Mahāvaiśvadeva-śastra in the Agniṣṭoma and mantras of ritual misdirection

Abstract

The mahāvaiśvadeva-śastra is a Ṛgvedic chant that appears at the beginning of the eleventh
series of Ṛgvedic chants (śastra-) and Sāmavedic song (stotra-), which is the first of two series’
or śastras and stotras that accompany the third or evening pressing of soma in the vedic
agniṣṭoma or soma sacrifice. Most of the syllables of the mahāvaiśvadeva-śastra are replaced with
what is called nyūṅkha, the repetition of the sound -o- in various cadences and intonations.
What, exactly, is being replaced, and why? We will look into ritual choreography described in
the Śrautasūtras and other performative texts for the answer. But this is not the only place
where mantras or their variants are used to obscure ritual intents and actions. This is actually
fairly common, in part because mantras are often intended to be obscure and not quite
reflective of the choreographic context. Other examples from tantric text and ritual, and even
from the Mahābhārata will be selected to illustrate this phenomenon in Indian ritual.