gosava rite

[Lars Goehler]

<< I had just located this reference when your email came across. This is the
 opinion also of A.B. Keith, Rel & Phil of Veda & Ups, p. 338. Also see Jai
 Br 2.113. Caland translates the relevant part of Ap 22.13.2: ". . . er
 beschlafe seine Mutter, seine Schwester, und eine andere Frau aus seinem
 Geschlechte." The term "sleeps with" (beschlafe) is definitely suggested
 by upa iyaat. We have no way of knowing whether this actually happened or
 whether this passage was written in for reasons of "sAstraic completeness.
 The Gosava was certainly never a commonly performed "srauta yaj~na.

 Best regards
 Fred >>

  An earlier paralell passage to this ApZs is JB II, 113. But not all Vedic
texts dealing with the gosava,  prescribe incest ceremonies (e.g. PB). In his
article on gosava (Der Gosava, Archiv Oientalni 44/1976, pp. 43-53) Klaus
Mylius (p. 52) writes "...Hauptinhalt [of the gosava - L.G.] ist eine Salbung
(Weihe) des meist unmittelbar auf dem Erdboden sitzenden Opferveranstalters
mit frischer Milch. Inzestriten haben sich auf die Dauer nicht durchzusetzen
vermocht."

Best regards
Lars Goehler