ritual texts (parisiÒ†as) – techniques that were already present in the Kausikasutra. But apart from indicating the broad continuity between Vedic and Hindu rituals, can we further historicize the development of these practices in the first millennium? For our purposes, this question prompts a consideration of the relative chronology of the MtP and the AVPS. While it has generally been assumed in the scholarship that the parisiÒ†as are relatively older than the Pura∞as (and the BS),130 it should be stressed that there is as yet no con- clusive evidence for such a position. The evidence for dating the AVPS appears to be roughly parallel to that for the MtP, suggesting at best a contemporary – though not necessarily an earlier – date. Surviving manu- scripts of the AVPS all belong to Western India and descend from a single archetype. None of these is earlier than the mid 15th century. Slightly earlier, Saya∞a (14th century) mentions all but one of the Atharvan gifts in his commentary on the Atharvaveda, referencing the AVPS texts

129 Inden addresses the mahadanas in “The Ceremony of the Great Gift: Structure and Historical Context in Indian Ritual and Society,” in Marc Gaborieau and Alice Thorner, eds, Asie du Sud, Traditions et Changements, Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 582 (Paris: CNRS, 1987), 131-6, and in his discussion of the RaÒ†raku†as in “Reconstructions,” chapter six of Imagining India (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1990). See also Vijay Nath, “Mahadana: Dynamics of Gift-Economy and the Feudal Milieu” in D.N. Jha, ed., The Feudal Order: State, Society and Ideology in Early-Medieval India (Delhi: Manohar, 2000), 411-440. 130 See Einoo, “Formation of Hindu Ritual,” pp. 9-13 and also B.K. Modak, The Ancillary Literature of the Atharvaveda (Delhi: Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratishthan, 1993), pp. 470- 3. Similar views regarding the date of AVPS have been voiced by Michio Yano and Maejima in a paper delivered at the 14th World Sanskrit Conference in Kyoto entitled “The Astronomical and Astrological Chapters in the Atharvaveda-ParisiÒ†as.”

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directly.131 Several of the more important danas mentioned in the AVPS, including the tulapuruÒa and the hira∞yagarbha, are quoted in the Danak- ha∞∂a of Hemadri’s Caturvargacintama∞i (13th century), alongside quo- tations from the MtP versions. Nonetheless, neither of the 12th century nibandhas, the Danaka∞∂a of LakÒmidhara nor the Danasagara of Bal- lalasena mentions the Atharvan versions – a fact deriving perhaps from their respective origins in east and north India.132 Finally, the Kausika- paddhati, composed by Kesava in the 11th century (also in Western India), displays in several instances a close familiarity with the rituals of AVPS, including the gifts.133 Hence it would not be unreasonable to assume, as in the case of the MtP, that the dana texts of the AVPS were known in western India in the early second millennium CE. In the same way, early medieval inscriptions mentioning rituals such as the tulapuruÒa could apply equally to the Atharvan gifts as to the Great Gifts of the MtP, though they do not refer to the texts in any specific way. Given this situation – and admitting my partiality to an early date for the AVPS – I must stress that any discussion of the date of the AVPS prior to the second millennium should be taken as hypothetical. The absence of further evidence leaves us with two general scenarios for the relative dating of these two texts. On the one hand, the AVPS may

