Annaprashana, Anna-prashana, Annaprāśana: 23 definitions
Introduction:
Annaprashana means something in Hinduism, Sanskrit, the history of ancient India, Marathi, Hindi. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
The Sanskrit term Annaprāśana can be transliterated into English as Annaprasana or Annaprashana, using the IAST transliteration scheme (?).
Alternative spellings of this word include Annprashan.
In Hinduism
Dharmashastra (religious law)
Source: Shodhganga: Facts of society in the ManusamhitaAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन):—The feeding of child with cooked rice for first tim e is the ceremony called Annaprāśana. Before this ceremony, the child takes only mother’s milk. In the Manusaṃhitā, the sixth month after birth of a child is presc ribed for Annaprāśana. He gives an alternative age for performing the rite. This is to be performed according to the custom prevailing in the family. This ceremony is performed by rituals. The Gṛhyasūtras describe the whole procedure of Annaprāśana. There we have various types and the method of this ceremony. The Gṛhyasūtras mention that a child of six months age, this ceremony is performed
Source: Shodhganga: Vaikhanasa Grhyasutra Bhasya (Critical Edition and Study)Annaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन) refers to the “ritual of first feeding of solid food to the child” and represents one of the eighteen bodily rituals (śārīraka-saṃskāras) mentioned in the Vaikhānasagṛhyasūtra (viz., vaikhānasa-gṛhya-sūtra) which belongs to the Taittirīya school of the Black Yajurveda (kṛṣṇayajurveda).—The original Gṛhyasūtra of Vaikhanāsa consists of eleven chapters or “praśnas”. Each praśna is subdivided into sub-divisions called “khaṇḍa”. But only the first seven chapters deal with actual Gṛhyasūtra section. Of these, the first three chapters dealing with the bodily rituals [viz., Annaprāśana].
Dharmashastra (धर्मशास्त्र, dharmaśāstra) contains the instructions (shastra) regarding religious conduct of livelihood (dharma), ceremonies, jurisprudence (study of law) and more. It is categorized as smriti, an important and authoritative selection of books dealing with the Hindu lifestyle.
Shaktism (Shakta philosophy)
Source: JSTOR: Tāntric Dīkṣā by Surya KantaAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन) refers to one of the eleven saṃskāras (purificatory rites of fire) forming part of preliminary rites before Dīkṣā: an important ritual of Śāktism described in the Śāradātilaka-tantra, chapters III-V.
Shakta (शाक्त, śākta) or Shaktism (śāktism) represents a tradition of Hinduism where the Goddess (Devi) is revered and worshipped. Shakta literature includes a range of scriptures, including various Agamas and Tantras, although its roots may be traced back to the Vedas.
Arthashastra (politics and welfare)
Source: Knowledge Traditions & Practices of India: Society State and Polity: A SurveyAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन) refers to the ceremony of “giving the child solid food” and represents one of the sixteen saṃskāras, or “ceremonies” accompanying the individual during the Gṛhastha (householder) stage of the Āśrama way of life. These ceremonies (e.g., annaprāśana-saṃskāra) are community affairs and at each ceremony relations and friends gather for community eating.
Arthashastra (अर्थशास्त्र, arthaśāstra) literature concerns itself with the teachings (shastra) of economic prosperity (artha) statecraft, politics and military tactics. The term arthashastra refers to both the name of these scientific teachings, as well as the name of a Sanskrit work included in such literature. This book was written (3rd century BCE) by by Kautilya, who flourished in the 4th century BCE.
Ayurveda (science of life)
Dietetics and Culinary Art (such as household cooking)
Source: Shodhganga: Dietetics and culinary art in ancient and medieval IndiaAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन) refers to a type of rite involving rice, according to the Baudhāyanagṛhyasūtra II.2.5 (also Āśvalāyanagṛhyasūtra I.16.1-5), and is commonly found in literature dealing with the topics of dietetics and culinary art, also known as Pākaśāstra or Pākakalā.—The discussions on rice can be seen only in post-Ṛgvedic literature. [...] The Gṛhyasūtras ordain that rice should be ceremoniously administered to child in the annaprāśana rite.
Āyurveda (आयुर्वेद, ayurveda) is a branch of Indian science dealing with medicine, herbalism, taxology, anatomy, surgery, alchemy and related topics. Traditional practice of Āyurveda in ancient India dates back to at least the first millenium BC. Literature is commonly written in Sanskrit using various poetic metres.
