Paraskara-grihya-sutra

by Hermann Oldenberg | 1886 | 27,910 words

The Grihya-sutra of Paraskara, which belongs to the White Yajurveda and forms an appendix to Katyayana's Shrauta-sutra, has been edited, with a German translation. Alternative titles: Pāraskara-gṛhya-sūtra (पारस्कर-गृह्य-सूत्र), Grhya, Pāraskaragṛhyasūtra (पारस्करगृह्यसूत्र), Paraskaragrihyasutra, Paraskaragrhyasutra....

Adhyāya I, Kaṇḍikā 16

1[1]. Soṣyantīm adbhir abhyukṣaty ejatu daśamāsya iti (Vāj. Saṃh. VIII, 28) prāg yasyai to iti (ibid. 29).

2[2] Athāvarāvapatanam, avaitu pṛśni śevalaṃ śune jarāyv attave, naiva māṃsena pīvari na kasmiṃś canāyatam ava jarāyu padyatām iti.

3. When the boy is born, he performs for him, before the navel-string is cut off, the medhājanana (production of intelligence) and the āyuṣya (rite for procuring long life).

4[3]. (The medhājanana is performed in the following way:) With his fourth finger and with (an instrument of) gold he gives (to the child) honey and ghee, or ghee (alone), to eat with (the formulas), 'Bhūḥ I put into thee; bhuvaḥ I put into thee; svaḥ I put into thee. Bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ everything I put into thee.'

5. He then performs the āyuṣya.

6. Near his navel or his right ear he murmurs: 'Agni is long-lived; through the trees he is long-lived. By that long life I make thee long-lived.

'Soma is long-lived; through the herbs he is, &c.

'The Brahman is long-lived; through the Brāhmaṇas it is, &c.

'The gods are long-lived; through ambrosia (amṛta) they are, &c.

'The Ṛṣis are long-lived; through their observances they are, &c.

'The Fathers are long-lived; through the Svadhā oblations (or oblations made to the Manes) they are, &c.

'Sacrifice is long-lived; through sacrificial fee it is, &c.

'The ocean is long-lived; through the rivers it is long-lived. By that long life I make thee long-lived;'

7. And three times the verse, 'The threefold age' (Vāj. Saṃh. III, 62).

8. If he desires, 'May he live his full term of life,' he should touch him with the Vātsapra hymn (Vāj. Saṃh. XII, 18-29).

9. From the Anuvāka beginning with 'From heaven' (XII, 18 seqq.) he omits the last Ṛc (XII, 29).

10. Having placed five Brāhmaṇas towards the (five) regions, he should say to them, 'Breathe ye upon this (child).'

11[4]. The (Brāhmaṇa placed) to the east should say, Up-breathing!

12. The one to the south, 'Back-breathing!'

13. The one to the west, 'Down-breathing!'

14. The one to the north, 'Out-breathing!'

15. The fifth one, looking upwards, should say, 'On-breathing!'

16. Or (the father) may do that himself, going round (his child), if he can find no (Brāhmaṇas).

17[5]. He recites over the place at which (the child) is born: 'I know, O earth, thy heart that dwells in heaven, in the moon. That I know; may it know me. May we see a hundred autumns; may we live a hundred autumns; may we hear a hundred autumns.'

18[6]. He then touches him with (the verse), 'Be a stone, be an axe, be imperishable gold. Thou indeed art the Self called son; thus live a hundred autumns.'

19[7]. He then recites over his mother (the verse), 'Thou art Iḍā, the daughter of Mitra and Varuṇa; thou strong woman hast born a strong son. Be thou blessed with strong children, thou who hast blessed us with a strong son.'

20. He then washes her right breast, and gives it to the child with (the verse), 'This breast' (Vāj. Saṃh. XVII, 87);

21[8]. The left (breast) with (the verse), 'Thy breast which' (ibid. XXXVIII, 5)—with these two (verses).

22. He puts down a pot of water near her head with (the verse), 'O waters, you watch with the gods. As you watch with the gods, thus watch over this mother who is confined, and her child.'

23[9]. Having established near the door the fire that has been kept from (the wife's) confinement, he throws into that fire at the time of the morning and evening twilight, until (the mother) gets up (from childbed), mustard seeds mixed with rice chaff (pronouncing the following names of demons and goblins): 'May Śaṇḍa and Marka, Upavīra, Śauṇḍikeya, Ulūkhala, Malimluca, Droṇāsa, Cyavana vanish hence. Svāhā!

'May Ālikhat, Animiṣa, Kiṃvadanta, Upaśruti, Haryakṣa, Kumbhin, Śatru, Pātrapāṇi, Nṛmaṇi, Hantrīmukha, Sarshapāruṇa, Cyavana vanish hence. Svāhā!'

24[10]. If (the demon bringing disease) Kumāra attacks the boy, the father covers him with a net or with an upper garment, takes him on his lap, and murmurs: Kūrkura, Sukūrkura, Kūrkura, who holds fast children. Cet! cet! doggy! let him loose. Reverence be to thee, the Sīsara, barker, bender.

'That is true that the gods have given a boon to thee. Hast thou then chosen even this boy?

'Cet! cet! doggy! let him loose. Reverence be to thee, the Sīsara, barker, bender.

'That is true that (the divine she-dog) Saramā is thy mother, Sīsara thy father, the black and the speckled (two dogs of Yama) thy brothers.

'Cet! cet! doggy! let him loose. Reverence be to thee, the Sīsara, barker, bender.'

25. He then touches (the boy) with (the words), 'He does not suffer, he does not cry, he is not stiff, he is not sick, when we speak to him and when we touch him.'

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

16, 1. Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa XIV, 9, 4, 22.

[2]:

Atharva-veda I, II, 4.

[3]:

Comp. Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa XIV, 9, 4, 23 seqq. (Bṛhad Āraṇyaka VI, 4, 24 seqq.; S.B.E., XV, 222 seq.). The text has anāmikayā suvarṇāntarhitayā, which literally is: with the nameless (or fourth) finger, between which (and the food) gold has been put.

[4]:

11 seqq. In translating the technical terms for the different kinds of breath, I adopt the expressions chosen by Professor Max Müller, S.B.E., XV, 94. As to the whole rite, comp. Śatap. Br. XI, 8, 3, 6.

[5]:

Comp. above, I, 11, 9. The comparison of the parallel Mantra leaves scarcely any doubt that veda (the first word of the verse) is the first, not the third person, and bhūmi the vocative case. Compare the vocative darvi of the Vāj. Saṃhitā, while the Atharva-veda has darve. Lanman, Noun-Inflection, p. 390.

[6]:

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa XIV, 9, 4, 26; Āśvalāyana I, 15, 3.

[7]:

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa l.l. § 27. Comp. Professor Max Müller's note, S.B.E., XV, 223 seq.

[8]:

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa l.1. § 28.

[9]:

On the sūtikāgni, comp. Śatap. Br. l.l. § 23; Śāṅkhāyana-Gṛhya I, 25, 4, &c.

[10]:

Kūrkura seems to me, and this is also Professor Stenzler's p. 297 opinion, identical with kurkura, kukkura ('dog'). The Petersburg Dictionary explains it, 'Name eines die Kinder bedrohenden Dämons (vielleicht eine Personification des Hustens).'

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