1

Āśvalayana Grihya Sutra

Translated by Hermann Oldenberg

INTRODUCTION
MOST of the questions referring to the Grihya-sūtra of Āśvalāyana will be treated of
more conveniently in connection with the different subjects which we shall have to
discuss in our General Introduction to the Grihya-sūtras. Here I wish only to call
attention to a well-known passage of Shadgurusishya, in which that commentator
gives some statements on the works composed by Āśvalāyana and by his teacher
Saunaka. As an important point in that passage has, as far as I can see, been
misunderstood by several eminent scholars, I may perhaps be allowed here to try and
correct that misunderstanding, though the point stands in a less direct connection with
the Grihya-sūtra than with another side of the literary activity of Āśvalāyana.
Shadgurusishya1 before speaking of Āśvalāyana, makes the following statements with
regard to Āśvalāyana's teacher, Saunaka. 'There was,' he says, 'the Sākala Samhitā (of
the Rig-veda), and the Bāshkala Samhitā; following these two Samhitās and the
twenty-one Brāhmanas, adopting principally the Aitareyaka and supplementing it by
the other texts, he who was revered by the whole number of great Rishis composed
the first Kalpa-sūtra.' He then goes on to speak of Āśvalāyana—'Saunaka's pupil was
the venerable Āśvalāyana. He who knew everything he had learnt from that teacher,
composed a Sūtra and announced (to Saunaka that he had done so).2 Saunaka then
destroyed his own Sūtra, and determined that Āśvalāyana's Sūtra should be adopted
by the students of that Vedic Sākhā. Thus, says Shadgurusishya, there were twelve
works of Saunaka by which a correct knowledge of the Rig-veda was preserved, and
three works of Āśvalāyana. Saunaka's dasa granthās were, the five Anukramanīs, the
two Vidbānas, the Bārhaddaivata, the Prātisākhya, and a Smārta work.3 Āśvalāyana,
on the other hand, composed the Srauta-sūtra in twelve Adhyāyas, the Grihya in four
Adhyāyas, and the fourth Āranyaka: this is Āśvalāyana's great Sūtra composition.4
Here we have an interesting and important statement by which the authorship of a part
of the Aitareyāranyaka, which would thus be separated from the rest of that text, is
ascribed, not to Mahidāsa Aitareya, but to an author of what may be called the
historical period of Vedic antiquity, to Āśvalāyana.
But what is the fourth Āranyaka to which this passage refers? Is it the text which is
now set down, for instance, in Dr. Rājendralāla Mitra's edition, as the fourth
Āranyaka of the Aitareyinas?

                                                                                                               
1
See Max Müller's History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, pp. 230 seqq.; Indische Studien, I, 102.
2
This seems to me to be the meaning of sūtram kritvā nyavedayat; p. 154 the case is similar to that
where a pupil goes on his rounds for alms and announces (nivedayati) to his teacher what he has
received. Prof. Max Müller translates these words differently; according to him they mean that
Āśvalāyana 'made a Sūtra and taught it.'
3
Comp. Prof. Bühler's article in the Journal As. Soc. of Bengal, 1866, pp. 149 seqq.
4
Dvādasādhyāyakam sūtram katushkam grihyam eva ka katurthāranyakam keti hy
Āśvalāyanasūtrakam.
   2  

Before we give an answer to this question, attention must be called to other passages
referring, as it could seem, to another part, namely, the fifth part of the Āranyaka.
Sāyana, in his great commentary on the Rig-veda, very frequently quotes the
pañkamāranyaka as belonging to Saunaka. Thus in vol. i, p. 112, ed. Max Müller, he
says: pañkamāranyaka aushnihatrikāsītir iti khande Saunakena sūtritam
surūpakritnum ūtaya iti trīny endra sānasim rayim iti dve iti. There is indeed in the
fifth Āranyaka a chapter beginning with the words aushnihi trikāsītih, in which the
words quoted by Sāyana occur.5 Similar quotations, in which the fifth Āranyaka is
assigned to Saunaka, are found in Sāyana's commentary on the Āranyaka itself; see,
for instance, p. 97, line 19, p. 116, line 3.
Thus it seems that the authorship of both the fourth and the fifth Āranyaka was
ascribed to teachers belonging to the Sūtra period of Vedic literature, viz. to Saunaka
and to Āśvalāyana respectively. And so we find the case stated by both Professor
Weber and Dr. Rāgendralāla Mitra, in the Introduction to his edition of the Aitareya
Āranyaka.6
But we must ask ourselves: Are the two books of the Āranyaka collection, ascribed to
those two authors, really two different books? It is a surprising fact that
Shadgurusishya, while speaking of Āśvalāyana's authorship of the fourth book, and
while at the same time intending, as he evidently does, to give a complete list of
Saunaka's compositions, does not mention the fifth Āranyaka among the works of that
author. In order to account for this omission the conjecture seems to suggest itself that
Shadgurusishya, when speaking of the fourth Āranyaka as belonging to Āśvalāyana,
means the same work which Sāyana sets down as the fifth, and which he ascribes to
Saunaka. At first sight this conjecture may seem perhaps rather hazardous or
unnatural; however I believe that, if we compare the two texts themselves which are
concerned, we shall find it very probable and even evident. What do those two
Āranyaka books contain? The fourth is very short: it does not fill more than one page
in the printed edition. Its contents consist exclusively of the text of the Mahānāmnī or
Sakvarī verses, which seem to belong to a not less remote antiquity than the average
of the Rig-veda hymns. They can indeed be considered as forming part of the Rig-
veda Samhitā, and it is only on account of the peculiar mystical holiness ascribed to
these verses, that they were not studied in the village but in the forest,7 and were
consequently received not into the body of the Samhitā itself, but into the Āranyaka.
They are referred to in all Brāhmana texts, and perhaps we can even go so far as to
pronounce our opinion that some passages of the Rig-veda hymns themselves allude
to the Sakvarī verses:
yak khakvarīshu brihatā ravenendre sushmam adadhātā Vasiṣṭhāh
(Rig-veda VII, 33, 4).
rikām tvah posham āste pupushvān jāyatram tvo jāyati sakvarīshu
(Rig-veda 10:71, 11).

                                                                                                               
5
See p. 448 of Dr. Rāgendralāla Mitra's edition in the Bibliotheca Indica.
6
P. 11: If this assumption be admitted, the proper conclusion to be arrived at would also be that the
whole of the fifth Book belongs to Saunaka, and the whole of the fourth Book to Āśvalāyana. P. 12:
The writings of both Āśvalāyana and Saunaka which occur in the Āranyaka, etc.
7
See Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya II, 12, 13.
   3  