131 In his exegesis of many of the hymns used in several of the danas, AV 1.35; 4.1; 8.2; 11.8; AV 17.1; 19.6, 10, 26. 132 Note that Hemadri seems to have lived in Western India, and thus his quotation of the AVPS seems to parallel the ms evidence. As noted in Bolling and von Negelin’s edition of the AVPS, p 645. 133 Kesava’s comment on Kausikasutra 2.7.11 demonstrates his familiarity with AVPS 2-18 at least. tasyapi purohitavara∞e k®te satyabhiÒekaÌ karyaÌ | abhiÒekadanantaraμ gh®tavekÒa∞am aratrikaμ rajakarma∞i piÒ†aratryadini pratyahaμ kartavyani | vidhanena sarva∞i danani dadati | puÒ[y]abhiÒeka-mahanavami-indrotsava-v®Òotsarga-janmadinadi prativarÒaμ karya∞i || “The consecration should be done only for that [ruler] given that the selection (vara∞a) of the purohita has [already] been done. Immediately following the consecra- tion (abhiÒekad anantaram), the gh®tavekÒa∞a, aratrika, rajakarma∞i, piÒ†aratrya and so forth are to be done daily. He gives all the gifts according to rule. Each year the puÒyabhiÒeka, mahanavami, indrotsava, v®Òotsarga, janmadina and so forth are to be performed.” See my dissertation, The Ritual Culture of Appeasement, chapter two. Kesava also quotes verbatim from AVPS 2 in the conclusion of the Kausikapaddhati.

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be seen as an Atharvan composition (or compilation) of the late first or early second millennium, post-dating the MtP. In this scenario the Atharvan versions of the mahadanas would seem to amount to “Vedic revisions” of rituals first developed in the Pura∞as.134 The differences between the two versions of the rites – the absence of the ma∞∂apa and the reduction of the four offerings in the surrounding fire pits (ku∞∂a) to a single fire offering in the AVPS – would then have to be explained as simplifica- tions of this earlier Pura∞ic paradigm. I find this scenario unlikely for a number of reasons. First, both Nath and Inden have understood the fire pits (and the offerings made in them) in the mahadanas as conspicuous representations of the Vedic sacrifice.135 But such interpretations may be misleading.136 I have shown how the ma∞∂apa and surrounding fire pits were in fact important components of the infrastructure of santi rites. In the Atharvan versions, and also in the adhivasana of the image in MtP 265, the fire offering is required for the preparation of the consecratory waters. Once we accept that the ma∞∂apa and the ku∞∂a were in fact necessary implements of santi consecrations, why would the Atharvans – who were experts in santi, and who may have pioneered the combination of fire offerings with sprinkling consecra- tions – want to simplify these aspects of the rituals? More importantly, if we accept that the canonical mahadanas were variations of the apotropaic consecrations, we would have to locate them within the broader ritual culture of santi, which is in my view unintelli- gible without reference to the late-Atharvan ritual texts the Santikalpa and the AVPS.137 I argue in my dissertation that the techniques found in

134 Nath stresses the suddenness of the mahadanas, whose “earliest theoretical expo- sition” is found in the MtP passages discussed above. 135 This despite the fact that the fire-pits (ku∞∂as) were relatively late constructions in Vedic rituals, as discussed by Einoo, “Formation of Hindu Ritual,” pp. 20-23. 136 Nath and Inden each interpret these apparently “Vedic” symbols differently. Nath suggests that they are self-conscious Vedicizations of the Great Gifts, in an attempt on the part of the Pura∞ic authors to present the mahadanas as “cosmo-regal” sacrifices on par with the Vedic sacrifices such as the asvamedha. Inden, for his part, sees the placement of the fire pits around the ma∞∂apa as evidence of the marginalization of the Vedic sacrifice in a “Hindu” political regime. 137 For instance the “santi-pot” (santigha†a) appearing in Pura∞ic adhivasana rites is unintelligible without the concept of santyudaka, which is only found in Atharvan texts (Kausikasutra, Santikalpa, and AVPS).

