Prapāṭhaka I, Kāṇḍikā 6

1.^[1] Thus has spoken Mānatantavya: 'Unoffered indeed becomes the offering of a man who does not eat fast-day food.

2. 'He becomes powerless. Hunger will attack him. He does not gain favour among people. His offspring will be perverse.

3. 'But he who eats fast-day food, becomes powerful. Hunger will not attack him. He gains favour among people. His offspring will be still more blessed.

4.^[2] 'Therefore (husband and wife) should eat fast-day food which is pleasant to them.'

5. Let them sleep that night on the ground.

6. They should spend that night so as to alternate their sleep with waking, entertaining themselves with tales or with other discourse.

7.^[3] But they should avoid doing anything unholy (such as cohabiting together).

8. It is said, that when on a journey, he should not fast.

9. For (say they, in that case) the observance has to be kept by his wife.

10. Let him do (herein) what he likes.

11. In the same way also one who has set up the (Śrauta) fires should fast—

12. And (he should observe) what is enjoined by the sacred tradition.

13. Now in the forenoon, after (the sacrificer) has offered his morning oblation, and has walked round the fire on its front side, and strewn to the south of the fire eastward-pointed Darbha grass—

14.^[4] (The Brahman) stations himself to the east of that (grass), facing the west, and with the thumb and the fourth finger of his left hand he takes one grass blade from the Brahman's seat and throws it away to the south-west, in the intermediate direction (between south and west), with (the words), 'Away has been thrown the dispeller of wealth.'

15. Having touched water, he then sits down on the Brahman's seat, with (the words), 'I sit down on the seat of wealth.'

16.^[5] Facing the fire he sits silently, raising his joined hands, till the end of the ceremony.

17. Let him speak (only) what refers to the due performance of the sacrifice.

18. Let him not speak what is unworthy of the sacrifice.

19. If he has spoken what is unworthy of the sacrifice, let him murmur a verse, or a Yajus, sacred to Viṣṇu.

20. Or let him only say, 'Adoration to Viṣṇu!'

21.^[6] If one wishes, however, to do himself the work both of the Hotṛ and of the Brahman, he should in the same way place on the Brahman's seat a parasol, or an outer garment, or a water-pot, or a bolster of Darbha grass, and should return in the same way (in which he has gone to the Brahman's seat), and then should perform the other (duties).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

6, 1. The teacher's name is spelt elsewhere Mānutantavya, which seems to be the more correct spelling. The Khādira-Gṛhya (II, I, 5) has Mānadantavya. Dr. Knauer has called attention to several other blunders of the MSS., which are unusually frequent just in this passage. For I have no doubt that in spite of the unanimous agreement of the MSS. we are to change mānuṣyāhutir into mānuṣasyāhutir, and I think it very probable, to say the least, that in Sūtra 4 kāmayetaupavasathikam should be corrected into kāmayeyātām aupavasathikam, though here the singular could possibly be defended by very faithful believers in the authority of the MSS.

[2]:

Or, which is pleasant to him? See the note on § 1.

[3]:

Khādira-Gṛhya II, I, 7.

[4]:

The ceremonies stated in this Sūtra have to be performed by the Brahman. This is stated in the commentary, and the comparison p. 30 of parallel texts leaves no doubt as to the correctness of this view. Thus Hiraṇyakeśin says (I, 1): etasmin kāle brahmā yajñopavītaṃ kṛtvāpa ācamyāpareṇāgniṃ dakṣiṇātikramya brahmasadanāt tṛṇaṃ nirasya, &c. Comp. also the corresponding passages of the Śrauta ritual given by Hillebrandt, Neu- and Vollmondsopfer, p. 17. I do not think it probable, however, that we should read brahmā^ऽsanāt, so that it would be distinctly expressed by the text that the Brahman is the subject (comp. Dr. Knauer's Introduction, p. viii). For we read in this same Sūtra brahmāsanāt tṛṇam abhisaṃgṛhya; in Sūtra 15, brahmāsana upaviśati; in Sūtra 21, brahmāsane nidhāya: of these passages it is in the second made probable by the sense, and it is certain in the third, that brahmāsana is to be understood as a compound equal to brahmasadana. Thus it would, in my opinion, be unnatural not to explain it in the same way also in the first passage. Parāvasu is opposed to Vasu (Sūtra 15) in the same way as some texts, for instance Āpastamba, oppose Parāgvasu to Arvāgvasu.

[5]:

seqq Khādira-Gṛhya I, 1, 19 seqq.

[6]:

'In the same way' refers to the ceremonies stated in Sūtras p. 31 13 and 14. On the darbhacaṭu or, as some MSS. read, darbhavaṭu, see Bloomfield's note on the Gṛhya-saṃgraha, I, 88. 89. Knauer gives darbhavaṭuṃ without adding any various readings. Comp. Khādira-Gṛhya I, 1, 23.