Sankhayana-grihya-sutra
by Hermann Oldenberg | 1886 | 37,785 words
The Grihya-sutra ascribed to Shankhayana, which has been edited and translated into German in the XVth volume of the "Indische Studien", is based on the first of the four Vedas, the Rig-veda in the Bashkala recension, and among the Brahmana texts, on the Kaushitaka. Alternative titles: Śāṅkhāyana-gṛhya-sūtra (शाङ्खायन-गृह्य-सूत्र), Shank...
Adhyāya II, Khaṇḍa 12
1[1]. After (the student) has eaten something in the morning, in the afternoon, to the north-east—
2. Having sacrificed, the teacher then asks him with regard to those deities to whom he has been given in charge (see above, chap. 3, 1), 'Hast thou fulfilled the duties of holiness before Agni, Indra, the Sun, and the Viśve devās?'
3. If he answers, 'I have fulfilled them, sir!'—
4. The teacher three times envelops, from the left to the right, with a fresh garment the face (of the student) who is standing behind the fire, in front of the teacher, with his face to the east.
5[2]. He turns the skirt (of that garment) upwards so that it cannot slip down,
6[3]. (And says) 'Leaving off for three days the putting on of fuel, the going for alms, the sleeping on the ground, and the obedience to the teacher, fast in the forest, in a god's house or in a place where Agnihotra is performed, keeping silence, with earnest care.'
7. Here some (teachers) prescribe the same observances only for one night, during which he is to stand.
8[4]. The teacher refrains from eating flesh and from sexual intercourse.
9. When those three days or that night has elapsed, going out from the village he shall avoid to look at the following (persons or things) that form impediments for the study (of the Veda):
10[5]. Raw flesh, a Caṇḍāla, a woman that has lately been confined, or that has her courses, blood, persons whose hands have been cut off, cemeteries, and all sorts of corpse-like (animals?) which enter (their dens?) with the mouth first (?), keeping them away from the place where he dwells.
11. Going out (from the village) in a north-eastern direction the teacher sits down on a clean spot. turning his face to the east.
12[6]. When the sun has risen, he recites, in the way prescribed for the Veda-study, (the Āraṇyaka texts to the student) who is to keep silence and who wears a turban.
13[7]. This rule is to be observed only for the Mahānāmnī verses.
14. At the sections however that follow (after the Mahānāmnīs) the other one hears while the teacher recites them for himself.
15. He gives (to the teacher) the turban, a vessel, a good cow.
16. (The teacher accepts the gifts) with the verses,
'Thou him' (Rig-veda I, 18, 5), and, 'High in the sky' (Rig-veda X, 107, 2), or (he accepts them) all with the Praṇava (i.e. the syllable Om).
17. Here some prepare a mess of rice for the Viśve devās at all sections (of the Āraṇyaka);
18[8]. For the gods to whom he has been given in charge, according to Māṇḍūkeya.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
12, 1 seq. The Indian tradition (with the exception only, as far as is known to me, of the Śāmbavya commentary) refers the ceremonies described in this chapter, like those treated of in chap. 11, as well to the Śukriya as to the Śākvara and the other Vratas. This is not correct. The eleventh chapter gives the rites common to the four Vratas; the Śukriya vrata is connected with no special ceremonies beside those, so that the exposition of this Vrata is brought to an end in that chapter. The last Sūtra of chap. 11 marks the transition to the special rites which are peculiar to the three other Vratas, and are connected with the character of mystical secrecy attributed to the Āraṇyaka, and thus it is with the exclusion of the Sukriya that the twelfth chapter refers only to those Vratas. The difference which we have pointed out between the two chapters finds its characteristic expression in Sūtras 9 and 11 of chap. 11, compared with chap. 12, 13. 14; in the former Sūtras the statements there given are expressly extended to the Sukriya, the Śākvara, the Vrātika, and the Aupaniṣada, while in the latter passage mention is made first of the Mahānāmnīs, i.e. the text corresponding to the Śākvara vrata, and then the uttarāṇi prakaraṇāni (the following sections) are referred to, i.e. the Mahāvrata and the Upaniṣad, so that the Sukriya vrata or the texts, the study of which is entered upon by that Vrata, are left out here.
[2]:
Nārāyaṇa: Vastrasya daśāḥ prāntabhāga[m] upaṛṣṭāt kṛtvā tathā badhnīyād yathā na sambhraśyeta adhastān na patati tathā vidheyaṃ.
[3]:
The things which the student here is ordered to leave off for three days are the same that are mentioned above, chap. 6, 8, as his standing duties. According to Nārāyaṇa this would be the Ādeśa mentioned in chap. II, 13.
[4]:
Comp. chap. II, 6.
[5]:
With Sūtikā is meant a woman during the first ten days after her confinement, for which period the aśauca lasts.—Apahasta is rendered by Nārāyaṇa by chinnahasta; the comment on the Śāmbavya-Gṛhya mentions āyudhāṅkitahastāṃś ca. The translation of the last words of this Sūtra (sarvāṇi ca śavarūpāṇi yāny āsye na [or āsyena?] praviśeyuḥ svasya vāsān nirasan) is absolutely uncertain. Nārāyaṇa says that such animals as lions, serpents, &c. are designated in common use as śavarūpāṇi. (This literally means, 'having the form of a corpse.' Immediately afterwards Nārāyaṇa gives a nearly identical explanation of śavarūpa as different from the one stated first. So perhaps we may conjecture that his first explanation rests on a reading sarparūpāṇi; comp. the reading sarvarūpa of Pāraskara.) Of these the animals entering their dwelling-places with the mouth first (āsyena) are to be understood here as forming, when looked at, an impediment for the study. Nārāyaṇa then says that other authorities understand śava in the sense of a dead human body; then śavarūpāṇi are beings having the form thereof (tadrūpāṇi), such as dogs, jackals, &c. The words yāny āsyena praviśeyuḥ signify that the study is impeded also on the sight of lions, tigers, &c.; for these enter their dwelling-places with their faces first (? anumukhaiḥ kṛtvā). The words svasya vāsān nirasan mean, p. 82 according to Nār., 'when he—i.e. the teacher—goes out of his dwelling-place.' Rāmacandra says that śavarūpa either means lions, snakes, and other dangerous animals, or nails, horns, and other such things that fall off or are severed from the body. The text of the Śāmbavya MS. is sarvāṇi ca śyāmarūpāṇi yāvānyā (?) praviśeyuḥ, which the commentary explains, sarvāṃś ca bhakṣyavargāṃś ca. I think there can be little doubt that the text of Śāṅkhāyana is correct (except that some doubt will remain as to āsyena or āsye na), the more so as the passage reoccurs, nearly identically, below at VI, 1, 4. 5. As to the translation we can only go so far as to venture the opinion that the Śāṅkhāyana text does not admit the interpretation given by Jayarāma, and accepted by Professor Stenzler (who compares Āpastamba I, 11, 27; Gautama XVI, 41) in Pāraskara II, 11, 3 for sarvarūpa, which consequently should, in our opinion, be rejected also in that passage of Pāraskara. For ascertaining the true meaning of śavarūpa we shall have to wait until new parallel passages have been discovered.
[6]:
The rules for the Anuvācana have been given above in chap. 7.
[7]:
The Mahānāmnī verses are given in the fourth Āraṇyaka of the Aitareyinas. See Sacred Books of the East, I, p. xliii.
[8]:
Comp. the second Sūtra of this chapter.