So much for the fourth Āranyaka. The fifth contains a description of the Mahāvrata
ceremony. To the same subject also the first book is devoted, with the difference that
the first book is composed in the Brāhmana style, the fifth in the Sūtra style.8
Now which of these two books can it be that Shadgurusishya reckons as belonging to
the 'Āśvalāyanasūtraka?' It is impossible that it should be the fourth, for the
Mahānāmnī verses never were considered by Indian theologians as the work of a
human author; they shared in the apaurusheyatva of the Veda, and to say that they
have been composed by Āśvalāyana, would be inconsistent with the most firmly
established principles of the literary history of the Veda both as conceived by the
Indians and by ourselves. And even if we were to admit that the Mahānāmnī verses
can have been assigned, by an author like Shadgurusishya, to Āśvalāyana,—and we
cannot admit this,—there is no possibility whatever that he can have used the
expression 'Āśvalāyanasūtrakam' with regard to the Mahānāmnīs; to apply the
designation of a Sūtra to the Mahānāmnī hymn would be no less absurd than to apply
it to any Sūkta whatever of the Rik-Samhitā. On the other hand, the fifth book of the
Āranyaka is a Sūtra; it is the only part of the whole body of the Āranyaka collection
which is composed in the Sūtra style. And it treats of a special part of the Rig-veda
ritual the rest of which is embodied in its entirety, with the omission only of that very
part, in the two great Sūtras of Āśvalāyana. There seems to me, therefore, to be little
doubt as to the fifth Āranyaka really being the text referred to by Shadgurusishya,
though I do not know how to explain his setting down this book as the fourth. And I
may add that there is a passage, hitherto, as far as I know, unnoticed, in Sāyana's
Sāma-veda commentary, in which that author directly assigns the fifth Āranyaka not,
as in the Rig-veda commentary, to Saunaka, but to Āśvalāyana. Sāyana there says9:—
yathā bahvrikām adhyāpakā mahāvrataprayogapratipādakam Āśvalāyananirmitam
kalpasūtram aranye’dhīyamānāh pañkamam āranyakam iti vedatvena vyavaharanti.
Instead of asserting, therefore, that of the two last Āranyakas of the Aitareyinas the
one is ascribed to Saunaka, the other to Āśvalāyana, we must state the case otherwise:
not two Āranyakas were, according to Sāyana and Shadgurusishya, composed by
those Sūtrakāras, but one, viz. the fifth, which forms a sort of supplement to the great
body of the Sūtras of that Karana, and which is ascribed either to Saunaka or to
Āśvalāyana. Perhaps further research will enable us to decide whether that Sūtra
portion of the Āranyaka, or we may say quite as well, that Āranyaka portion of the
Sūtra, belongs to the author of the Srauta-sūtra, or should be considered as a remnant
of a more ancient composition, of which the portion studied in the forest has survived,
while the portion which was taught in the village was superseded by the more recent
Āśvalāyana-sūtra.
There would be still many questions with which an Introduction to Āśvalāyana would
have to deal; thus the relation between Āśvalāyana and Saunaka, which we had
intended to treat of here with reference to a special point, would have to be further
                                                                                                               
8
Thus Sāyana, in his note on V, 1, 1, says: Nanu prathamāranyake’pi atha mahāvratam Indro vai
Vritram hatvetyādinā mahāvrataprayogo’bhihitah, pañkame’pi tasyaivābhidhāne punaruktih syāt.
nāyam doshah, sūtrabrāhmanarūpena tayor vibhedāt. pañkamāranyakam rishiproktam sūtram,
prathamāranyakan tv apaurusheyam brāhmanam. ata eva tatrārthavādaprapañkena sahitā vidhayah
srūyante, pañkame tu na ko py arthavādo’sti … aranya evaitad adhyeyam ity abhipretyādhyetāra
āranyakande’ntarbhāvyādhīyate.
9
Sāma-veda (Bibl. Indica), vol. i, p. 19.
   4  

discussed with regard to several other of its bearings, and the results which follow
therefrom as to the position of Āśvalāyana in the history of Vedic literature would
have to be stated. But we prefer to reserve the discussion of these questions for the
General Introduction to the Grihya-sūtras.
   5  

Ā
ĀSSV
VAAL
LĀĀY
YAAN
NAA--G
GRRIIH
HYYA
A--SSU
UTTR
RAA..
ADHYĀYA I, KAṆḌIKĀ 1.

1. The (rites) based on the spreading (of the three sacred fires) have been declared; we
shall declare the Grihya (rites).10
2. There are three (kinds of) Pākayajñas, the hutas, (i.e. the sacrifices) offered over
the fire; over something that is not the fire, the prahutas; and at the feeding of
Brāhmanas, those offered in the Brahman.11
3. And they quote also Rikas, 'He who with a piece of wood or with an oblation, or
with knowledge ("veda").'12
4. Even he who only puts a piece of wood (on the fire) full of belief, should think,
'Here I offer a sacrifice; adoration to that (deity)!'13
(The Rik quoted above then says), 'He who with an oblation'—and, 'He who with
knowledge;' even by learning only satisfaction is produced (in the gods).
Seeing this the Rishi has said, 'To him who does not keep away from himself the
cows, to him who longs for cows, who dwells in the sky, speak a wonderful word,
sweeter than ghee and honey.' Thereby he means, 'This my word, sweeter than ghee
and honey, is satisfaction (to the god); may it be sweeter.'
(And another Rishi says), 'To thee, O Agni, by this Rik we offer an oblation prepared
by our heart; may these be oxen, bulls, and cows.' (Thereby he means), 'They are my
oxen, bulls, and cows (which I offer to the god), they who study this text, reciting it
for themselves (as their Svādhyāya).'
(And further on the Rik quoted above says), 'He who (worships Agni) with adoration,
offering rich sacrifices.' 'Verily also by the performing of adoration (the gods may be
worshipped); for the gods are not beyond the performing of adoration; adoration
verily is sacrifice'—thus runs a Brāhmana.

                                                                                                               
10
The spreading (vitāna or, as it is also called, vihāra or vistāra) of the sacred fires is the taking of two
of the three sacrificial fires, the Āhavanīya fire and the Dakṣināgni, out of the Gārhapatya fire (see, for
instance, Weber's Indische Studien, IX, 216 seq.). The rites based on, or connected with the vitāna; are
the rites forming the subject of the Srauta ritual, which are to be performed with the three fires.
11
Comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 5, 1; I, 10, 7. The division here is somewhat different from that given
by Sāṅkhāyana; what Sāṅkhāyana calls ahuta, is here prahuta ('sacrificed up'); the prahutas of
Sāṅkhāyana form here no special category; the prāsitas of Sāṅkhāyana are the brahmani hutās of
Āśvalāyana. Thus Āśvalāyana has three categories, while Sāṅkhāyana (and quite in the same way
Pāraskara I, 4, 1) gives four. Nārāyana mentions as an example of prahuta sacrifices the baliharana
prescribed below, I, 2, 3.
12
Rig-veda VIII, 19, 5, The mortal who with a piece of wood, or with an oblation, or with knowledge
worships Agni, who with adoration (worships him) offering rich sacrifices,' &c.
13
The words of the Rik, 'with an oblation,' are here repeated, the Vedic instrumental āhutī being
replaced and explained by the regular form āhutyā.
The following Rik is taken from the eighth Mandala, 24, 20. The god compared there with a rutting
bull is Indra.
The following verse is Rig-veda VI, 16, 47; we may doubt as to the correctness of the explanation
given in our text, by which te te is referred to the persons studying the hymns of the Rishi. All these
quotations of course are meant to show that the knowledge of the Veda and the performing of namas
(adoration) is equivalent to a real sacrifice.
   6  

KAṆḌIKĀ. 2.

1. Now he should make oblations in the evening and in the morning of prepared
sacrificial food,14
2. To the deities of the Agnihotra, to Soma Vanaspati, to Agni and Soma, to Indra and
Agni, to Heaven and Earth, to Dhanvantari, to Indra, to the Viśve devās, to
Brahman.15
3. He says Svāhā, and then he offers the Balis16:—
4. To those same deities, to the waters, to the herbs and trees, to the house, to the
domestic deities, to the deities of the ground (on which the house stands),
5. To Indra and Indra's men, to Yama and Yama's men, to Varuna and Varuna's men,
to Soma and Soma's men—these (oblations he makes) to the different quarters (of the
horizon, of which those are the presiding deities).17
6. To Brahman and Brahman's men in the middle,
7. To the Viśve devās, to all day-walking beings—thus by day;
8. To the night-walking (beings)—thus at night.
9. To the Rakṣas—thus to the north.
10. Svadhā to the Ancestors (i.e. Manes)'—with these words he should pour out the
remnants to the south, with the sacrificial cord suspended over the right shoulder.

