Vedic priesthood

Priests of the Vedic religion are officiants of the yajna service. Yajna is an important part of Hinduism, especially the Vedas. Persons trained for the ritual and proficient in its practice were called (ऋत्विज् 'regularly-sacrificing'). As members of a social class, they were generically known as vipra 'sage' or kavi 'seer'. Specialization of roles attended the elaboration and development of the ritual corpus over time. Eventually a full complement of sixteen s became the custom for major ceremonies. The sixteen consisted of four chief priests and their assistants. The older references uniformly indicate the Writtiks and Purohits then as the presiding priest, with perhaps only the adhvaryu as his assistant in the earliest times. The phrase "seven hotars" is found more than once in the Rigveda. Hymn 2.1.2 of Rigveda states it as follows, तवाग्ने होत्रं तव पोत्रमृत्वियं तव नेष्ट्रं त्वमग्निदृतायतः । तव प्रशास्त्रं त्वमध्वरीयसि ब्रह्म चासि गृहपतिश्च नो दमे ॥२॥ Thine is the Herald's task and Cleanser's duly timed; Leader art thou, and Kindler for the pious man. Thou art Director, thou the ministering Priest: thou art the Brahman, Lord and Master in our home. The above hymn enumerate the priests as the , , , agnīdh, (meaning the maitrāvaruna) and adhvaryu. The was the reciter of invocations and litanies. These could consist of single verses (), strophes (triples called or pairs called pragātha), or entire hymns (sukta), drawn from the . As each phase of the ritual required an invocation, the had a leading or presiding role. The adhvaryu was in charge of the physical details of the sacrifice (in particular the adhvara, a term for the Somayajna). According to Monier-Williams, the adhvaryu "had to measure the ground, to build the altar, to prepare the sacrificial vessels, to fetch wood and water, to light the fire, to bring the animal and immolate it," among other duties. Each action was accompanied by supplicative or benedictive formulas (yajus), drawn from the yajurveda.