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[Full title: Royal Ceremonies (15) Indra-Mahotsava]

The Indra-Mahotsava festival, also known as Indra-Maha, is one of the important royal ceremonies and is treated in Kaug. 140. The Atharvaveda-Parisistas 19 repeats that kandika from the Kausika Sutra adding some more mantras to those employed at the offering of the oblation and giving a fuller treatment of the omens that may occur. According to Conda, the true purpose of utsava (festival) is to stimulate or resuscitate the vital powers of nature and to further man's consciousness of his own special power. In this sense, festivals possessed, for the Vedic Aryan, not only recreational value; for him they were useful and necessary duties. The etymology of the word, utsava, from the root Su (to stimulate), also supports its 191 magical character. The Indra-Mohotsava is started in the bright half of (190) The bulls which are so released often become a nuisance in the market-place. (191) "Skt. utsava - 'festival'," India Antiqua (Leiden 1947), pp. 146-55. Gonda has elsewhere emphasized the magicoreligious significance of the words alamkara (F.W. Thomas Commemoration Volume , Bombay 1939), bhusana ("The meaning of bhusati," Wageningen 1939), guru (BSOS XII, pp. 124-31) etc.

411 the month of Prausthapada or on the eighth day of Asvina and is completed under the Sravana constellation. On the uparasatha day, the king and the Brahman priest take bath, wear new clothes, besmear their bodies with perfumes and observe a fast. The next day, in the morning, they sip water six times. The priest touches the king and offers oblations 192 with the mantras prescribed. Then a staff, representing 193 Indra, is raised up with the mantras: a tva 'harsam ... dhruva dyauh 194 195 and visas tva... , and is held carefully with ropes on all sides. Omens, that may occur then, are * noted. If they occur in the east, there is fear from Agni; if in the south, from Yama; if in the west, from Varuna; if in the north, there is the fear of hunger (that is, famine). If the omen occurs in any intermediate quarter, there is fear from both the quarters connected with that intermediate direction. Hence the relevant pacificatory ceremonies should be performed. If a vulture perches on the staff, there is fear from death. Hence the mantras: yad va krsna-sakunih ... as well 196 as yas tva grdhrah kapotah should be muttered. 197 Chrtakambala should be performed for three nights to (192) They are Atharvaveda, Saunakiya recension V.3.11; VII.86.1, 91.1; IV.22.1; Vedic Index 86.1, 98.1 (193) Atharvaveda, Saunakiya recension Vedic Index 87.1. (194) Atharvaveda, Saunakiya recension Vedic Index 88.1. (195) Atharvaveda, Saunakiya recension 滨痴.8.4掳; Vedic Index 87.1掳 (196) These two mantras are not found in any samhita. cf. Atharvaveda, Saunakiya recension VII.64.1. (197) See the sequel.

412 counteract the omens, the consequences whereof are not known. If, accidentally, the staff breaks at the top, there is danger to the king; if in the middle, to the minister; if at a lower level, to the men in the villages; and if at the bottom, to the citizens. When the staff breaks, the royal treasure is lost and when the ropes, with which the staff is held in position, give way, the king perishes. In such a case, the gayatri mantra is to be recited over the king, he is taken round to the accompaniment of the three hymns beginning with abhibhur yajnah and the purna-homa is performed. 200 198 They The attendants of the king also are initiated. worship Indra thrice a day for three, five (Kausika Sutra 140.14) or seven nights. They observe celibacy during that period and offer oblations to Indra. The king concludes the festival by 199 offering oblations to Indra with indram aham and indra ksatram .... The avabhrtha bath is then taken and the Brahmanas are satisfied by granting them respectfully the boons as they desire. It is stated, at the end of the Parisista, that the nation prospers day by day and the king becomes the overlord of the earth and lives long if he performs the Indra-Maha. (198) Atharvaveda, Saunakiya recension Vedic Index 97.99 (199) Atharvaveda, Saunakiya recension III.15.1. (200) Atharvaveda, Saunakiya recension VII.84.2.