KAṆḌIKĀ 3.

1. Now wherever he intends to perform a sacrifice, let him besmear (with cowdung) a
surface of the dimension at least of an arrow on each side; let him draw six lines
thereon, one turned to the north, to the west (of the spot on which the fire is to be
placed); two (lines) turned to the east, at the two different ends (of the line mentioned
first); three (lines) in the middle (of those two); let him sprinkle that (place with
water), establish the (sacred) fire (thereon), put (two or three pieces of fuel) on it,
wipe (the ground) round (the fire), strew (grass) round (it), to the east, to the south, to

                                                                                                               
14
This is the Vaisvadeva sacrifice; comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya II, 14, &C.
15
The deities of the Agnihotra are Sūrya, Agni, and Prajāpati. On Soma Vanaspati see the quotations
given in Böhtlingk-Roth's Dictionary s. v. vanaspati, 2.
16
I think the division of the Sūtras should be altered, so that svāheti would belong to Sūtra 2, and the
third Sūtra would consist only of the words atha baliharanam. In this case we should have to translate,
(1) Now he should make oblations, &c.
(2) With the words, 'To the deities of the Agnihotra (i.e. to Agni, to Sūrya, to Prajāpati), to
Soma Vanaspati, &c., svāhā!'
(3) Then (follows) the offering of the Balis.
Comp. Sāṅkh.-Grihya II, 14, 4. 5, which passage seems to confirm the view expressed here.
17
Manu III, 87.
   7  

the west, to the north, ending (each time) in the north. Then (follows) silently the
sprinkling (of water) round (the fire).18
2. With two (Kuśa blades used as) strainers the purifying of the Ājya (is done).
3. Having taken two Kuśa blades with unbroken tops, which do not bear a young
shoot in them, of the measure of a span, at their two ends with his thumbs and fourth
fingers, with his hands turned with the inside upwards, he purifies (the Ājya, from the
west) to the east, with (the words), 'By the impulse of Savitri I purify thee with this
uninjured purifier, with the rays of the good sun'—once with this formula, twice
silently.19
4. The strewing (of grass) round (the fire) may be done or not done in the Ājya
offerings.20
5. So also the two Ājya portions (may optionally be sacrificed) in the Pākayajñas.21
6. And the (assistance of a) Brahman (is optional), except at the sacrifice to
Dhanvantari and at the sacrifice of the spit-ox (offered to Rudra).22
7. Let him sacrifice with (the words), 'To such and such a deity svāhā!'23
8. If there is no rule (as to the deities to whom the sacrifice belongs, they are) Agni,
Indra, Prajāpati, the Viśve devās, Brahman.
9. (Different Pākayajñas, when) offered at the same time, should have the same
Barhis (sacrificial grass), the same fuel, the same Ājya, and the same (oblation to
Agni) Sviṣṭakrit.24
10. With reference thereto the following sacrificial stanza is sung:
'He who has to perform (different) Pākayajñas, should offer them with the same Ājya,
the same Barhis, and the same Sviṣṭakrit, even if the deity (of those sacrifices) is not
the same.'

KAṆḌIKĀ 4.

1. During the northern course of the sun, in the time of the increasing moon, under an
auspicious Nakṣatra the tonsure (of the child's head), the initiation (of a Brahmacārin),
the cutting of the beard, and marriage (should be celebrated).25
2. According to some (teachers), marriage (may be celebrated) at any time.
3. Before those (ceremonies) let him sacrifice four Ājya oblations—
                                                                                                               
18
Comp. Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 7, 6 seq., where the statements regarding the lines to be drawn are somewhat
different, and the note there.
19
Comp. the description of this act of purifying the Ājya, which is in some points more detailed, in
Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 8, 14-21.
20
Comp. Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 8, 12.
21
On the two Ājyabhāgas offered to Agni and Soma comp. below, chap. 50, 13; Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 9, 5
seq.
22
Comp. on these exceptions the Sūtras below, I, 12, 7; IV, 8, 15.
23
Comp. Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 9, 18.
24
On the oblation to Agni Sviṣṭakrit, see Indische Studien, IX, 257.
25
. Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 5, 2-5.
   8  

4. With the three (verses), 'Agni, thou purifiest life' (Rig-veda I:10:66, 10 seq.), and
with (the one verse), 'Prajāpati, no other one than thou' (Rig-Veda 10:121, 10).
5. Or with the Vyāhritis.26
6. According to some (teachers), the one and the other.27
7. No such (oblations), according to some (teachers).28
8. At the marriage the fourth oblation with the verse, 'Thou (O Agni) art Aryaman
towards the girls' (Rig-veda V, 3, 2).

KAṆḌIKĀ 5.

1. Let him first examine the family (of the intended bride or bridegroom), as it has
been said above, 'Those who on the mother's and on the father's side.'29
2. Let him give the girl to a (young man) endowed with intelligence.
3. Let him marry a girl that shows the characteristics of intelligence, beauty, and
moral conduct, and who is free from disease.
4. As the characteristics (mentioned in the preceding Sūtra) are difficult to discern, let
him make eight lumps (of earth), recite over the lumps the following formula, 'Right
has been born first, in the beginning; on the right truth is founded. For what (destiny)
this girl is born, that may she attain here. What is true may that be seen,' and let him
say to the girl, 'Take one of these.'30
5. If she chooses the (lump of earth taken) from a field that yields two crops (in one
year), he may know, 'Her offspring will be rich in food.' If from a cow-stable, rich in
cattle. If from the earth of a Vedi (altar), rich in holy lustre. If from a pool which does
not dry up, rich in everything. If from a gambling-place, addicted to gambling. If from
a place where four roads meet, wandering to different directions. If from a barren
spot, poor. If from a burial-ground, (she will) bring death to her husband.31

KAṆḌIKĀ 6.
1. (The father) may give away the girl, having decked her with ornaments, pouring
out a libation of water: this is the wedding (called) Brāhma. A son born by her (after a

                                                                                                               
26
With the words, bhūh, bhuvah, svah, and with the three words together.
27
Thus eight oblations are offered, four with the four Rikas quoted in the fourth Sūtra, and four with
the Vyāhritis.
28
Neither the oblations with the Rikas nor those with the Vyāhritis.
29
Srauta-sūtra IX, 3, 20, 'Who on their mother's as well as p. 165 on their father's side through ten
generations are endowed with knowledge, austerity, and meritorious works,' &c.
30
I prefer the reading of the Bibliotheca Indica edition, countenanced by Nārāyana's commentary,
durvijñeyāni lakṣanānīti, &c. The lumps are to be taken from the eight places mentioned in Sūtra 5.
31
No doubt the correct reading is not that given by Nārāyana and accepted by Professor Stenzler,
dvipravrāginī, but vipravrāginī, as four of Professor Stenzler's MSS. read (see his Variae Lectiones, p.
48, and the Petersburg Dictionary s. v. vipravrāgin).
   9  

wedding of this kind) brings purification to twelve descendants and to twelve

ancestors on both (the husband's and the wife's) sides.32
2. He may give her, having decked her with ornaments, to an officiating priest, whilst
a sacrifice with the three (Srauta) fires is going on: this (is the wedding called) Daiva.
(A son) brings purification to ten descendants and to ten ancestors on both sides.33
3. They fulfil the law together: this (is the wedding called) Prājāpatya. (A son) brings
purification to eight descendants and to eight ancestors on both sides.34
4. He may marry her after having given a bull and a cow (to the girl's father): this (is
the wedding called) Ārsha. (A son) brings purification to seven descendants and to
seven ancestors on both sides.35
5. He may marry her, after a mutual agreement has been made (between the lover and
the damsel): this (is the wedding called) Gāndharva.36
6. He may marry her after gladdening (her father) by money: this (is the wedding
called) Āsura.37
7. He may carry her off while (her relatives) sleep or pay no attention: this (is the
wedding called) Paisāca.38
8. He may carry her off, killing (her relatives) and cleaving (their) heads, while she
weeps and they weep: this (is the wedding called) Rākṣasa.39

KAṆḌIKĀ 7.