Shaivism (Shaiva philosophy)
Source: archive.org: SardhatrisatikalottaragamaAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन) refers to a representing one of the fire-rituals related to the kuṇḍa (“fire-pit”), according to the various Āgamas and related literature. Annaprāśana is mentioned in the Makuṭa-āgama (chapter 6). The Vīra-āgama (chapter 41) mentions Prāśana (“first time tasting food”).
Shaiva (शैव, śaiva) or Shaivism (śaivism) represents a tradition of Hinduism worshiping Shiva as the supreme being. Closely related to Shaktism, Shaiva literature includes a range of scriptures, including Tantras, while the root of this tradition may be traced back to the ancient Vedas.
Pancaratra (worship of Nārāyaṇa)
Source: archive.org: Catalogue of Pancaratra Agama TextsAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन) refers to one of the Saṃskāra routines (or “sacraments appropriate for initiates”), as discussed in the twenty-ninth chapter of the Nāradīyasaṃhitā: a Pāñcarātra document comprising over 3000 verses in 30 chapters presenting in a narrative framework the teachings of Nārada to Gautama, dealing primarily with modes of worship and festivals.— Description of the chapter [sarva-devatāsthāpanavidhi]: Gautama asks Nārada about the saṃskāra-sacraments appropriate for initiates (1). Nārada briefly tells when and how various saṃskāras are to be done: [e.g., annaprāśana (12)] [...]. The chapter closes with the general remarks that only pāñcarātra-mantras—which are professed to be Vedic in character, whether traceable to the Vedas or not—are to be used in the saṃskāra-routines [e.g., annaprāśana] (36b-40).
Pancaratra (पाञ्चरात्र, pāñcarātra) represents a tradition of Hinduism where Narayana is revered and worshipped. Closeley related to Vaishnavism, the Pancaratra literature includes various Agamas and tantras incorporating many Vaishnava philosophies.
Jyotisha (astronomy and astrology)
Source: Notices of Sanskrit Manuscripts: Volume 1 (1871) (jyo)Annaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन) refers to one of the topics discussed in the Śiśuhitā, a Sanskrit manuscript collected in volume 1 of the catalogue “Notices of Sanskrit Manuscripts (first series)” by Rajendralal Mitra (1822–1891), who was one of the first English-writing historians dealing with Indian culture and heritage.— The Śiśuhitā manuscript authored by Kṛṣṇarāma represents a primer on astrology, giving rules for calculation of nativities and most of the topics usually treated of in Indian astrological. It contains 2,457 ślokas.—The catalogue includes the term—Annaprāśana in its ‘subject-matter list’ or Viṣaya (which lists topics, chapters and technical terms). The complete entry reads: annaprāśanaṃ .
Jyotisha (ज्योतिष, jyotiṣa or jyotish) refers to ‘astronomy’ or “Vedic astrology” and represents the fifth of the six Vedangas (additional sciences to be studied along with the Vedas). Jyotisha concerns itself with the study and prediction of the movements of celestial bodies, in order to calculate the auspicious time for rituals and ceremonies.
India history and geography
Source: Project Gutenberg: Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 1Annaprasana refers to one of those ceremonies of the Nambutiris performed after marriage, during pregnancy or during the birth of a child. Annaprasana is the ceremony at which food other than that from nature’s fount is first given. It is done in the sixth month after birth. The father carries the child to a group of friends and relations. The Vadhyan or purohit is present and repeats Vedic texts, while the father places a little rice and butter in the child’s mouth.
The history of India traces the identification of countries, villages, towns and other regions of India, as well as mythology, zoology, royal dynasties, rulers, tribes, local festivities and traditions and regional languages. Ancient India enjoyed religious freedom and encourages the path of Dharma, a concept common to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.
Languages of India and abroad
Marathi-English dictionary
Source: DDSA: The Molesworth Marathi and English Dictionaryannaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन).—n (S) Giving of solid food for the first time to an infant. One of the sixteen saṃskāra. See ṣōḍaśasaṃskāra.
Marathi is an Indo-European language having over 70 million native speakers people in (predominantly) Maharashtra India. Marathi, like many other Indo-Aryan languages, evolved from early forms of Prakrit, which itself is a subset of Sanskrit, one of the most ancient languages of the world.
