Apastamba Grihya-sutra

by Hermann Oldenberg | 1892 | 21,043 words

The short treatise of Apastamba on the Grihya ritual forms one Prashna of the great corpus of the Apastambiya-Kalpa-sutra and stands, among the Grihya texts, in closest connection with the Hiranyakeshi-Grihya-sutra. Alternative titles: Āpastamba-gṛhya-sūtra (आपस्तम्ब-गृह्य-सूत्र), Grhya, Āpastambagṛhyasūtra (आपस्तम्बगृह्यसूत्र), Apastambagrihyasut...

Praśna 4, Section 10

1. We shall explain the Upanayana (or initiation of the student).

2. Let him initiate a Brāhmaṇa in the eighth year after the conception,

3. A Rājanya in the eleventh, a Vaiśya in the twelfth year after the conception.

4. Spring, summer, autumn: these are the (fit) seasons (for the Upanayana), corresponding to the order of the castes.

5. (The boy's father) serves food to Brāhmaṇas and causes them to pronounce auspicious wishes, and serves food to the boy. (The teacher?) pours together, with the first Yajus (of the next Anuvāka, warm and cold) water, pouring the warm water into the cold, and moistens (the boy's) head with the next (verse; M. II, 1, 2).

6.[1] Having put three Darbha blades into his hair (towards each of the four directions) (the teacher [?]) shaves his hair with the next four (verses; M. II, 1, 3-6) with the different Mantras, towards the different (four) directions.

7.[2] With the following (verse, M. II, 1, 7, somebody) addresses him while he is shaving.

8. Towards the south, his mother or a Brahmacārin strews barley-grains on a lump of bull's dung; with this (dung) she catches up the hair (that is cut off), and puts it down with the next (verse; M. II, 1, 8) at the root of an Udumbara tree or in a tuft of Darbha grass.

9.[3] After (the boy) has bathed, and (the ceremonies) from the putting (of wood) on (the fire) down to the Ājyabhāga oblations (have been performed), he causes him to put a piece of Palāśa wood on the fire with the next (verse; M. II, 2, 1), and makes him tread with his right foot on a stone to the north of the fire, with (the verse), 'Tread' (M. II, 2, 2).

10. Having recited the next two (verses; M. II. 2, 3. 4) over a garment that has been spun and woven on one day, and has caused him, with the next three (verses; M. II. 2, 5-7), to put it on, he recites over him, after he has put it on, the next (verse; M. II, 2, 8).

11.[4] He ties thrice around him, from left to right, a threefold-twisted girdle of Muñja grass with the next two (verses; M. II. 2, 9. 10), and (gives him) a skin as his outer garment with the next (verse; II, 2, 11).

12.[5] To the north of the fire (the teacher) spreads out Darbha grass; on that he causes (the boy) to station himself with the next (verse; M. II. 3, 1), pours his joined hands full of water into (the boy's) joined hands, makes him sprinkle himself three times with the next (verse; M. II, 3, 2), takes hold of his right hand with the next (formulas; M. II, 3, 3-12), gives him with the next (formulas; M. II, 3, 13-23) in charge to the deities (mentioned in those Mantras), initiates him with the next Yajus (M. II, 3, 24), and murmurs into his right ear the (Mantra), 'Blessed with offspring' (II, 3, 25).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

10, 6, 7. The difference which Haradatta makes between the teacher who begins to shave him (pravapati) and the barber who goes on with shaving (vapantam) seems too artificial.

[2]:

Haradatta: The teacher addresses the barber, &c.—Sudarśanārya: The mother of the boy or a Brahmacārin [comp. Sūtra 8] . . . addresses the teacher who shaves him.

[3]:

Comp. above, II, 4, 3.

[4]:

Comp. Āpast. Dharma-sūtra I, I, 2, 33; I, 3, 3 seq.

[5]:

As to the words, 'he initiates him' (upanayati), comp. Śāṅkhāyana II, 2, 11. 12; Āśvalāyana I, 20, 4 &c.

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