1. Now various indeed are the customs of the (different) countries and the customs of
the (different) villages: those one should observe at the wedding.
2. What, however, is commonly accepted, that we shall state.
3. Having placed to the west of the fire a mill-stone, to the north-east (of the fire) a
water-pot, he should sacrifice, while she takes hold of him. Standing, with his face
turned to the west, while she is sitting and turns her face to the east, he should with
(the formula), 'I seize thy hand for the sake of happiness seize her thumb if he desires
that only male children may be born to him;40
4. Her other fingers, (if he is) desirous of female (children);

                                                                                                               
32
Comp. Vasiṣṭha I, 30; Āpastamba II, 11, 17; Baudhāyana I, 20, 2.
33
Vasiṣṭha I, 31; Āpastamba II, 11, 19; Baudhāyana I, 20, 5.
34
Baudhāyana I, 20, 3.
35
Vasiṣṭha I, 32; Āpastamba II, 11, 18; Baudhāyana I, 20, 4.
36
Vasiṣṭha I, 33; Āpastamba II, II, 20; Baudhāyana I, 20, 6.
37
Vasiṣṭha I, 35 (where this rite is designated as Mānusha); Āpastamba II, 12, 1; Baudhāyana I, 20, 7.
38
Baudhāyana I, 20, 9.
39
Vasiṣṭha I, 34 (where this rite is called Kṣātra); Āpastamba II, a 1, 2; Baudhāyana I, 20, 8. The text
of this Sūtra seems to be based on a hemistich hatvā bhittvā ka sīrshāni rudadbhyo rudatīm haret;
comp. Manu III, 33.
40
Professor Stenzler is evidently right in taking asmānam as in apposition to drishadam. Nārāyana
says, drishat prasiddhā asmā tatputrakah. tatrobhayoh pratiṣṭhāpanam siddham.
The sacrifice is that prescribed in Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 12, II. 12. Regarding the rite that follows, comp.
Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 13, 2.
   10  

5. The hand on the hair-side together with the thumb, (if) desirous of both (male and
female children).
6. Leading her three times round the fire and the water-pot, so that their right sides are
turned towards (the fire, &c.), he murmurs, 'This am I, that art thou; that art thou, this
am I; the heaven I, the earth thou; the Sāman I, the Rik thou. Come! Let us here
marry. Let us beget offspring. Loving, bright, with genial mind may we live a
hundred autumns.'41
7. Each time after he has lead her (so) round, he makes her tread on the stone with
(the words), 'Tread on this stone; like a stone be firm. Overcome the enemies; tread
the foes down.'42
8. Having 'spread under' (i.e. having first poured Ājya over her hands), her brother or
a person acting in her brother's place pours fried grain twice over the wife's joined
hands.43
9. Three times for descendants of Jamadagni.44
10. He pours again (Ājya) over (what has been left of) the sacrificial food,
11. And over what has been cut off.
12. This is the rule about the portions to be cut off.
13. 'To god Aryaman the girls have made sacrifice, to Agni; may he, god Aryaman,
loosen her from this, and not from that place, Svāhā!45
'To god Varuna the girls have made sacrifice, to Agni; may he, god Varuna, &c.
'To god Pūṣan the girls have made sacrifice, to Agni; may he, god Pūṣan, &c.'—
with (these verses recited by the bridegroom) she should sacrifice (the fried
grain) without opening her joined hands, as if (she did so) with the (spoon
called) Sruk.
14. Without that leading round (the fire, she sacrifices grain) with the neb of a basket
towards herself silently a fourth time.46
15. Some lead the bride round each time after the fried grain has been poured out:—
thus the two last oblations do not follow immediately on each other.

                                                                                                               
41
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 13, 4. 9. 13.
42
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 13, 12.
43
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 13, 15. 16.
44
The two portions of fried grain poured over the bride's hands, together with the first (upastarana) and
the second (pratyabhighārana) pouring out of Ājya, constitute the four Avattas, or portions cut off from
the Havis. The descendants of Jamadagni were pañkāvattinas, i.e. they used to cut off five such
portions (see Kātyāyana I, 9, 3; Weber, Indische Studien, X, 95); so they had to pour out the fried grain
three times.
45
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 18, 3; 13, 17; 14, 1.
46
According to those teachers whose opinion is related in Sūtras 6-14, the leading round the fire, the
treading on the stone, and the offering of fried grain (with the three parts of the Mantra, Sūtra 1 3) are
repeated thrice; then follows the offering prescribed in Sūtra 14, so that the last two offerings follow
immediately on each other. This is not the case, if in the first three instances the order of the different
rites is inverted, as stated in Sūtra 15.
In Sūtra 14 Nārāyana explains sūrpaputa by kona.
   11  

16. He then loosens her two locks of hair, if they are made, (i.e. if) two tufts of wool
are bound round her hair on the two sides,
17. With (the Rik),'I release thee from the band of Varuna' (Rig-veda 10:85, 24).
18. The left one with the following (Rik).
19. He then causes her to step forward in a northeastern direction seven steps with
(the words), 'For nourishment with one step, for health with two steps, for thriving of
wealth with three steps, for consummate bliss with four steps, for offspring with five
steps, for the seasons with six steps. Be friend with seven steps. So be thou devoted to
me. Let us acquire many sons who may reach old age!'47
20. Joining together their two heads, (the bridegroom? the Ācārya?) sprinkles them
(with water) from the water-pot.48
21. And she should dwell that night in the house of an old Brāhmana woman whose
husband is alive and whose children are alive.
22. When she sees the polar-star, the star Arundhatī, and the seven Rishis (ursa
major), let her break the silence (and say), 'May my husband live and I get
offspring.'49

KAṆḌIKĀ 8.
1. If (the newly-married couple) have to make a journey (to their new home), let him
cause her to mount the chariot with the (verse), 'May Pūṣan lead thee from here
holding thy hand' (Rig-veda 10:85, 26).50
2. With the hemistich, 'Carrying stones (the river) streams; hold fast each other' (Rig-
veda 10:53, 8) let him cause her to ascend a ship.51
3. With the following (hemistich) let him make her descend (from it).
4. (He pronounces the verse), 'The living one they bewail' (Rig-veda 10:40, 10), if she
weeps.52
5. They constantly carry the nuptial fire in front.
6. At lovely places, trees, and cross-ways let him murmur (the verse), 'May no
waylayers meet us' (Rig-veda 10:85, 32).53
7. At every dwelling-place (on their way) let him look at the lookers on, with (the
verse), 'Good luck brings this woman' (Rig-veda 10:85, 33).
8. With (the verse), 'Here may delight fulfil itself to thee through offspring' (Rig-veda
10:85, 27) he should make her enter the house.54

                                                                                                               
47
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 14, 5. 6; 13, 2; Pāraskara I, 8, 1.
48
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 14, 9; Pāraskara I, 8, 5.
49
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 17, 2 seq.; Pāraskara I, 8, 19.
50
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 15, 13.
51
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 15, try. 18.
52
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 15, 2.
53
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 15, 24.
54
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 15, 22; 16, 12.
   12  

9. Having given its place to the nuptial fire, and having spread to the west of it a bull's
hide with the neck to the east, with the hair outside, he makes oblations, while she is
sitting on that (hide) and takes hold of him, with the four (verses), 'May Prajāpati
create offspring to us' (Rig-veda 10:85, 43 seq.), verse by verse, and with (the verse),
'May all the gods unite' (Rig-veda 10:85, 47), he partakes of curds and gives (thereof)
to her, or he besmears their two hearts with the rest of the Ājya (of which he has
sacrificed).55
10. From that time they should eat no saline food, they should be chaste, wear
ornaments, sleep on the ground three nights or twelve nights;
11. Or one year, (according to) some (teachers); thus, they say, a Rishi will be born
(as their son).
12. When he has fulfilled (this) observance (and has had intercourse with his wife), he
should give the bride's shift to (the Brāhmana) who knows the Sūryā hymn (Rig-veda
10:85);56
13. 'Food to the Brāhmanas;
14. Then he should cause them to pronounce auspicious words.