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these ritual manuals can likely be traced directly to the earliest Atharvan ritual manual, the Kausikasutra.138 Based on my reconstruction, it appears most likely that the santi consecrations were generated within the Athar- van school, and applied to inauspicious portents that were defined by the astrological tradition. From there they were popularized in other Vedic schools and Pura∞as.139 I find it more likely that the development of santi within the Atharvan fold occurred over time, in concert with the develop- ment of the early Indian astrological tradition that was consolidated by Varahamihira in the 6th century, rather than arising abruptly at the end of the second millennium. While the logical priority of santi does not necessarily establish the historical priority of Atharvan texts on the danas, at least one late Hindu commentator, the 14th century Vedic exegete Saya∞a, explicitly claims that the Atharvan tradition was the source for the mahadanas: The victorious king Harihara, bearing up the entire earth, continually perform- ing all the 16 mahadanas for the satisfaction of all beings, having considered the Veda known as Atharva∞a which is the root of those [mahadanas], he directed Saya∞acarya to reveal its meaning.140 Here, in the introduction to his commentary on the Atharvaveda, Saya∞a explains that the reason that he has composed his commentary, at the behest of his patron, King Harihara II, was that it was the “root” of the sixteen mahadanas, which were “continually performed” by the king – a fact corroborated by inscriptions.141 Later in the introduction he seems to refer specifically to the AVPS collection, when he writes: “the [rites]

138 The Ritual Culture of Appeasement, chapters one and two. See above, n. 25. 139 In its description of santi rituals, the ViÒ∞udharmottara cites their Atharvan origins. Kesava has likewise offered a number of quotations from Pura∞ic sources, which I have not been able to yet verify. 140 vijayi hariharabhupaÌ samudvahan sakalabhubharam | Òo∂asa mahanti danany anisaμ sarvasya tuÒ†aye kurvan ||7|| tanmulabhutam alocya vedam atharva∞aabhidham | adisat saya∞acaryaμ tadarthasya prakasane ||8|| Atharvaveda (Saunaka), with the Pada- Pa†ha and Saya∞acarya’s Commentary, ed. Visva Bandhu (Hoshiapur: Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, 1960), Part 1, p.3. 141 Epigraphic evidence attests to the popularity of the mahadanas during the Vijayana- gara period. Harihara II himself performed the tulapuruÒa. See Schmiedchen p. 177. This seems to be yet another instance of patronage of a commentarial scholarship by a ruler who was also a patron of rites described in texts.

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pertaining to this life, namely, the rituals of santi and puÒ†i, the rituals of the king, and the mahadanas beginning with the tulapuruÒa – which are of immeasurable fruit – are are laid out in the Atharvaveda alone.”142 Elsewhere, as I mentioned above, he references the dana texts from the AVPS directly.143 Saya∞a thus provides the sole canonical advocate for the Atharvan origins of the mahadana tradition. While the relative chronology of the two texts cannot be settled defini- tively, the evidence compels us at least to consider that by the end of the first millennium, the mahadanas could have functioned both inside the “Hindu” tradition of the Pura∞as, in the MtP, and “without” it, in the AVPS. Whatever historical scenario we draw from this situation, there are important consequences: either the “Hindu” tradition of the mahadanas was re-assimilated by the Atharvans at the end of the first millennium, or the “Hindu” nature of these ceremonies has been overstated, and they represent a set of ritual concerns bestriding late-Vedism and Hinduism of the early medieval period.

8. MEDIEVAL RITUAL AND MODERN THEORY

There are two important ways in which the historical picture I have outlined here helps to explain the complex theoretical formation that survives in the modern period. First, let us consider the problem of the personalization of auspiciousness-inauspiciousness from the perspective of the rituals I have so far discussed. In the first place, santi rituals from their inception envisioned inauspiciousness as a form of personal, bodily attack, akin to the striking-counterstriking format of abhicara, or spiritual warfare. The Santikalpa already describes the planets as malevolent beings from whom the patron of the sacrifice must be protected by means of santi. The following verses are appended to early rituals to worship the planets, which are preliminary to the mahasanti itself:

142 aihikaphalani santikapauÒ†ikani karma∞i rajakarma∞i aparimitaphalani tulapu- ruÒadimahadanani ca atharvavede eva pratipaditani | Ibid., p.7. This text reminds me of the passage from Kesava mentioned above, n. 133. 143 Above, n.131.

