Adhyāya I, Kaṇḍikā 14

1. Now the Puṃsavana (i.e. the ceremony to secure the birth of a male child),

2. Before (the child in his mother's womb) moves, in the second or third month (of pregnancy).

3^[1]. On a day on which the moon stands in conjunction with a Nakṣatra (that has a name) of masculine gender, on that day, after having caused (his wife) to fast, to bathe, and to put on two garments which have not yet been washed, and after having in the night-time crushed in water descending roots and shoots of a Nyagrodha tree, he inserts (that into her right nostril) as above, with the two (verses),

'The gold-child' (Vāj. Saṃh. XIII, 4) and 'Formed of water' (ibid. XXXI, 17);

4^[2]. A Kuśa needle and a Soma stalk, according to some (teachers).

5^[3]. And he puts gall of a tortoise on her lap.

If he desires; 'May (the son) become valiant,' he recites over him (i.e. over the embryo), modifying the rite (?), 'The Suparṇa art thou' (Vāj. Saṃh. XII, 4), (the Yajus) before (the formulas called) 'steps of Viṣṇu.'

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

14, 3. The words 'as above' refer to chap. 13, 1.

[2]:

Comp. Śāṅkhāyana-Gṛhya I, 20, 3.

[3]:

The commentators state that kūrmapitta (gall of tortoise) means 'a dish with water.' I place no confidence in this statement, though I cannot show at present what its origin is. I am not sure about the translation of vikṛtyā (or vikṛtya?). But it seems impossible to me that it should be the name of the metre Vikṛti. 'Steps of Viṣṇu' is a name for the Yajus following in the Saṃhitā on the one prescribed in this Sūtra. It begins, 'Viṣṇu’s step art thou, &c.' (Vāj. Saṃh. XII, 5).