Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult (Traditions) by Roger D. Woodard

Author:Roger D. Woodard [Woodard, Roger D.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2010-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

4.3 THE MAHVEDI

To say that the fire which now lies at the eastern terminus of the axis formed by the Grhapatya and havanya is a “fourth flame” is only partially accurate. While the flame is positionally distinct from the three canonical fires of the Devayajana (the small space of the Ii), it is in effect a new havanya, moved eastward from its original site (via the rite called the Agnipraayana, ‘the carrying forth of fire’); correspondingly, the original Grhapatya is chain-shifted to the place of the original havanya. In fact, the entirety of the ceremony celebrated in conjunction with the Mahvedi can be viewed as a ritual progression from west to east: the first rites within the sacrificial area are performed to the west, where the three fires are housed; on the altar of the “fourth” flame, at the eastern boundary of the Mahvedi, the final rites are performed; the time in between is marked by much ritual activity, traversing the sacred spaces from west to east with fire and Soma.

The Mahvedi is a topographically complex space, measured out with ritual precision. Its western aspect is of greater length along the north–south axis than its eastern aspect, so that the entire area is trapezoidal in shape.1 At the western end of the Mahvedi, immediately east of the (original) havanya, there is constructed the shed called the Sadas, already encountered in our discussion of the Sadas post (see §2.6.3.4). Being the height of the sacrificer at its midpoint (at the central east–west axis), and slanting to the height of his navel at the north and south ends, the Sadas houses six of the hearths called Dhiyas, each constructed for a different priest (the Hotar, the Brhmacchasin, the Potar, the Near, the Acchvka, and the Maitrvarua). The Sadas is said to belong to Indra (B 3.6.1.1, while being identified as “Viu’s stomach”).

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