Verse 3.89

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

उच्छीर्षके श्रियै कुर्याद् भद्रकाल्यै च पादतः ।
ब्रह्मवास्तोष्पतिभ्यां तु वास्तुमध्ये बलिं हरेत् ॥ ८९ ॥

ucchīrṣake śriyai kuryād bhadrakālyai ca pādataḥ |
brahmavāstoṣpatibhyāṃ tu vāstumadhye baliṃ haret || 89 ||

He should hake an offering to Śrī on the “head” and to Bhadrakālī on the “feet;” for Brahman and Vāstoṣpati, he should place an offering in the centre of the homestead.—(89)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Head’—is the top-most place, known as the dwelling of the gods; on this he should make the offering to Śrī; and ‘on the feet’—i.e., on the lower side of the house—Ho Bhadrakālī;’ the place of dwelling of this goddess being the East of the door.

Others have explained ‘head’ to mean that side of the householder’s bed where his head lies; and the ‘feet’ to be the lower side of the same. According to this explanation, this oblation may be placed either on the bedstead or on the ground, on the spot where the householder’s bed lies.

‘For Brahman and Vāstoṣpati.’—Even though these deities have been coupled together in a copulative compound, yet the two oblations are distinct, one to Brahman and another to Vāstoṣpati. In cases where two gods together form the ‘deities,’—as in the case of ‘Agni-Soma’—the two are taken together or conjointly; for example (a) ‘to the two together’ (as mentioned in 85 above), and ‘to Heaven and Earth conjointly’ (as mentioned in 86 above). The two mentioned here are to be treated separately, as they are not known to be companions.

‘Homestead’ means the house; and it is in the centre of the house that the offering is to be placed.—(89)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

‘Ucchīrṣake’—‘Head of the bed’ (‘Others’in Medhātithi, Nārāyaṇa and Nandana);—‘the North-East portion of the house, where the head of the Vāstupuruṣa lies’ (Govindarāja, Kullūka and Rāghavānanda);—‘the place of the head, well-known as the Devatāśaraṇa’ (the N.-E. corner of the house is what is meant).

‘Pādataḥ’—‘the lower portion of the house’ (Medhātithi);—‘the South West corner of the house, where the Vāstupuruṣa has his feet’ (Govindarāja, Kullūka and Rāghavānanda).

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Āhnika, p. 403), which explains ‘Ucchīrṣahe’ as ‘the head of the bedstead lying in the house’—and ‘Pādataḥ’ as ‘the foot-end of the bedstead in the house’, and adds that the formula to be used in making the offering should be as put in the text ‘Brahmavāstoṣpatibhyām svāhā.’

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 3.84-93)

See Comparative notes for Verse 3.84.