Baudhayana Dharmasutra

by Georg Bühler | 1882 | 56,962 words

The prashnas of the Dharmasutra of Baudhayana consist of the Srautasutra and other ritual treatises, the Sulvasutra which deals with vedic geometry, and the Grihyasutra which deals with domestic rituals. The Dharmasutra of Baudhayana like that of Apastamba also forms a part of the larger Kalpasutra. Likewise, it is composed of prashnas which liter...

Praśna II, Adhyāya 8, Kaṇḍikā 14

1. The offering to the manes secures long life and heaven, is worthy of praise and a rite ensuring prosperity.[1]

2. Persons who sanctify the company are, a Trimadhu, a Triṇāciketa, a Trisuparṇa, one who keeps five fires, and one who knows the six Aṅgas, one who performs the vow called Śiras, one who knows the Gyeṣṭhasāman, (and) a Snātaka;[2]

3. On failure of these, one who knows the (texts called) Rahasya.[3]

4. The Ṛk-verses, the Yajus-formulas, and the Sāmans (give) lustre to a funeral offering. Therefore he may feed (on that occasion) even a Sapiṇḍa relation who (knows) those (texts).[4]

5. Let him who feeds (Brāhmaṇas at a funeral sacrifice) cause them to hear successively the Rakṣoghna Sāmans, the Yajus-formulas (called) Svadhāvat, the Ṛk-verses (called) Madhu, and the (texts called) Pavitras.[5]

6. Having invited on the day before (the Śrāddha), or just in the morning, virtuous, pure (men), such as Trimadhus, who know the Vedāṅgas and the sacred texts, who are not related by marriage, nor members of the same family, nor connected through the Veda, at least three, (but always) an odd number, the (sacrificer) makes them sit down on prepared seats, covered with Darbha grass, facing the east or the north.[6]

7. Then he offers to them water mixed with sesamum seed, adorns them with scents and garlands (and says), 'I wish to offer oblations in the fire.'[7] When he has received permission (to do so), he heaps fuel on the sacred fire, scatters Kuśa grass around it, performs (all the ceremonies) up to the end of the Agnimukha, and offers three burnt oblations of food only, (reciting the following texts): 'To Soma, accompanied by the manes, Svāhā!' 'To Yama, accompanied by the Aṅgiras and by the manes, Svāhā!' 'To Agni, who carries the offerings to the manes, who causes sacrifices to be well performed, Svāhā!'

8. He shall make these three oblations with food only which has been sprinkled with the remainder of the (clarified butter).[8]

9. Let him give a cake of food to the birds.

10. For it is declared in the Veda, 'The manes roam about in the shape of birds.'

11. Next he touches the (other food) with his hand and with the thumb,

12. (And recites the following texts): 'Fire sees thee, who art co-extensive with the earth, the Ṛk-verses are thy greatness, lest the gift be in vain; the earth is the vessel for thee, the sky the cover; I offer thee in the mouth of Brahman, I offer thee in the Prāṇa and the Apāna of learned Brāhmaṇas; thou art imperishable, mayest thou never fail to (the manes of our) fathers yonder, in the other world.' 'Air hears thee, who art co-extensive with the middle sphere,[9] the Yajus-formulas are thy greatness, lest the gift be in vain; the earth is the vessel for thee, the sky the cover; . . . mayest thou never fail to the (manes of our) grandfathers yonder, in the other world.' 'The sun reveals thee, who art co-extensive with the sky, the Sāmans are thy greatness, lest the gift be in vain; . . . . mayest thou never fail to the (manes of our) great-grandfathers yonder, in the other world.'

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

14. Āpastamba II, 7, 16, 1-2.

[2]:

Āpastamba II, 7, 17, 22; Vasiṣṭha III, 19. Govinda states that the Atharvavedins know the vow called Śiras; see also Vasiṣṭha XXVI, 12, and note.

[3]:

Govinda says that persons acquainted with the Rahasyas or p. 267 Āraṇyakas are preferable to those mentioned in the preceding Sūtra, and thus the order must be reversed.

[4]:

Āpastamba II, 7, 17, 5.

[5]:

The texts on which the Rakṣoghna Sāmans are based occur Sāma-veda I, 1, 1, 3, 4--6; the Svadhāvat Yajus, Taitt. Brāhmaṇa I, 3, 10, 2; the Madhu Ṛcas, Rig-veda I, 90, 6; and the three Pavitras, Taitt. Brāhmaṇa I, q, 8, 2.

[6]:

Āpastamba II, 7, 14, 5. All the MSS., including those of the commentary, read yonigotramantrasambandhān instead of yonigotramantrāsambandhān. But the explanation of gotrasambandhāḥ by asagotrāḥ shows still a faint trace of the former existence of the reading which I have restored conjecturally and translated. Its correctness is proved by the parallel passage of Āpastamba.

[7]:

Viṣṇu LXXIII, 12--13; Manu III, 208-211. The Agnimukha p. 268 is a term denoting all the preliminaries which precede the Pradhānahoma of a ceremony. The Dekhan and Gujarāt MSS. read ājyasya instead of annasyaiva.

[8]:

Clarified butter is necessary for the rites included in the Agnimukha.

[9]:

The Mantras are addressed to the food which is to be offered.

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