Adhyāya I, Khaṇḍa 24

1^[1]. Now the Gātakarman (i.e. ceremony for the new-born child).

2^[2]. Let (the father) breathe three times on the new-born child and then draw in his breath with the words, 'Draw in your breath with the Ṛc, breathe within with the Yajus, breathe forth with the Sāman.'

3. Let him mix together butter and honey, milk curds and water, or grind together rice and barley, and give it to eat (to the child) thrice from gold (i.e. from a golden vessel or with a golden spoon),

4. With (the verse), 'I administer to thee honey food for the festival, the wisdom ("veda") raised by Savitar the bountiful; long-living, protected by the gods, live a hundred autumns in this world, N.N.!'(with these words) he gives him a name beginning with a sonant, with a semivowel in it, consisting of two syllables, or of four syllables, or also of six syllables; he should take a kṛt (suffix), not a taddhita.

5. That (name only) his father and his mother should know.

6. On the tenth day a name for common use, which is pleasing to the Brāhmaṇas.

7. Let him pulverise black and white and red hairs of a black ox, intermix (that powder) with those four substances (see Sūtra 3), and give it to eat (to the child) four times: such (is the opinion of) Māṇḍūkeya.

8^[3]. If he likes (let him do so) with the words, 'Bhūḥ! The Rig-veda I lay into thee, N.N., svāhā!

'Bhuvaḥ! The Yajur-veda I lay into thee, N.N., svāhā!

'Svaḥ! The Sāma-veda I lay into thee, N.N., svāhā!

'Bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ! Vākovākya (colloquies), Itihāsa, and Purāṇa—Om! All the Vedas I lay into thee, N.N., svāhā!'

9. The production of intelligence (is performed) by thrice saying in his right ear, 'Speech!'

10. And let him recite over (the child the following text), 'Speech, the goddess, united with mind, together with breath, the child, uttered by Indra—may she rejoice in thee, the goddess, for the sake of joy, the great one, the sweet sounding, the music, full of music, the flowing, self-produced.'

11. Let him tie a piece of gold to a hempen string,

12^[4]. And bind it to (the child's) right hand until (the mother) gets up (from childbed).

13. After the tenth day let him give it to the Brāhmaṇas,

14. Or keep it himself.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

24, 1. Comp. Dr. Speijer's essay on the Jātakarman (Leiden, 1872). Nārāyaṇa observes that, as it is prescribed below (chap. 25, 4) that a mess of food is to be cooked in the sūtikāgni, here the sūtikāgni is established, and sacrifice is performed therein. The Sūtra I, 25, 4, from which it is to be inferred that the sūtikāgni should be kept, is considered, accordingly, as a Jñāpaka (see Professor Bühler's notes on Āpastamba I, II, 7; Gautama p. 50 I, 31; Nārāyaṇa's note on chap. 25, 4, p. 133 of the German edition).

[2]:

Abhyavānya should be corrected into abhyapānya, as in IV, 18, 1 nearly all the MSS. read nivāta instead of nipāta. The Śāmbavya MS. reads in the text, trir abhyānyānuprāṇya; in the commentary trir aṇyapāṇyānuprāṇyā. Comp., on the terminology of the different vital airs, Speijer, Jātakarma, p. 64 seq.; Eggeling, S.B.E., vol. xii, p. 20.

[3]:

Veti vikalpārthe. bhūr ṛgvedam ityādicaturbhir mantrair asāv ity atra pūrveva (read pūrvavat?) kumāranāmagrahaṇapūrvakaṃ kumāraṃ prāśayet. Nārāyaṇa.

[4]:

Bālasya dakṣiṇe haste. Nārāyaṇa.