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Just as the arising of a yantra is countered by a yantra, so may this appease- ment (rite) remove this arising of this terrible (astronomical) confluence. Just as armor is a protector against blows of weapons, so let this appeasement be protector against divine affliction. The planets are always gracious to those who are not hurtful, tame, who are rich in the acquisition of dharma, and those who abide perpetually in restraint. The planets, cows, kings, and especially Brahma∞as – when worshipped, they worship in return. When shown disrespect, they torment. Should one perform this rite of hospitality to the planets for even a year, he, endowed with strength and free from disease, will live 100 years.144 Here we may note in passing that the notion of propitiating or appeas- ing the planets requires that they be personified as somewhat conscious agents, moved by acts of piety, capable of mercy and restraint. This ten- dency to deify or personify the planets operates in some tension with the fact that the planets are at base astronomical phenomena, and hence extensions of the calendar. Elsewhere the text notes the relationship of the planets to the nakÒatras, or fixed constellations, and it prescribes santi rituals “when the planets are hostile” (pratilomeÒu graheÒu), which we may take to mean when they are in dangerous astrological positions. Hence in the above passage they are juxtaposed to the “awful conjunction” (ghoram sighram). And the notion of “heavenly affliction” (daivopaghata) seems to reflect the connection between misfortune and such astronomical phe- nomena as planetary conjunctions and eclipses. As a result, the perfor- mance of santi remains closely dependent upon considerations of timing and calendar, as dictated by the ever-expanding catalogues of omens in the astrological tradition. I will return to this ambiguity in the character of the planets below. But whether the planets are seen as conscious agents of misfortune or

144 yatha samutthitaμ yantraμ yantre∞a pratihanyate | evaμ samutthitaμ ghoraμ sighraμ santir vinasayet || 1 || yatha sastraprahara∞aμ kavacaμ bhavati vara∞am | evaμ daivopaghatanaμ santir bha- vati vara∞am || 2 || ahiμsakasya dantasya dharmarjitadhanasya ca | nityaμ ca niyamasthasya sada sanu- graha grahaÌ || 3 || graha gavo narendras ca brahma∞as ca viseÒataÌ | pujitaÌ pratipujyante nirdahanty ava- manitaÌ || 4 || etad graha∞am atithyaμ kuryat saμvatsarad api | arogyabalasaμpanno jivec ca saradaÌ sataμ || 5 || AVSK 1.17 ||

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naturally occurring phenomena, in the above quote the appeasement itself constitutes a kind of armor, protecting the sponsor from “heavenly afflic- tions.” The logic of personal protection is rather palpably discernable in the main part of the mahasanti itself, which requires bathing the sponsor with santi waters and binding him with a protective amulet. Thus even without explicitly applying the notion of appeasement to the problem of sin-transference, santi rituals on their own required that afflictions origi- nating on the astronomical scale be adapted to the frame of the human body. But if santi rites by themselves contributed to the “individualization” of inauspiciousness, the process by which such astrologically determined rituals were adapted to the expiation of royal sin, and thereby applied to the king’s personal soteriology, may be seen additionally to have accom- plished its “materialization:” in the gifting appeasements described above, inauspiciousness is not merely deferred, blocked, or warded away; it is physically transferred through gifting. The fact that the MtP indicates the danger of retaining these consecrated gifts in one’s home suggests that this transference results in the permeation of the gifted object with inauspiciousness. The MtP does not clarify precisely how the acceptance of such gifts affects the recipients themselves, but it would not be unrea- sonable to infer that if an object can contain inauspiciousness in some “physical” sense, so too could the bodies of the ritualists who receive these gifts, as in the case of death ritualists in modern Vara∞asi. These considerations offer some perspective for understanding how inauspiciousness comes to apply to calendrical events and persons simul- taneously. If we bracket for a moment the theoretical explanation of an inherent link between karmas and portents, this can be seen in the “double causality” of the canonical mahadanas. On the one hand, the ritual appears in part to follow an astrological logic: it is prescribed on particularly dangerous moments in the Indian calendar, as well as after the appear- ance of omens or bad dreams. The rite can be seen from this perspective as an attempt to appease “naturally occurring dangers,” moments when inauspicious malevolent forces – such as the eclipse – threaten human beings with misfortune. On the other hand, the ritual is also said to destroy the sins of the sponsoring king by means of physical transfer. Although the theoretical perspective of a the astrological tradition links

