Adhyāya I, Khaṇḍa 13

1. 'Be queen with thy father-in-law,' with this verse (Rig-veda X, 85, 46) her father or brother sacrifices with a sword's point on her head, or with the Sruva, standing while she is sitting, with his face turned to the west, while her face is turned to the east.

2. 'I seize thy hand for the sake of happiness' (Rig-veda X, 85, 36), with these words (the bridegroom) seizes with his right hand her right hand with the thumb, both hands being turned with the palms upwards, he standing while she is sitting, with his face turned to the west, while her face is turned to the east.

3. And when he has murmured the following five verses,

4^[1]. (He continues thus,) 'This am I, that art thou; that art thou, this am I; the heaven I, the earth thou; the Ṛc art thou, the Sāman I. So be thou devoted to me.

'Well! Let us here marry. Let us beget offspring. Let us acquire many sons who may reach old age.'

5. (The Ācārya) fills, with the words bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ, a new water-pot,

6^[2]. Throws into it (branches) with milky sap and leaves, of a tree the name of which is masculine, together with Kuśa grass,

7. And gold, according to some (teachers),

8. And hands it over to a student who observes silence.

9^[3]. They should walk round this Stheyā water, (placed) to the north-east, so that they turn their right sides . towards it.

10. And after (the Ācārya) has placed a stone towards the northern direction,

11. (The bridegroom) makes her rise with the words, 'Come, thou joyful one,'

12. And makes her tread with the tip of her right foot on the stone, with the words, 'Come, tread on the stone; like a stone be firm. Tread the foes down; overcome the enemies.'

13. He then leads her round the fire so that their right sides are turned to it,

14. And gives her a second garment with the same text (chap. 12, § 3).

15. Her father or brother pours out of a basket fried grain mixed with Śamī leaves into her joined hands.

16. The spreading under, the sprinkling over, and the second sprinkling over (are done) with Ājya.

17^[4]. She sacrifices those (fried grains).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

13, 4. Nārāyaṇa states that here four Brāhmaṇas should repeat p. 36 the Sūryā hymn (Rig-veda X, 85) to the bride. That, according to Śāṅkhāyana, that hymn is recited at the wedding, is clear from chap. 14, 12.

[2]:

Sakṣīrānt sapalāśānt sakuśān. Nārāyaṇa's commentary divides sa kuśān, and refers sa to the ācārya. But this sa would be superfluous, and the substantive to which sakṣīrān and sapalāśān are to be referred, is, as both the nature of the case and the corresponding passages show, śākhān and not kuśān. Comp. the Śrauta-sūtra IV, 17, 5: palāsaśākhāṃ sapalāśāṃ nikhāya, and a passage concerning the very rite here described, Āśvalāyana-pariśiṣṭa I, 24: audumbaryārddhayā. (read, ārdrayā?) śākhayā sapalāśayā sahiraṇyapavitrayā sadūrvāpavitrayā. The MS. of the Śāmbavya-sūtra has sakṣīrān palāśān sakuśān.

[3]:

'The Stheyā water has to be so placed that when the bride and the bridegroom walk (their seven steps, see chap. 14, 5 seq.), their right sides are turned towards it.' Nārāyaṇa. Comp., regarding the Stheyā water and its bearer, the Gṛhya-saṃgraha-pariśiṣṭa II, 26. 30. 35.

[4]:

I believe that the words forming this Sūtra, tāñ juhoti, are taken from the same lost old Gṛhya text which Śāṅkhāyana has followed word for word also in I, 5, 1-5 and elsewhere. This is made probable by the comparison of Pāraskara I, 6, 2. The author of our text, while literally adopting the words of his original, has not quite succeeded in welding them together with his own statements; thus the sacrifice of grains is treated of in this Sūtra and in the first Sūtra of the next chapter, as if there were two different acts, while indeed it is one and the same.