Sanskrit dictionary
Source: DDSA: The practical Sanskrit-English dictionaryAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन).—the ceremony of giving a new-born child food to eat for the first time, one of the 16 Saṃskāras performed between the 5th and 8th month (usually in the sixth, Manusmṛti 2.34) with preliminary oblations to fire (Mar.uṣṭāvaṇa); षष्ठेऽन्नप्राशन मासि (ṣaṣṭhe'nnaprāśana māsi) Manusmṛti 2.34; Y.1.12.
Derivable forms: annaprāśanam (अन्नप्राशनम्).
Annaprāśana is a Sanskrit compound consisting of the terms anna and prāśana (प्राशन). See also (synonyms): annaprāśa.
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Shabda-Sagara Sanskrit-English DictionaryAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन).—n.
(-naṃ) A religious ceremony, in which after presenting oblations to fire, a little rice is, for the first time, put into the child’s mouth; it should take place between the fifth and eighth month. E. anna, and prāśana feeding.
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Benfey Sanskrit-English DictionaryAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन).—n. the first feeding of a child with rice, a religious ceremony taking place in the sixth month after his birth, [Mānavadharmaśāstra] 2, 34.
Annaprāśana is a Sanskrit compound consisting of the terms anna and prāśana (प्राशन).
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Cappeller Sanskrit-English DictionaryAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन).—[neuter] (first) feeding (of an infant) with rice ([ritual or religion]).
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Aufrecht Catalogus Catalogorum1) Annaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन) as mentioned in Aufrecht’s Catalogus Catalogorum:—[dharma] Bik. 359. Burnell. 151^a. Oppert. Ii, 6875.
2) Annaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन):—a Pariśiṣṭa of the Sv. Oxf. 383^b.
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English DictionaryAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन):—[=anna-prāśana] [from anna] n. putting rice into a child’s mouth for the first time (one of the Saṃskāras; See saṃskāra), [Manu-smṛti ii, 34; Yājñavalkya i, 12.]
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Goldstücker Sanskrit-English DictionaryAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन):—[tatpurusha compound] n.
(-nam) Giving food to eat, scil. to a child: the seventh of the ten essential rites enjoined to the three first castes (see saṃskāra); it ought to take place according to Āsvālāyana, Manu, Yājnavalkya &c. in the sixth month after a child’s birth; according to Kātyāyana and his school in the sixth (or, according to some, in the eighth month) if the child is a boy, in the fifth or seventh, if it is a girl. According to Āsvālāyana a father, if he desire plenty (for his child?) ought to give it a soup or sauce made of goat’s flesh (‘ājamannādyakāmaḥ’); if he desire holiness, a soup or sauce made of the flesh of a francoline patridge, called tittiri (‘taittiraṃ brahmavarcasakāmaḥ’); if he desire strength, boiled rice sprinkled over with very little clarified butter, but not fried in butter, as it would then not be moist (‘ghṛtaudanaṃ tejaskāmaḥ’) [The restriction made by the comm. in his explanation of the word ghṛtaudana is not justified by himself, but countenanced by the gloss of Patanjali on a Vārttika (‘saṃpratyayācca tadarthādhyavasānam’) to Pāṇini Ii. 1. 34]; or if he have no particular desire, boiled rice mixed with curdled milk, honey and clarified butter (‘dadhimadhughṛtamiśramannaṃ prāśayet’). [The word anna supplied at āja and taittira is, as the comm. observes, not to be taken there in its usual sense ‘boiled rice’ but in that of soup or sauce, vyañjana.] When giving the food, whatever be its substance, the father speaks the verse: annapatennasya no dehyanamīvasya śuṣmiṇaḥ &c. (Vājas. Sanh. 11. 83.), if the child is a boy; if it is a girl, the ceremony is performed without the recital of the mantra (‘āvṛtaiva kumāryai’).