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sins and portents in a causal chain (sin → portent/inauspiciousness → misfortune), I have shown that this rite may be seen as the amalgamation of two originally separate causalities (sin → bad rebirth; portent/inaus- piciousness → misfortune). The astrological causality, proper to santi rites, predisposes them to accommodate a calendrically determined notion of auspiciousness-inaus- piciousness, insofar as they target regular and occasional signs arising in the natural world and thus prevent or remove misfortune. They are not explicitly tied to the expiation of personal sin, which is a concern proper to the soteriological causality. It is only when we collapse the distinction between sin and omens that santi rites can intervene in the personal sote- riology of the king, removing sin and assuring rebirth in a heavenly realm. Conversely, it is only when we collapse the distinction between gifting expiation and appeasement that inauspiciousness can be physically trans- ferred from the body of the king to objects such as gifts of gold. In short, inauspiciousness can adhere to bodies only when it is indistinguishable from personal sin. The perspective of the ritual texts may be made more intelligible when brought into conversation with theoretical statements such as the expla- nation of omens in the BS, and indeed any further attempt to historicize the astrological theory of sin must take into account the history of the astrological canon itself.145 But by foregrounding, momentarily, the ritual instructions we may observe something more than a blanket theoretical claim of the identity between omens and sins. These texts show that the cost of producing such a uniform astrological theory may have been the somewhat unhappy marriage between separate, though not incompatible, ritual schemes of atonement and appeasement. As a result the mahadanas suffer from an overabundance of causes and effects. While the benefits of such ritual efficiency were clear for the medieval king, who, theoreti- cally speaking, could have ensured the protection of the entire kingdom simply by means of his own expiation, the modern purohitas of Pahansu

145 The tradition of jataka, or birth horoscopy, is textually represented as early as the 3rd-4th centuries CE. See the chapter on “Genethlialogy” in Pingree, JyotiÌsastra. The karmic assumptions of these texts have not yet been integrated into mainstream accounts of karma theory.

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(the site of Gloria Rajeha’s field work) and the mahabrahmans of Vara∞asi must endure a dangerous fate as repositories of inauspiciousness. Mean- while, scholars must contend with these problematic exceptions to Madan’s theoretical distinction between purity and auspiciousness. My second point pertains to the somewhat redundant role of the Hindu146 gods as administrators in this causal chain. Recall that in Vara- hamihira’s formulation, while on the one hand, “The misfortunes of men arise from the sins that accumulate by their misdeeds. Omens of the earth, atmosphere and heavens indicate [these misfortunes],” on the other hand, “the gods (devata), displeased by the misdeeds of men, cre- ate these [omens].” The tension is aptly expressed in Pugh’s ethnographic remarks: In assessing beliefs about the relationships between planets and karma, one must also mention the role of God (Bhagwan). It is a common view among Hindus that it is God who acts as judge to decide the just recompense for thoughts and deeds in this lifetime and in other lifetimes and that the planets are generally subordinate to the greater power of God. While the planets move in a determinate pattern vis-à-vis the person, it is felt that powerful deities such as and Hanuman can exercise at least some control over the influences of the planets; it is said, for instance, that Hanuman can “catch the planets in his fist.” There is, however, something autonomous and irrevocable about the move- ments of heavenly bodies and their influences, and many Hindus feel that God cannot completely control the planets. Very inauspicious celestial con- junctions are considered almost beyond the control of the gods, especially the influences of Saturn. When Saturn afflicts a person, it is believed that the worship of Saturn and the use of protective rings may help alleviate some of the difficulties, but that the affliction as a whole cannot be eliminated until it has run its course.147 Pugh’s description of a tension in modern beliefs about the karmic process seem to elaborate a basic problem in Varahamihira’s original statement, namely, the potential conflict between the agency of the gods and the mechanistic workings of the heavens. Here it is important to note that the Atharvan rituals in general seem to operate outside of the influence of Hindu gods. The AVPS envision a

