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...
Adhyāya I, Khaṇḍa 14
1. 'This woman, strewing grains, prays thus, "May I bring bliss to my relations; may my husband live long. Svāhā!"'—while the husband murmurs (this) text, she sacrifices standing.
2[1]. (All the ceremonies,) beginning from the treading upon the stone, (are repeated) in the same way for a second time,
3. And in the same way a third time.
4. Silently, if they like, a fourth time.
5[2]. (The Ācārya?) makes (them) step forward in a north-eastern direction seven steps (with the words),
6. 'For sap with one step, for juice with two steps, for the prospering of wealth with three steps, for comfort with four steps, for cattle with five steps, for the seasons with six steps. Friend be with seven steps.'
7. (The Ācārya?) 'appeases' those (foot-steps) with water.
8[3]. With the three Āpohiṣṭhīyā verses (Rig-veda X, 9, 1-3) he wipes (them) with the Stheyā water,
9[4]. And sprinkles it on their heads.
10. (The bridegroom then) says, 'I give you a cow.'
11. Let him give something to the Brāhmaṇas each time at the Sthālīpākas and other rites;
12[5]. To him who knows the Sūryā hymn the bride's shift.
13[6]. A cow is the optional gift to be given by a Brāhmaṇa,
14. A village by a Rājanya,
15. A horse by a Vaiśya.
16[7]. A hundred (cows) with a chariot (he gives to a father) who has only daughters.
17. To those versed in the sacrificial rites he gives a horse.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
14, 2. The treading on the stone is prescribed in chap. 13, 12.
[2]:
5, 7. According to Nārāyaṇa it is the teacher who makes them walk the seven steps; the Paddhati says that the bridegroom or the Ācārya causes her to do so. Comp. Pāraskara I, 8, 1; Āśvalāyana I, 7, 19, &c.
[3]:
Comp. chap. 13, 9.
[4]:
Probably we should read mūrdhanī (acc. dual.), not mūrdhani. Āśvalāyana has śirasī. Of course the heads of both the bridegroom and the bride were sprinkled with water; comp. Āśvalāyana I, 7, 20, &c.
[5]:
The Sūryā hymn is Rig-veda X, 85. Comp. the note above on chap. 13, 4.
[6]:
These Sūtras, treating of the fee for the sacrifice, are identical with Pāraskara I, 8, 15-18. Apparently they are taken from the same lost original from which several identical passages in the Sūtras of Pāraskara and Śāṅkhāyana seem to be derived (see the notes on chap. 5, 1; 13, 7). They stand rather out of place here, for they return to the same subject which had already been treated of in Sūtra 10, though in that Sūtra, as very frequently is the case in our text and in similar ones, only the case of the bridegroom being a Brāhmaṇa has been taken notice of.
[7]:
Comp. the passages quoted by Professor Stenzler on Pāraskara I, 8, 18. Nārāyaṇa has the following note: 'To a duhitṛmat, i.e. to the father of a girl who has no brother, he shall give a hundred cows and besides a chariot, in order to destroy the guilt brought about by marrying a girl who has no brother.' Possibly we should here emancipate ourselves from the authority of the commentators, and explain duhitṛmat 'he who gives his daughter in marriage,' the bride's father. Comp. Āpastamba II, 11, 18; II, 13, 12; Weber, Indische Studien, V, 343, note 2.