Kanda 3
Soma Pressing & Offering
The Soma pressing rituals, morning, midday, and evening pressings, and the offering formulas for the primary Soma sacrifice.
Prapathakas in Kanda 3
Prapathaka 1
Darśa–Pūrṇamāsa (New- and Full-Moon sacrifices) within the Śrauta iṣṭi-cycle; opening of the third kāṇḍa with preparatory and consecratory (dīkṣā/saṃskāra) elements leading into the monthly iṣṭis and their core offerings.
Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda (Taittirīya Saṃhitā) 3.1 functions as a programmatic entry into the monthly iṣṭi complex, especially the Darśa–Pūrṇamāsa cycle, by supplying the adhvaryu with tightly sequenced yajus-formulae that operationalize altar-side actions: taking and placing implements, delimiting ritual space, preparing oblations, and aligning the sacrificer with the rite’s cosmic correspondences. The chapter’s logic is characteristically Brāhmaṇa-like in its embedded exegesis: actions are not merely procedural but are construed as re-enactments of creation and social order—Agni as mouth of the gods, offerings as breath/food, and the sacrificer as a node where domestic economy is transmuted into cosmic reciprocity. The mantras emphasize correctness of measure, directionality, and purity, thereby stabilizing the transition from ordinary time to ritual time. In doing so, 3.1 establishes the semantic and performative grammar that later prapāṭhakas elaborate into specific offerings and expiations.
Prapathaka 4
Darśa–Pūrṇamāsa (New- and Full-Moon sacrifices) within the Śrauta Agnihotra–Iṣṭi cycle; specifically the Iṣṭi-mantra and procedural layer around the principal oblations (ājyabhāgas, prayāja/anuyāja, and the main havis) and their deity-addressing formulae.
Prapāṭhaka 3.4 of the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda (Taittirīya Saṃhitā) belongs to the Darśa–Pūrṇamāsa iṣṭi complex and articulates the liturgical grammar by which offerings are made efficacious: the sequencing of preliminary ghee-portions, the framing of the main havis with prayāja and anuyāja oblations, and the precise deity-addressing and svāhā-formulae that “bind” the rite to its cosmological referents. The chapter’s concern is not narrative but operational: it stabilizes the yajña as a reproducible procedure by specifying who is invoked, when, and with what verbal markers. In doing so it encodes a theology of mediation—Agni as carrier, Soma/Viṣṇu/Indra and allied deities as recipients, and the sacrificer as the ritual subject constituted through correct recitation. The prapāṭhaka thus exemplifies the Saṃhitā’s characteristic fusion of mantra, brāhmaṇa-style rationale, and ritual micro-technology.
Prapathaka 5
Agniṣṭoma/Soma-yāga (Śrauta Soma-sacrifice) — continuation of the Dīkṣā–Upasad–Soma preparation complex, focusing on consecratory and preparatory acts (pravargya/gharma-related and upasad-style offerings) that secure the sacrificer’s fitness and the rite’s ritual “heat” (tapas) before pressing.
Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda 3.5 belongs to the Soma-sacrifice liturgy and functions as a preparatory prapāṭhaka that consolidates the sacrificer’s consecration and the rite’s internal economy of heat, purity, and entitlement. The chapter’s mantric texture repeatedly aligns the yajamāna with Agni and Sūrya, and frames the forthcoming Soma-pressing as a controlled transformation: raw potency is ritually “cooked” into an offering fit for the gods. The sequence emphasizes boundary-making (inside/outside the vedi), the stabilization of speech and breath (vāc–prāṇa), and the ritual management of danger inherent in generating tapas (notably in pravargya/gharma idioms). The prapāṭhaka also exhibits the characteristic Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda interleaving of mantra with procedural cues, where short formulae serve as performative switches between acts. Theologically, it advances a reciprocity model: by establishing Agni’s seat and the sacrificer’s disciplined state, the gods are compelled to accept Soma and return prosperity, cattle, and longevity.