146 On the use of the “Hindu” here see my comments above n. 18. 147 Pugh, Person and Experience, pp. 88-9.

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depersonalized notion of daiva or fate, rather than a universe administered by the Hindu gods. Indeed, nearly one half of the AVPS is taken up by catalogues of specific omens that are to be countered by specific versions of the mahasanti rite. This suggests to me a need to respond directly to visible signs of the natural world (such as earthquakes, whirlwinds, planetary conjunctions), rather than to seek the grace of gods.148 The redun- dancy of gods such as Siva and ViÒ∞u to this astrological logic becomes clear when these Hindu gods are contrasted with the stars and planets, who – even when deified and imagined to be conscious agents – are visible objects of the natural world.149 Thus as we have seen, the discussion of the planets in the Santikalpa suggests that they operate according to their own agency in the administration of misfortune, even as they themselves are the very astronomical phenomena that may (in specific circumstances) become ominous and portend misfortune. So if the planets are simultane- ously portents – and direct agents – of misfortune, why not propitiate them directly, without the Hindu gods as intermediaries? This at least seems to be the position of the Atharvan Santikalpa, in which the nine planets are worshipped during a series of rituals preliminary to the mahasanti conse- cration – precisely because they are direct agents of misfortune.150 Yet in the MtP it is the gods, including ViÒ∞u and Siva in particular, who appear in this position as important intermediaries in the chain of misfortune, requiring dedicated propitiation. In the introduction to the mahadanas, the text reads:

148 AVPS gives no explicit instruction for the installation of images. 149 From this angle, we might consider whether the precise determination of the charac- teristics of images in the BS stems not from a need to create artistic standards, but to construct a basic set of conventions that would serve as the “normal” against which irregu- larities could be read as omens (vik®tis). Hence in the chapter on omens image worship serves as a type of pacification, analogous to the direct worship of the planets. 150 Structure of the Santikalpa: 1. Preliminary Rites Worship of the Vinayakas [AVSK 1.3-9]; Worship of the Grahas (planets) [AVSK 1.10-18] Worship of the NakÒatras (stars or constellations) [AVSK 2.1- 13] Worship of the Lokapalas [AVSK 2.14] Worship of Nair®ti (goddess of destruction and calamity) [AVSK 2.15] 2. the Mahasantis Mahasanti [AVSK 2.16-25]

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Since all the gods (devataÌ) always guard every great gift on the earth with 1000 obstacles, one should perform any of them [only] through the grace of Vasudeva. Otherwise, even Sakra could not perform [them] on this earth. Therefore, having [first] worshiped Govinda, Umapati and Vinayaka (i.e. ViÒ∞u, Siva, and Ganesa), one who has the assent of Brahma∞as should perform the mahadana sacrifice.151

The question of the function of these deities is taken up again later in the text. Part of the ma∞∂apa includes the construction of an altar in the northeast direction, meant “for the worship of Isvara, the planets, and so forth” (grahadidevesvarapujanaya).152 “There,” the text claims, “one should worship images of Brahma, Siva, and Acyuta (ViÒ∞u) with fruit, garlands, and clothes.”153 The fact that images of these gods are to be worshipped on an altar “for Isvara, the planets, and so forth” suggests – contrary to the tone of the introductory statement above – that these “Great gods” of Hinduism are ritually equivalent to, the “minor deities” such as the planets. The impression is confirmed later, when these same gods form members of an even larger group of deities who are the objects of the preliminary fire sacrifices, which I have argued were necessary to the production of santi waters in the apotropaic consecration: “Using their own mantras154 there should be a set of four oblations to Vinayaka, the planets, the World-Protectors, the group of the eight Vasus, Aditya, the horde of Maruts, Brahma, Acyuta, Isa, Arka, Vanaspati, etc.”155 Then the same deities are then invoked by name in a lengthy set of non-Vedic verses. The passage concludes with the following verse: “May all moving

