﻿OS THE RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, &C. 23$ 



I AM guided by the author now before me* ia 

 premising the ceremony of consecrating the nre, and 

 of hallowing the sacrilicial implements ; " because 

 this ceremony is, as it were, the ground-work of uli 

 religious acts." 



fiKST, the priest smears with cow-dung a level 

 piece of ground four cubits square, free from all 

 impurities, and sheltered by a slied. Ilaving-bathed 

 aud sipped water, he sits down with his face towards 

 the east, and places a vessel of water with cusu 

 grass ton his left; then, dropping his right knee, 

 and resting on the span of his left hand, he draws 

 with a root of cusa grass a line one span, or twelve 

 fmgers long, and directed towards the east. From 

 the nearest extremity of this line, he draws another 

 at right angles to it, twenty-one fingers long, and 

 directed towards the north. Upon this line he 

 draws three others, parallel to the first, equal to it in 

 length, and distant seven fmgers from each other. 

 The first line is really, or figuratively, made a yellow 

 line, and is sacred to the earth ; the second is red, 

 and sacred to fire ; the third black, and sacred to 

 Brahma' the creator; the fourth blue, and sacred to 

 Indra the regent of the firmament; the fifth white, 

 and sacred to .Soma, lie next gathers up the dust 

 from the edges of these lines, and throw s it away 

 towards the north-east, saymg, " what was Ihtrehij 



bad, 



* In the former essay, my chief guide was Hela'vud'ha, who has 

 given very perfpicuous explanations of the mantras (or prayers used at 

 religious ceremonies) in feveral treatises, particularly in one entitled 

 Brdmand-sewaiiva. In the present essay, I likewise use a ritual 

 composed by Bhavade'va for the use of Suma^vedi priests, and a 

 commentary on the mantras by Gun'a Vish'nu, as also the A' chat a- 

 chandricd (a treatise on religious ceremonies observed by ^SndrnSf 

 but including many of those performed by other classes}, and the 

 Achdrdders'df a treatise on daily duties. 



+ Poa Cynosuroides. Koenig. On the new moon of Bhddra, 

 a sufficient quantity of this sort of grass is provided for use during the; 

 Vfhok year. 



