K 



886 Bajendralala Mitra — An Imperial Assemblage [No. 3. 



corresponding Brahmana, however, make ample amends for the shortcomings 

 of the others. They treat of the rite in nearly its entirety from the begin- 

 ning to the end, and supply by direct citations or references all the mantras 

 required to be muttered while making the various offerings to the fire, and 

 those which should precede, or follow, the offerings, as also those which are 

 required for bathing, drinking, mounting a car, and other formalities and 

 ceremonies which have to be gone through. They are silent, however, as to 

 the particular stages of the rite when the Eig mantras are to be repeated, 

 and the Sama hymns to be chanted, and these we know from other sources 

 are inseparable from the rites prescribed by the Tajur Veda. The details, too, 

 as given are insufferably tedious and puerile in some respects, and vexatiously 

 obscure and unintelligible in others. Instructions are also wanting as to how 

 often the rites are to be repeated, and how the time over which they spread 

 is to be filled up. 



It appears that the Bajasuya, as a religious sacrifice, was not a distinct 

 and independent ceremony, but a collection of several separate rites celebrated 

 consecutively, according to a given order, and spreading over a period of 

 twelve months. It required the services of several priests, and unlimited 

 supplies of butter, rice, sacrificial animals, Soma wine, and other articles ap^ 

 propriate for a Yajna, as also frequent and heavy presents of gold and kine 

 to the priests and Brahmanas. 



The time allotted to the preliminary rites was divided into three equal 

 periods, each of which bore a separate name, and during each a particular 

 round of ceremonies had to be gone through. From the number of months 

 included in each of the three periods its most appropriate name would be a 

 Chaturmasya, or a ' quadrimensial rite' ; but the name, it seems, did not 

 originate merely from the fact of there being four months in each period, 

 but from the circumstance of the time being devoted to the performance of a 

 sacrificial rite of that name prescribed in the Vedas. It commenced usually 

 when the 14th and the 15th of the waxing moon of the month of Phalguna, 

 (February — March) came into conjunction « but in the event of an accident 

 on that day the new moon of the month of Chaitra (March — April) was 

 deemed the next best, and offerings were made, at morning, noon and 

 evening, regularly every day for four lunar months ; the Darsa and the 

 Purnamasa rites being celebrated alternately on the successive new and 

 full moons, and the Prayuja rite on every full moon. The Chaturmasya 

 was ordained for both Brahmans and Kshatriyas, and was held in great 

 veneration. When the Buddhist set aside the old Vedic rites, they could 

 not altogether reject the Chaturmasya, so they retained the name, but 

 changed its character. Instead of in March, they commenced the rite at 

 about the end of June, or early in July ; and in lieu of offerings to the fire, 

 they took to systematic and formal reading of their scriptures. The rains 