151 yasmad vighnasahasre∞a mahadanani sarvada | rakÒante devataÌ sarva ekaikamapi bhutale || 13 || eÒam anyatamaμ kuryad vasudevaprasadataÌ | na sakyam anyatha kartum api sakre∞a bhutale || 14 || tasmad aradhya govindam umapativinayakau | mahadanamakhaμ kuryad viprais caivanu- moditaÌ || 15 || MtP 274 || 152 MtP 274.29d 153 atrarcanaμ brahmasivacyutanaμ tatraiva karyaμ phalamalyavastraiÌ | MtP 274.30ab | 154 In other words, the Brahma∞as of the four Vedas stationed at the four fire pits, should recite mantras from their respective Veda containing the names of the following deities. See MtP 274.39. 155 vinayakadigrahalokapalavasvaÒ†akadityamarudga∞anam | brahmacyutesarkavanaspatinaμ svamantrato homacatuÒ†ayaμ syat || MtP 274.40 ||

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and unmoving beings in the three worlds together with Brahma, ViÒ∞u, and Siva protect me! May the gods, Danavas, Gandharvas, YakÒas, RakÒasas, serpents, seers, Manus, cows, and mothers of the gods all guard over my sacrifice, filled with joy!”156 So while the Hindu gods may be rhetorically – and perhaps theologically – necessary to the MtP version of the mahadanas, they are from the perspective of the ritual, entirely marginal. They are absorbed into the larger pantheon of “minor deities” including the planets and the vinayakas, who were already worshipped in the preliminary to the mahasanti – the paradigmatic apotropaic consecra- tion. And I would even argue that this superficiality applies equally to the image of ViÒ∞u that is attached to the golden scale in the tulapuruÒa. The image allows for a theological gloss of the ceremony, but is absent in the Atharvan version of the rite. So in the first place, the supposed “Hindu” character of these gifts seems to me to have been misunderstood. There is no certain evidence that they were “Hindu” inventions.157 At most they may be described as “superfi- cially Hinduized” versions of late-Vedic rites. Therefore they should not be seen to signal, at least in any deliberate way, the marginalization of Vedic sacrifice, but rather to suggest the maintenance of late-Vedic structures at the core of the “Hindu” cult. However they may have been increasingly populated by physical representations of the Hindu deities, these ritual structures remained entirely intact – and in fact, became more robust, stand- ardized and elaborated. Second, if we accept that from the perspective of mahadana-santi ritual texts the Hindu gods are functionally redundant with the planets, might we also wonder whether their location in the causal chain of misfortune is equally redundant? In other words, I think there is room to suggest that the modern redundancy, between the agency of the Hindu Gods on the one hand (karma → Hindu gods → portent → misfortune), and the agency of the malevolent planets, or an even more mechanistic karmic or divine

156 trailokye yani bhutani sthavara∞i cara∞i ca | brahmaviÒ∞usivaiÌ sardhaμ rakÒaμ kurvantu tani me || 52 || devadanavagandharva yakÒarakÒasapannagaÌ | ®Òayo madano gavo devamatara eva ca || 53 || sarve mamadhvare rakÒaμ prakurvantu mudanvitaÌ | 54ab || MtP 274 || 157 And even if they were, they were easily recaptured by non-Hindu ritualists.

