Zaota

It is an old problem among the Indian savants, from which verbal root the name of their chief sacrificing priest, Hotṛ (nom. sing, hótâ), is derived. Hotṛ in the fully developed ritual is the priest, whose duty it was to recite the Hymns and to utter the formulæ of invocation and consecration during the sacrifice. It was, therefore, for the Indians not a long step to take to bring this activity of the Hotâ in consonance with its etymology and to derive the word hotṛ from the root hû==hve “to call, to invite.” This is the etymology given by Yâska, the father of the Indian etymology, in his Nirukta 7, 15. He says there, that hotâ is properly speaking the hvâtâ, but adds, that one of his predecessors Auruṇavâbha, derives hotṛ from hu, juhoti “to sacrifice.” The latter derivation is, undoubtedly, correct, although it stands in a certain contradiction to the real function of the Hotṛ. Already the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa says 1, 2: They raise an objection: “When the other (the Adhvaryu) sacrifices (juhoti), why is he who recites the invocation and sacrificial verses called Hotâ (one who sacrifices)?”