Sadasya

Sadasya, “member of the assembly”

Grammar: masculine noun, from sadas (the seat, the assembly): “one who belongs to the assembly”. The Telugu text calls them sabhāsadas, members of the sabhā.

Meaning: a member of the assembly of a yajña, who watches over the rite, beside the ṛtvijas who perform it.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa:

  • Daksha‘s yajña. Maitreya tells Vidura that the armies of Rudra struck the hosts of the devas, the ṛtvijas and the sadasyas hard with śūlas, cross-blades, swords, gadās, iron clubs and sledge-hammers, and the wounded went to Brahmā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 6). When the yajña was resumed and Śrī Hari appeared, the sabhāsadas praised him: the society of ignorant men is falling along the road of saṃsāra, the stream of birth and death, chased by the serpent of death; the five impurities of the mind, avidyā, asmitā, rāga, dvesha and abhiniveśa, are its fortresses, the pairs such as pleasure and pain its pits, the wicked its cruel beasts, grief its forest fire, and sense-pleasures its mirages. “If they hold on to your feet, they will have protection. But when will they do that?” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 7).
  • Aṅga‘s yajña. When the devas would not take their shares at King Aṅga’s aśvamedha, Aṅga asked the ṛtvijas’ leave, broke his vow of silence and asked the sadasyas what offence he had committed. They answered: “In this yajña there is not the least fault of yours, but a fault from a former birth, because of which you are without a son. It is Śrī Hari himself who accepts the shares of havis in a yajña. Worship him with a yajña made with the wish for a son, and he will grant you a son; then all the devas will take their shares” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 13).
  • Nābhi‘s yajña. The ṛtvijas, the sadasyas and the yajamāna Nābhi saw the four-armed Purushottama appear like a mass of light, in yellow silk, the Śrīvatsa on his chest, bearing the śaṅkha, the padma, the vanamālā and the cakra (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 3).
  • Paraśurāma‘s yajña. When Paraśurāma gave the earth as dakshiṇā, he gave the four directions to the four chief ṛtvijas, the middle portion to Kaśyapa, Āryāvarta to the upadrashṭā, and to the sadasyas who watch the yajña the land lying beyond the middle portion (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 16).
  • The Rājasūya. On the day of the pressing of the soma, Dharmarāja, with a one-pointed mind, worshipped according to rule the ṛtvijas and the mahātmās who were overseeing the yajña, the sadasyas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 74).
  • Vasudeva‘s yajña. The ṛtviks of Vasudeva, in silk set with gems, shone with the sadasyas as at the yajña of Indra who slew Vṛtrāsura; and at the end Vasudeva honoured the sadasyas, the ṛtviks, the devatās, men, other beings, the pitṛs and the Cāraṇas, who took leave of Śrī Kṛshṇa and went away praising the yajña (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 84).

Related terms: Ṛtvij · Yajamāna · Sabhā · Yajña · Dakshiṇā

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapters 6–7, 13; Skandha 5, Chapter 3; Skandha 9, Chapter 16; Skandha 10, Chapters 74, 84