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law, on the other hand (karma → portent/malevolent planet → misfortune), may in fact preserve two contested theories of astrological causality in the history of Hindu karma theory.158

9. CONCLUSION

In this paper I have tried to demonstrate the combination of expiatory rituals with rites of appeasement in the medieval descriptions of the mahadanas, and also the possible congruence of these rituals with a medi- eval astrological theory that explicitly connects sin, portent and misfortune. All of this suggests that modern notions of karma, inauspiciousness and misfortune may be traced to the specific pairing of Vedic ritualists (espe- cially the Atharvans) and astrologers in the early medieval period. Accord- ing to the rituals prescribed for kings within this late-Vedic/astrological regime, sins were more than mere acts of personal soteriological conse- quence, as in the expiations (prayascitta) more common to the tradition of Hindu law; they could in fact be the cause of catastrophic disasters in real human time and on a state-wide scale. Yet the burden of appeasing such disasters was concentrated in the king himself, who was duty bound to protect his realm. Again the B®hatsaμhita, as a justification for the performance of santi, says “The king is the root to the tree of [his] subjects. Fortune and misfortune arise (respectively) from his fortification and his injury. Hence from this [reasoning] there should be concern for the king’s person.”159 In this way ritual gifts of appeasement and expiation, which were designed to protect the very person the king by destroying his potentially disastrous sins were more than personal atonements assuring positive rebirth (as in the classical notions of prayascitta). They were also, and more crucially, exercises of the ruler’s sacred duty to protect his

158 Already in the sixth century, this redundancy, which allowed the further deification of astrological misfortune, led to the increasing diversification of the santi category. Vara- hamihira’s chapter on omens includes, alongside the Atharvan-related santi rites and gifting rituals (dana) that we have already noted, the worship of divine images in temples (puja) as an adequate form of appeasement in certain cases. 159 mulaμ manujadhipatiÌ prajataros tad upaghatasaμskarat | asubhaμ subhaμ ca loke bhavati yato ato n®paticinta || BS 47.1 ||

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subjects. It is from this reasoning, perhaps, that we may understand the importance of this ritual to processes of state formation. The mechanisms for the popularization of such ritual logic remain unclear, but they begin with the adoption of santi ritual culture in the Pura∞as and their eventual canonization in the mainstream Hindu com- pendia of the second millennium. Yet popularized though it may be in the rituals of “village Hinduism,” this peculiar theory of sin should also be understood as the product of a more practical historical formation, in which astrology was institutionalized through its partnership with late- Vedic ritual at the royal courts. Because of this institution, Hindu sin, from the medieval royal court to the modern village, would remain of cosmic consequence, with heavenly signs necessitating both the insights of astrologers and the interventions of ritualists – to say little of the contri- tion of sinners.

SUMMARY This paper traces the practice of transferring inauspiciousness in contemporary Hindu ethnography to the “Great Gifts” (mahadanas) of Medieval “Vedic- Hinduism.” The latter appear to have developed within an astrologically oriented ritual culture, in which sins became causally linked to the distribution of per- sonal misfortune through the mediation of portents, or natural signs originating in the earth, atmosphere, or heavens. The ritual form of the mahadanas in late Vedic and Pura∞ic texts expresses the “practical” counterpart of this astro- logical theory of sin, insofar as it combines the model of “atonement through gifting” with “appeasement through consecration.” The formation of this ritual complex also appears to have resulted in theoretical tensions that can be seen in modern ethnography. Keywords: Medieval Hinduism, ritual, auspiciousness/inauspiciousness, karman, expiation, astrology.

RÉSUMÉ Cet article fait remonter la pratique du transfert des mauvais présages que l’ethno- graphie observe dans l’hindouisme contemporain, aux «Grands dons» (mahadana) de l’hindouisme védique médiéval. Ce dernier s’est, semble-t-il, développé au sein d’une culture de l’astrologie rituelle où le péché cause le malheur personnel, lequel est annoncé par des signes naturels manifestés sur terre, dans l’atmosphère et dans les cieux. La forme rituelle même des mahadana des textes védiques tardifs et

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pura∞iques montre comme une «contrepartie pratique» de cette théorie astrologique du péché, dans la mesure où elle combine le modèle de «l’expiation par le don» et celui de «l’apaisement par la consécration». La structure complexe de ces rites pourrait expliquer certaines des divergences théoriques de l’ethnographie moderne à ce sujet. Mots-clés: hindouisme médiéval, rituel, présages, auspicieux/inauspicieux, karman, expiation, astrologie.

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