KAṆḌIKĀ 9.

1. Beginning from the seizing of (the bride's) hand (i.e. from the wedding), he should
worship the domestic (fire) himself, or his wife, or also his son, or his daughter, or a
pupil.57
2. (The fire) should be kept constantly.
3. When it goes out, however, the wife should fast: thus (say) some (teachers).
4. The time for setting it in a blaze and for sacrificing in it has been explained by (the
rules given with regard to) the Agnihotra,58
5. And the sacrificial food, except meat.59
6. But if he likes he may (perform the sacrifice) with rice, barley, or sesamum.
7. He should sacrifice in the evening with (the formula), 'To Agni svāhā!' in the
morning with (the formula), 'To Sūrya svāhā!' Silently the second (oblations) both
times.

                                                                                                               
55
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 16, 1. 2.
56
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 14, 12.
57
Comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya II, 17, 3.
58
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, I, 12; Āśvalāyana-Srauta II, 2.
59
Āśvalāyana-Srauta II, 3, 1 seq. Nārāyana: By the prohibition of meat which is expressed in the words
'Except meat,' it is to be understood that the food to be sacrificed, as stated in other Sāstras, may
likewise be chosen.
   13  

KAṆḌIKĀ 10.

1. Now the oblations of cooked food on the (two) Parvan (i.e. the new and full moon)
days.
2. The fasting (which takes place) thereat has been declared by (the corresponding
rules regarding) the Darsapūrnamāsa sacrifices.
3. And (so has been declared) the binding together of the fuel and of the Barhis,60
4. And the deities (to whom those oblations belong), with the exception of the
Upāmsuyāja (offerings at which the formulas are repeated with low voice), and of
Indra and Mahendra.61
5. Other deities (may be worshipped) according to the wishes (which the sacrificer
connects with his offerings).
6. For each single deity he pours out four handsful (of rice, barley, &c.), placing two
purifiers (i.e. Kuśa blades, on the vessel), with (the formula), 'Agreeable to such and
such (a deity) I pour thee out.'
7. He then sprinkles them (those four portions of Havis with water) in the same way
as he had poured them out, with (the formula), 'Agreeable to such and such (a deity) I
sprinkle thee.'
8. When (the rice or barley grains) have been husked and cleansed from the husks
three times, let him cook (the four portions) separately,
9. Or throwing (them) together.
10. If he cooks them separately, let him touch the grains, after he has separated them,
(and say,) 'This to this god; this to this god.'
11. But if he (cooks the portions) throwing (them) together, he should (touch and)
sacrifice them, after he has put (the single portions) into different vessels.
12. The portions of sacrificial food, when they have been cooked, he sprinkles (with
Ājya, takes them from the fire towards the north, places them on the Barhis, and
sprinkles the fuel with Ājya with the formula, 'This fuel is thy self, Jātavedas; thereby
burn thou and increase, and, O burning One, make us increase and through offspring,
cattle, holy lustre, and nourishment make us prosper. Svāhā!'62
13. Having silently poured out the two Āghāras (or Ājya oblations poured out with the
Sruva, the one from north-west to south-east, the other from south-west to north-east),
he should sacrifice the two Ājya portions with (the formulas), 'To Agni svāhā! To
Soma svāhā!'63—
14. The northern one belonging to Agni, the southern one to Soma.64

                                                                                                               
60
See Āśvalāyana-Srauta I, 3, 28 Scholion; Kāty.-Srauta II, 7, 22.
61
See my note on Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 3, 3.
62
In the Mantra we have a similar play upon words (iddha, p. 174 lit, or burning, and samedhaya, make
us prosper) as in Sāṅkh.-Grihya II, 10, 4.
63
Pāraskara I, 5, 3; Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 9, 5 seq.
64
Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 9, 7.
   14  

15. It is understood (in the Sruti), The two eyes indeed of the sacrifice are the Ājya
portions,65
16. 'Therefore of a man who is sitting with his face to the west the southern (i.e. right)
eye is northern, the northern (i.e. left) eye is southern.'66
17. In the middle (of the two Ājya portions he sacrifices the other) Havis, or more to
the west, finishing (the oblations) in the east or in the north.67
18. To the north-east the oblation to (Agni) Sviṣṭakrit.
19. He cuts off (the Avadāna portions) from the Havis from the middle and from the
eastern part;
20. From the middle, the eastern part and the western part (the portions have to be cut
off) by those who make five Avadānas;68
21. From the northern side the portion for Sviṣṭakrit.
22. Here he omits the second pouring (of Ājya) over (what is left of) the sacrificial
food.69
23. 'What I have done too much in this ceremony, or what I have done here too little,
all that may Agni Sviṣṭakrit, he who knows it, make well sacrificed and well offered
for me. To Agni Sviṣṭakrit, to him who offers the oblations for general expiation, so
that they are well offered, to him who makes us succeed in what we desire! Make us
in all that we desire successful! Svāhā!'70
24. He pours out the full vessel on the Barhis.71
25. This is the Avabhritha.72
26. This is the standard form of the Pākayajñas.
27. What has been left of the Havis is the fee for the sacrifice.

KAṆḌIKĀ 11.

1. Now (follows) the ritual of the animal sacrifice.

2. Having prepared to the north of the fire the place for the Sāmitra fire, having given
drink (to the animal which he is going to sacrifice), having washed the animal, having
                                                                                                               
65
Professor Stenzler here very pertinently refers to Satapatha Brāhmana I, 6, 3, 38.
66
It is doubtful whether this paragraph should be considered as forming part of the quotation from the
Sruti. The object of this passage is, in my opinion, to explain why the southern Ājyabhāga belongs to
Soma, who is the presiding deity of the north, and the northern Ājyabhāga to Agni, the presiding deity
of the south-east. Professor Stenzler's opinion about this paragraph is somewhat different.
67
Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 9, 8.
68
See above, the note on I, 7, 9 about the Avadāna portions and the peculiar custom of the descendants
of Jamadagni with regard to them.
69
Comp. above, I, 7, 10. 'Here' means, at the Sviṣṭakrit oblation.
70
Comp. Pāraskara I, 2, 11; Satapatha Brāhmana XIV, 9, 4, 24. On the oblations for general expiation
(sarvaprāyaskittāhuti) comp. Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 9, 12, and the note.
71
'A full vessel which has been put down before, he should now pour out on the Barhis.' Nārāyana.
72
This pouring out of the vessel holds here the place of the Avabhritha bath at the end of the Soma
sacrifice. See Weber, Indische Studien, X, 393 seq.
   15  

