Pravargya
[1] In the Pravargya Yajña, an earthen pot is fashioned from clay dug up from the ground, placed on a fire-altar, and used to boil milk which is offered to the Ashvins, the twin Rigvedic gods of Ayurvedic medicine.
'Pravargya' (Sanskrit प्रवर्ग्य) means ' a ceremony introductory to the Soma Yagya (at which fresh milk is poured into a heated vessel called, mahā-viira or gharma, or into boiling ghee)'.
Keith and A.A. Macdonell 'Mahāvīra' (महावीर) 'is the name in the later Samhitās and the Brāmaṇas of a large earthenware pot which could be placed on the [sacrificial] fire, and which was especially employed at the introductory Soma ceremony called Pravargya'.
This includes of physical objects, living beings, letters, words, sounds, musical notes, and arrangements of songs and poems.
[12] A more specific definition given by the dictionary is also 'class of men, tribe, order, caste... [which is] properly applicable to the four principal classes described in Manu's code, viz.
Wilkins states that the 'Asvins are regarded as the physicians of the gods; and are declared to be able to restore to health, the sick, the lame, and the emaciated amongst mortals.
The Asvins proceed to this Yagya, and, asking to be allowed to join in it, are told they cannot do so, because they have wandered familiarly among men, performing cures.
[22] He is celebrated for his powers, and the one who kills the great symbolic evil (malevolent type of Asura) named Vritra who obstructs human prosperity and happiness.
In a legend relating to the Mahāvīra, Makha (in the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa) or Makha-Vishnu (in the Shatapatha Brahmana and Taittiriya Aranyaka) is decapitated.
[26] In regards to this ambiguity, S. Shrava states that 'Innumerable manuscripts of the valuable [Vedic] literature have been lost due to atrocities of the rulers and invaders, ravages of time, and utter disregard and negligence.
[27] Notably, according to the Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra (an important book on Vedic Astrology), Makha is a nakshatra (star).
Kashyap states that 'Somayaga is a general name for those Yagya in which libations of the soma juice are offered in the duly consecrated fire.
The Pravargya rite is complex and involves following numerous strict rules in regards to timing, objects used, placements, movements, actions, and what is said.
At the outset of the ceremony the wife of the conductor is made to cover her head, but she joins with the rest at the close in the finale of the Saman which is sung.
Instead, English translations of Brahmanas and Aranyakas containing details of the Pravargya ceremony have been cited; these constitute Sruti literature of the Vedas as much as the Samhitas (hymns and mantras).
Sharva states that in 'the brahmana literature this word ['brahmana'] has been commonly used as detailing the ritualism related to the different Yagya or yajnas...
[27] J. Dowson states that 'Aranyaka' means 'belonging to the forest' as this type of text is intended to 'expound the mystical sense of the [sacrificial] ceremonies, discuss the nature of God [etc.].
The man of whom men speak in the sun us Indra, is Prajapati, is the holy power; thus herein the conductor attains identity if [the] world and union with all the deities.A.B.
The overall placement of the Pravargya as an introductory part of the overall Soma Yagya is (Adhyaya IX onwards is not detailed here): If the Mahāvīra (the pot used at the pravargya-ceremony) breaks, he should touch, when it is broken (muttering the three verses): 'He, who, even without a clamp, before the piercing of the neck-ropes, makes the combination, he, the bountiful, the one of much good, removes again what is spoiled.
[38] In terms of content, the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa seems to focus on numerous other sacrificial rites (e.g. the Vratyastoma), rather than the Soma Yagya, of which the Pravargya ritual is an early part.
However, of the two direct references found, the above-quoted verse from prapathaka (chapter) 9, Adhyaya (section) 10 entitled 'Expiations for various occasions' instructs the performers of the Pravargya ritual of what to do should one or more of the Mahāvīra pot(s) break in order to atone and continue the Yagya.
J. Eggeling states that 'The fourteenth kânda, up to the beginning of the Brihad-âranyaka, is entirely taken up with the exposition of the Pravargya, an important, though optional and subsidiary, ceremony performed on the Upasad-days of Soma-Yagya... the preparation of a hot draught of milk and ghee, the Gharma, which the Yagya has to take, after oblations have been made thereof to various deities, the whole rite is treated with a considerable amount of mystic solemnity calculated to impart to it an air of unusual significance.
A special importance is, however, attached to the rough clay pot, used for boiling the draught, and manufactured and baked in the course of the performance itself; it is called Mahâvîra, i.e. the great man or hero, and Samrâg, or sovereign lord, and is made the object of fervid adoration as though it were a veritable deity of well-nigh paramount power.
As noted earlier, there is also a reference to Indra slaying Makha as mentioned in the Taittiriya Samhita (3.2.4) of the Black Yajurveda, from which this legend may be derived.
'As illustrated, as the clay is dug up and fashioned into Mahāvīra pots, the participant refers to the Vajasaneyi Samhita of the White Yajurveda, specifically Book 37, Verse 3 (i.e. 'Vâg.
Moreover, Soma is king, and the Pravargya is emperor, and the imperial dignity is higher than the royal: therefore he places it north of it.The above quote shows that symbolically, the head is associated with what is 'higher' and therefore what is best or of greatest importance.
'[46] atha varāhavihatam iyatyagra āsīditīyatī ha vā iyamagre pṛthivyāsa prādeśamātrī tāmemūṣa iti varāha ujjaghāna so'syāḥ patiḥ prajāpatistenaivainametanmithunena priyeṇa dhāmnā samardhayati kṛtsnaṃ karoti makhasya te'dya śiro rādhyāsaṃ devayajane pṛthivyā makhāya tvā makhasya tvā śīrṣṇa ityasāveva bandhuḥ Then (earth) torn up by a boar (he takes), with 'Only thus large was she in the beginning,'--for, indeed, only so large was this earth in the beginning, of the size of a span.
Again, 'Mahāvīra' means 'great hero' and 'archer', both of which are explicitly mentioned here, as is digging up the earth, and why the milk boiled in the Mahāvīra earthen pots are offered as libations to the Asvins in the Pravargya.
Bakshi, who states the Brahmin 'author of the Aitareya Brahmana [of the Rigveda], Mahidasa, had a Sudra mother, while the Rishi, Kavasha Aliusha, was born of a Dasi [i.e. a servant, concubine or dancing girl]'.
Keith and A.A. Macdonell at 'the Pravargya (introductory Soma) rite the performer is not allowed to come in contact with a Ṥūdra, who here [in the Pancavimsa Brahmana], as in the Kathaka Samhita [of the Black Yajurveda] is reckoned as excluded from a share in the Soma-draught'.
