Sankhayana-grihya-sutra

by Hermann Oldenberg | 1886 | 37,785 words

The Grihya-sutra ascribed to Shankhayana, which has been edited and translated into German in the XVth volume of the "Indische Studien", is based on the first of the four Vedas, the Rig-veda in the Bashkala recension, and among the Brahmana texts, on the Kaushitaka. Alternative titles: Śāṅkhāyana-gṛhya-sūtra (शाङ्खायन-गृह्य-सूत्र), Shank...

Preface

      ...Let us beget offspring.
Let us acquire many sons, and may they reach old age.
Loving, bright, with genial minds may we see a hundred autumns,
may we live a hundred autumns, may we hear a hundred autumns!
--p. 282.

This is part one of two of the Sacred Books of the East translation of the Grihya Sutras. The Grihya Sutras are a collection of late Vedic-era (ca. 500 BCE) household rituals and regulations, many reflecting much more ancient traditions. It is like reading a time-travelling ethnographer's field notes in Vedic India. Included are fertility and marriage ceremonies, ritual purity laws, plus material on initiations, funerals and other rites of passage. This volume also includes a complete Sanskrit transliteration of the text of the Khadira-Grihya-Sutra, rare for the SBE series.

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