placed it to the east (of the fire) with its face to the west, having made oblations with
the two Rikas, 'Agni as our messenger' (Rig-veda I, 12, 1 seq.), let him touch (the
animal) from behind with a fresh branch on which there are leaves, with (the
formula), 'Agreeable to such and such (a deity) I touch thee.'73
3. He sprinkles it from before with water in which rice and barley are, with (the
formula), 'Agreeable to such and such (a deity) I sprinkle thee.'
4. Having given (to the animal) to drink of that (water), he should pour out the rest (of
it) along its right fore-foot.
5. Having carried fire round (it), performing that act only (without repeating a
corresponding Mantra), they lead it to the north.
6. In front of it they carry a fire-brand.74
7. This is the Sāmitra (fire).75
8. With the two Vapāsrapanī ladles76 the 'performer' touches the animal.
9. The sacrificer (touches) the performer.
10. To the west of the Sāmitra (fire) he (the Samitri) kills77 (the animal), the head of
which is turned to the east or to the west, the feet to the north; and having placed a
grass-blade on his side of the (animal's) navel, (the 'performer') draws out the
omentum, cuts off the omentum, seizes it with the two Agnisrapanīs, sprinkles it with
water, warms it at the Sāmitra (fire), takes it before that fire, roasts it, being seated to
the south, goes round (the two fires), and sacrifices it.
11. At the same fire78 they cook a mess of food.
12. Having cut off the eleven Avadānas79 (or portions which have to be cut off) from
the animal, from all its limbs, having boiled them at the Sāmitra (fire), and having
warmed the heart on a spit, let him sacrifice first from the mess of cooked food
(mentioned in Sūtra 11);
13. Or together with the Avadāna portions.

                                                                                                               
73
The Sāmitra fire (literally, the fire of the Samitri, who prepares the flesh of the immolated animal) is
the one mentioned below in Sūtras 7 and 10. Comp. Indische Studien, X, 345. 'I touch thee' is
upākaromi; comp. Kātyāyana-Srauta-sūtra VI, 3, 19. 26.
74
It seems that this fire-brand is the same which had been carried round the animal, according to Sūtra
5. Comp. Kātyāyana-Srauta-sūtra VI, 5, 2-5.
75
Comp. Sūtra 2.
76
On the two Vapāsrapanīs, comp. Kātyāyana-Srauta-sūtra VI, 5, 7; Indische Studien, X, 345. The act
which is here attributed to the kartri ('performer'), belongs in the Srauta ritual to the incumbencies of
the Pratiprasthātri.
77
On the way in which animals had to be killed at sacrifices, see Weber's Indische Studien, IX, 222
seq. On the position of the head and the feet of the victim, comp. Kātyāyana-Srauta-sūtra VI, 5, 16. 17.
According to Kātyāyana VI, 6, 8 seq. a grass-blade is placed on the dead animal's body before the
navel (agrena nābhim); through that grass-blade he cuts into the body and draws out the omentum.
'That fire' is, according to Nārāyana, not the Sāmitra but the Aupāsana fire. In the same way in the
Srauta ritual the warming of the omentum is performed at the Sāmitra, the boiling at the Āhavanīya
fire. Kātyāyana VI, 6, 13. 16.
78
The Aupāsana fire is referred to.
79
The eleven portions are indicated by Kātyāyana, Srauta-sūtra VI, 7, 6.
   16  

14. From each of the (eleven) Avadānas he cuts off two portions.80
15. They perform the rites only (without corresponding Mantras) with the heart's spit81
(i.e. the spit on which the heart had been; see Sūtra 12).

KAṆḌIKĀ 12.

1. At a Caitya sacrifice he should before the Sviṣṭakrit (offering) offer a Bali to the
Caitya.82
2. If, however, (the Caitya) is distant, (he should send his Bali) through a leaf-
messenger.83
3. With the Rik, 'Where thou knowest, O tree' (Rig-veda V, 5, 10), let him make two
lumps (of food), put them on a carrying-pole, hand them over to the messenger, and
say to him, 'Carry this Bali to that (Caitya).'84
4. (He gives him the lump) which is destined for the messenger, with (the words),
'This to thee.'
5. If there is anything dangerous between (them and the Caitya), (he gives him) some
weapon also.
6. If a navigable river is between (them and the Caitya, he gives him) also something
like a raft with (the words), 'Hereby thou shalt cross.'85
7. At the Dhanvantari sacrifice let him offer first a Bali to the Purohita, between the
Brahman and the fire.86

KAṆḌIKĀ 13.

1. The Upanishad (treats of) the Garbhalambhana, the Pumsavana, and the
Anavalobhana (i.e. the ceremonies for securing the conception of a child, the male

                                                                                                               
80
'A Pañcāvattin cuts off three portions. Having performed the Upastarana and the Pratyabhighārana
(the first and second pouring out of Ājya) he sacrifices (the cut-off portions).' Nārāyana.
81
On the rites regarding the spit, see Kātyāyana VI, 10, 1 seq.; Indische Studien, X, 346.
82
There seems to be no doubt that Professor Stenzler is right in giving to caitya in this chapter its
ordinary meaning of religious shrine ('Denkmal'). The text shows that the Caitya sacrifice was not
offered like other sacrifices at the sacrificer's home, but that in some cases the offering would have to
be sent, at least symbolically, to distant places. This confirms Professor Stenzler's translation of caitya.
Nārāyana explains caitya by citte bhava, and says, 'If he makes a vow to a certain deity, saying, "If I
obtain such and such a desire, I shall offer to thee an Ājya sacrifice, or a Sthālīpāka, or an animal"—
and if he then obtains what he had wished for and 'performs that sacrifice to that deity: this is a caitya
sacrifice.' I do not know anything that supports this statement as to the meaning of caitya.
83
'He should make of a leaf a messenger and a carrying-pole.' Nārāyana.
It is not clear whether besides this image of a messenger there was also a real messenger who had to
carry the Bali to the Caitya, p. 179 or whether the whole rite was purely symbolical, and based on the
principle: In sacris ficta pro veris accipiuntur.
84
Comp. Pāraskara III, 11, 10.
85
Pāraskara III, 11, 11,
86
Comp. above, chap. 3, 6.
   17  

gender of the child, and for preventing disturbances which could endanger the
embryo).87
2. If he does not study (that Upanishad), he should in the third month of her
pregnancy, under (the Nakṣatra) Tishya, give to eat (to the wife), after she has fasted,
in curds from a cow which has a calf of the same colour (with herself), two beans and
one barley grain for each handful of curds.88
3. To his question, 'What dost thou drink? What dost thou drink?' she should thrice
reply, 'Generation of a male child! Generation of a male child!'
4. Thus three handfuls (of curds).
5. He then inserts into her right nostril, in the shadow of a round apartment, (the sap
of) an herb which is not faded,89
6. According to some (teachers) with the Prajāvat and Jīvaputra hymns.90
7. Having sacrificed of a mess of cooked food sacred to Prajāpati, he should touch the
place of her heart with the (verse,) 'What is hidden, O thou whose hair is well parted,
in thy heart, in Prajāpati, that I know; such is my belief. May I not fall into distress
that comes from sons.'

KAṆḌIKĀ 14.