— According to the school of Kātyāyana the food varies still more according to the nature of the desires: that corresponding with the desire of eloquence is the flesh (probably the sauce made of the flesh of) a skylark (bharadvājī); with the desire of plenty, that of a partridge, called kapiñjala; with the desire of quickness that of a fish; with the desire of long life that of the partridge called kṛkaṇā; with the desire of holiness that of the Śaralī bird (āṭī); with the desire of all the advantages mentioned before that of all these animals together; the dish must moreover in general contain honey, clarified butter and bits of gold (Reṇuka in his Gṛhyakārikā: ‘madhvājyakanakopetaṃ sarvaṃ tadyugapatprabhuḥ . māṃsaṃ tacca bharadvājyā yadīcchedvākprasāritām . kāpiñjalaṃ cedannādyaṃ mātsyaṃ ca javanaṃ yadi . āyuścetkṛkaṇāyāśca tadāṭyāścedbrahmavarcasam . sarvaṃ cetsarvamāṃsāni sahānnaṃ prāśayecchubham’); the ceremony is performed while a mantra is inaudibly muttered and the child is sitting on the lap of its mother before the divinity of the family; preparatory procedings are, according to Reṇuka, those connected with the fixing of an auspicious day, the Ābhyudayika-śrāddha (the same as the Vṛddhi-Śr.), austerities, as suspending the breath, meditation on the divinity and oblations (āhutis) with clarified butter while remembering the divine powers of speech (vāc), the vital airs prāṇa and apāna, eye (cakṣus) and ear (śrotra), lastly an oblation of caru (q. v.) to Agni (agniḥ sviṣṭakṛt).—According to Bhavadeva, as quoted by Rādhākānta, the order of the procedings is: fixing of an auspicious day, ablutions, performance of the Vṛddhi-Śrāddha, collecting of the sacrificial fire, making a heap of Kuśagrass(?) (acc. to Reṇuka: of fifty leaves of this grass), then silently throwing into the fire a piece of fuel smeared with clarified butter, of a span’s length, then the oblation (homa) which is accompanied with the three sacred words bhūr, bhuvar and svar, then five oblations (āhutis) with clarified butter, then the homa of the five vital airs (prāṇa), or instead of the two latter(?) the ceremony practised in the north which begins with the Śāṭyāyanahoma and ends with the hymn called Vāmadevya; these procedings are followed by the essential rite of giving the food and by, what is essential too, the presents to the officiating priest. (Comp. also annabhukti.) E. anna and prāśana.
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Yates Sanskrit-English DictionaryAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन):—[anna-prāśana] (naṃ) 1. n. Ceremony of giving a child rice the first time.
[Sanskrit to German]
Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.
Hindi dictionary
Source: DDSA: A practical Hindi-English dictionaryAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन) [Also spelled annprashan]:—(nm) a ceremony marking the occasion when a child is administered non-liquid food (esp. [khīra]) for the first time.
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Kannada-English dictionary
Source: Alar: Kannada-English corpusAnnaprāśana (ಅನ್ನಪ್ರಾಶನ):—[noun] the process and the ceremony of feeding the child solid water for the first time.
Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.
Nepali dictionary
Source: unoes: Nepali-English DictionaryAnnaprāśana (अन्नप्राशन):—n. (Hindu ritual) first rice feeding to a baby;
Nepali is the primary language of the Nepalese people counting almost 20 million native speakers. The country of Nepal is situated in the Himalaya mountain range to the north of India.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches: Prashana, Anna.
Starts with: Annaprashanaprayoga.
Full-text (+2): Samskara, Annaprashanaprayoga, Annashana, Annamuhurta, Bharavani, Annapana, Annaprashan, Annprashan, Anugatartha, Annabhukti, Prashana, Annaprasha, Vaishnavashruti, Samskaravidhi, Nishekadishmashanantasamskaravidhi, Vritti, Prapannavrittyacara, Agnisamskara, Samayadhyaya, Acara.
Relevant text
Search found 41 books and stories containing Annaprashana, Anna-prasana, Anna-prāśana, Anna-prashana, Annaprāśana, Annaprasana; (plurals include: Annaprashanas, prasanas, prāśanas, prashanas, Annaprāśanas, Annaprasanas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Tilakamanjari of Dhanapala (study) (by Shri N. M. Kansara)
22. Anna-prasana and other rites < [Chapter 11 - Social Data]
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, Madras (by M. Seshagiri Sastri)
Kausika Sutra (study) (by V. Gopalan)
International Ayurvedic Medical Journal
An ayurvedic outlook on infant food habits with regard to gut microbiome evolvement < [2023, Issue 03, March]
Role of ayurveda in pediatrics care with special reference to “nutrition” < [2023, Issue 02, February]
A review article on nutrition in infants < [2024, Issue 03. March]
Narada Purana (English translation) (by G. V. Tagare)
Chapter 56.27 - Description of Annaprāśana (the first feeding) < [Part 2 - Dvitīya-pāda]
Chapter 54 - Mathematics and Astronomy (Gaṇita / Jyotiṣa) < [Part 2 - Dvitīya-pāda]
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