1. In the fourth month of pregnancy the Sīmantonnayana (or parting of the hair, is
performed).
2. In the fortnight of the increasing moon, when the moon stands in conjunction with
a Nakṣatra (that has a name) of masculine gender—
3. Then he gives its place to the fire, and having spread to the west of it a bull's hide
with the neck to the east, with the hair outside, (he makes oblations,) while (his wife)
is sitting on that (hide) and takes hold of him, with the two (verses), 'May Dhātri give
to his worshipper,' with the two verses, 'I invoke Rākā' (Rig-veda II, 32, 4 seq.), and
with (the texts), 'Negamesha,' and, 'Prajāpati, no other one than thou' (Rig-Veda
10:121, 10).91

                                                                                                               
87
Nārāyana evidently did not know the Upanishad here referred to; he states that it belongs to another
Sākhā. Comp. Professor Max Müller's note on Brihad Āranyaka VI, 4, 24 (S.B.E., vol. xv, p. 222).
88
'He should give her the two beans as a symbol of the testicles, and the barley grain as a symbol of the
penis.' Nārāyana.
89
Nārāyana (comp. also the Prayogaratna, folio 40; Āśvalāyanīya-Grihya-Parisiṣṭa I, 25; NIS.
Chambers 667) separates this rite from the ceremony described in Sūtras 2-4. He says that Sūtras 2-4—
as indeed is evidently the case—refer to the Pumsavana, and in Sūtra 5 begins the Anavalobhana
(comp. garbharakṣana, Sāṅkh. I, 21). To me it seems more probable that the text describes one
continuous ceremony. There is no difficulty in supposing that of the Anavalobhana, though it is
mentioned in Sūtra 1, no description is given in the following Sūtras, the same being the case
undoubtedly with regard to the Garbhalambhana, of which a description is found in the Āśv.-Parisiṣṭa I,
25.
90
Two texts commencing ā te garbho yonim etu and Agnir etu prathamah. See Stenzler's Various
Readings, p. 48, and the Bibliotheca Indica edition, p. 61.
91
Comp. above, chap. 8, 9. Regarding the two verses Dhātā dadātu dāsushe, see Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 22,
7. The Nejamesha hymn is Rig-veda Khailika sūkta, vol. vi, p. 31, ed. Max Muller.
   18  

4. He then three times parts her hair upwards (i.e. beginning from the front) with a
bunch containing an even number of unripe fruits, and with a porcupine's quill that
has three white spots, and with three bunches of Kuśa grass, with (the words), 'Bhūr
bhuvah, svar, om!'
5. Or four times.
6. He gives orders to two lute-players, 'Sing king Soma.'
7. (They sing) 'May Soma our king bless the human race. Settled is the wheel of so-
and-so.'—(here they name) the river near which they dwell.92
8. And whatever aged Brāhmana woman, whose husbands and children are alive, tell
them, that let them do.
9. A bull is the fee for the sacrifice.

KAṆḌIKĀ 15.

1. When a son has been born, (the father) should, before other people touch him, give
him to eat from gold (i.e. from a golden vessel or with a golden spoon) butter and
honey with which he has ground gold(-dust), with (the verse), 'I administer to thee the
wisdom ('veda') of honey, of ghee, raised by Savitri the bountiful. Long-living,
protected by the gods, live a hundred autumns in this world!'93
2. Approaching (his mouth) to (the child's) two ears he murmurs the 'production of
intelligence:' 'Intelligence may give to thee god Savitri, intelligence may goddess
Sarasvatī, intelligence may give to thee the two divine Asvins, wreathed with lotus.'
3. He touches (the child's) two shoulders with (the verse), 'Be a stone, be an axe, be
insuperable gold. Thou indeed art the Veda, called son; so live a hundred autumns'—
and with (the verses), 'Indra, give the best treasures' (Rig-veda 2:21, 6), Bestow on us,
O bountiful one, O speedy one' (Rig-veda 3: 36, 10).94
4. And let them give him a name beginning with a sonant, with a semivowel in it,
with the Visarga at its end, consisting of two syllables,
5. Or of four syllables;
6. Of two syllables, if he is desirous of firm position; of four syllables, if he is
desirous of holy lustre;
7. But in every case with an even number (of syllables) for men, an uneven for
women.
8. And let him also find out (for the child) a name to be used at respectful salutations
(such as that due to the Ācārya at the ceremony of the initiation); that his mother and
his father (alone) should know till his initiation.

                                                                                                               
92
Comp. Pāraskara I, 15, 8. The Gāthā there is somewhat different. I cannot see why in the Āśvalāyana
redaction of it niviṣṭacakrāsau should not be explained, conformably to the p. 182 regular Sandhi laws,
as niviṣṭakakrā asau. The wheel of course means the dominion.
93
Comp. Āśv.-Grihya-Parisiṣṭa I, 26. I follow Professor Stenzler, who corrects maghonām into
maghonā; comp. Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 24, 4.
94
Vedo may as well be the nominative of veda as that of vedas ('property').
   19  

9. When he returns from a journey, he embraces his son's head and murmurs, 'From
limb by limb thou art produced; out of the heart thou art born. Thou indeed art the self
called son; so live a hundred autumns!'—(thus) he kisses him three times on his head.
10. The rite only (without the Mantra is performed) for a girl.

KAṆḌIKĀ 16.
1. In the sixth month the Annaprāsana (i.e. the first feeding with solid food).95
2. Goat's flesh, if he is desirous of nourishment,
3. Flesh of partridge, if desirous of holy lustre,
4. Boiled rice with ghee, if desirous of splendour:
5. (Such) food, mixed with curds, honey and ghee he should give (to the child) to eat
with (the verse), 'Lord of food, give us food painless and strong; bring forward the
giver; bestow power on us, on men and animals.'
6. The rite only (without the Mantra) for a girl.

KAṆḌIKĀ 17.
1. In the third year the Caula (i.e. the tonsure of the child's head), or according to the
custom of the family.
2. To the north of the fire he places vessels which are filled respectively, with rice,
barley, beans, and sesamum seeds;
3. To the west (the boy) for whom the ceremony shall be performed, in his mother's
lap, bull-dung in a new vessel, and Samī leaves are placed.
4. To the south of the mother the father (is seated) holding twenty-one bunches of
Kuśa grass.96
5. Or the Brahman should hold them.
6. To the west of (the boy) for whom the ceremony is to be performed, (the father)
stations himself and pours cold and warm water together with (the words), 'With
warm water, O Vāyu, come hither!'
7. Taking of that (water), (and) fresh butter, or (some) drops of curds, he three times
moistens (the boy's) head, from the left to the right, with (the formula), 'May Aditi cut
thy hair; may the waters moisten thee for vigour!'
8. Into the right part (of the hair) he puts each time three Kuśa bunches, with the
points towards (the boy) himself, with (the words), 'Herb! protect him!'97

                                                                                                               
95
Comp. Sāṅkh.-Grihya I, 27, 1 seq. The two texts are nearly word for word identical.
96
He cuts off the hair four times on the right side (Sūtras 10-14), three times on the left side (Sūtra 15);
each time three Kuśa bunches are required. This is the reason why twenty-one bunches are prescribed.
97
Each of the four times and of the three times respectively that he cuts off the hair; see the preceding
note.
   20  

9. (With the words,) 'Axe! do no harm to him!' he presses a copper razor (on the Kuśa
blades),
10. And cuts (the hair) with (the verse), 'The razor with which in the beginning Savitri
the knowing one has shaved (the beard) of king Soma and of Varuna, with that, ye
Brāhmanas, shave now his (hair), that he may be blessed with long life, with old age.'
11. Each time that he has cut, he gives (the hairs) with their points to the east, together
with Samī leaves, to the mother. She puts them down on the bull-dung.
12. 'With what Dhātri has shaven (the head) of Brihaspati, Agni and Indra, for the
sake of long life, with that I shave thy (head) for the sake of long life, of glory, and of
welfare'—thus a second time.
13. 'By what he may at night further see the sun, and see it long, with that I shave thy
(head) for the sake of long life, of glory, and of welfare'—thus a third time.98
14. With all (the indicated) Mantras a fourth time.
15. Thus three times on the left side (of the head).
16. Let him wipe off the edge of the razor with (the words), 'If thou shavest, as a
shaver, his hair with the razor, the wounding, the well-shaped, purify his head, but do
not take away his life.'99
17. Let him give orders to the barber, 'With lukewarm water doing what has to be
done with water, without doing harm to him, arrange (his hair) well.'
18. Let him have the arrangement of the hair made according to the custom of his
family.100
19. The rite only (without the Mantras) for a girl.

KAṆḌIKĀ 18.
1. Thereby the Go-dāna-karman (i.e. the ceremony of shaving the beard, is declared).
2. In the sixteenth year.
3. Instead of the word 'hair' he should (each time that it occurs in the Mantras) put the
word 'beard.'
4. Here they moisten the beard.101
5. (The Mantra is), 'Purify his head and his face, but do not take away his life.'102
6. He gives orders (to the barber with the words), 'Arrange his hair, his beard, the hair
of his body, and his nails, ending in the north.'103

                                                                                                               
98
Instead of yena bhūyas ca rātryām, Pāraskara (II, 1, 16) has, yena bhūris carā divam.
99
Comp. Pāraskara II, I, 19; Atharva-veda VIII, 2, 17.
100
On these family customs, see Grihya-samgraha-parisiṣṭa II, 40; Roth, Zur Literatur and Geschichte
des Weda, p. 120; Max Müller, History of A. S. L., p. 54 seq.; Weber, Indische Studien, X, 95.
101
See above, chap. 17, 7.
102
See chap. 17, 16.
   21  

7. Having bathed and silently stood during the rest of the day, let him break his
silence in the presence of his teacher, (saying to him,) 'I give an optional gift (to
thee).'104
8. An ox and a cow is the sacrificial fee.
9. Let (the teacher) impose (on the youth the observances declared below) for one
year.105

KAṆḌIKĀ 19.
1. In the eighth year let him initiate a Brāhmana,
2. Or in the eighth year after the conception;
3. In the eleventh a Kṣatriya;
4. In the twelfth a Vaiśya.
5. Until the sixteenth (year) the time has not passed for a Brāhmana;
6. Until the twenty-second for a Kṣatriya;
7. Until the twenty-fourth for a Vaiśya.
8. After that (time has passed), they become patitasāvitrīka (i.e. they have lost their
right of learning the Sāvitrī).
9. No one should initiate such men, nor teach them, nor perform sacrifices for them,
nor have intercourse with them.
10. (Let him initiate) the youth who is adorned and whose (hair on the) head is
arranged,106 who wears a (new) garment that has not yet been washed, or an antelope-
skin, if he is a Brāhmana, the skin of a spotted deer, if a Kṣatriya, a goat's skin, if a
Vaiśya.
11. If they put on garments, they should put on dyed (garments): the Brāhmana a
reddish yellow one, the Kṣatriya a light red one, the Vaiśya a yellow one.
12. Their girdles are: that of a Brāhmana made of Muñja grass, that of a Kṣatriya a
bow-string, that of a Vaiśya woollen.
13. Their staffs are: that of a Brāhmana of Palāsa wood, that of a Kṣatriya of
Udumbara wood, that of a Vaiśya of Bilva wood.

KAṆḌIKĀ 20.
1. Or all (sorts of staffs are to be used) by (lads of) all (castes).

                                                                                                               
103
According to Nārāyana, he says to the barber (chap. 17, 17), 'With lukewarm water doing what has
to be done with water, without doing harm to him, arrange his hair, his beard, the hair of his body, and
his nails, ending in the north.'
104
On restrictions like that contained in the eighth Sūtra as to the object in which the vara (optional
gift) had to consist, see Weber, Indische Studien, V, 343.
105
See below, chap. 22, 22
106
By the 'arranging of the hair' the cutting of the hair is implied, as is seen from chap. 22, 22.
   22  

2. While (the student) takes hold of him, the teacher sacrifices107 and then stations
himself to the north of the fire, with his face turned to the east.
3. To the east (of the fire) with his face to the west the other one.
4. (The teacher then) fills the two hollows of (his own and the student's) joined hands
with water, and with the verse, 'That we choose of Savitri' (Rig-veda V, 82, 1) he
makes with the full (hollow of his own hands the water) flow down on the full
(hollow of) his, (i.e. the student's hands.) Having (thus) poured (the water over his
hands) he should with his (own) hand seize his (i.e. the student's) hand together with
the thumb, with (the formula), 'By the impulse of the god Savitri, with the arms of the
two Asvins, with Pūṣan's hands I seize thy hand, so-and-so.!'
5. With (the words), 'Savitri has seized thy hand, so-and-so.!' a second time.
6. With (the words), 'Agni is thy teacher, so-and-so.!' a third time.
7. He should cause him to look at the sun while the teacher says, 'God Savitri, this is
thy Brahmacārin; protect him; may he not die.'
8. (And further the teacher says), 'Whose Brahmacārin art thou? The breath's
Brahmacārin art thou. Who does initiate thee, and whom (does he initiate)? To whom
shall I give thee in charge?'
9. With the half verse, 'A youth, well attired, dressed came hither' (Rig-veda III, 8, 4)
he should cause him to turn round from the left to the right.
10. Reaching with his two hands over his (i.e. the student's) shoulders (the teacher)
should touch the place of his heart with the following (half verse).
11. Having wiped the ground round the fire,108 the student should put on a piece of
wood silently. 'Silence indeed is what belongs to Prajāpati. The student becomes
belonging to Prajāpati'—this is understood (in the Sruti).

KAṆḌIKĀ 21.
1. Some (do this) with a Mantra:— 'To Agni I have brought a piece of wood, to the
great Jātavedas. Through that piece of wood increase thou, O Agni; through the
Brahman (may) we (increase). Svāhā!'
2. Having put the fuel (on the fire) and having touched the fire, he three times wipes
off his face with (the words), 'With splendour I anoint myself.'
3. 'For with splendour does he anoint himself'—this is understood (in the Sruti).
4. 'On me may Agni bestow insight, on me offspring, on me splendour.

                                                                                                               
107
He offers the oblations prescribed above, chap. 1, 4, 3 seq.
108
On the wiping of the ground round the fire, comp. above, chap. 3, 1; Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya I, 7, 11.
Nārāyana here has the following remarks, which I can scarcely believe to express the real meaning of
this Sūtra: 'Here the wiping of the ground round the fire is out of place, because the Samskāras for the
fire have already been performed. As to that, it should be observed that the wiping is mentioned here in
order that, when fuel is put on the fire in the evening and in the morning, the sprinkling of water and
the wiping may be performed. But on this occasion (at the Upanayana) the student does not perform the
wiping, &c., and silently puts a piece of wood on that fire.'
   23  

'On me may Indra bestow insight, on me offspring, on me strength (indriya).

'On me may Sūrya bestow insight, on me offspring, on me radiance.
'What thy splendour is, Agni, may I thereby become resplendent.
'What thy vigour is, Agni, may I thereby become vigorous.
'What thy consuming power is, Agni, may I thereby obtain consuming power'—with
(these formulas) he should approach the fire, bend his knee, embrace (the teacher's
feet), and say to him, 'Recite, sir! The Sāvitrī, sir, recite!'
5. Seizing with his (i.e. the student's) garment and with (his own) hands (the student's)
hands (the teacher) recites the Sāvitrī, (firstly) Pāda by Pāda, (then) hemistich by
hemistich, (and finally) the whole (verse).
6. He should make him recite (the Sāvitrī) as far as he is able.
7. On the place of his (i.e. the student's) heart (the teacher) lays his hand with the
fingers upwards, with (the formula), 'Into my will I take thy heart; after my mind shall
thy mind follow; in my word thou shalt rejoice with all thy will; may Brihaspati join
thee to me.'

KAṆḌIKĀ 22.
1. Having tied the girdle round him and given him the staff, he should impose the
(observances of the) Brahmacarya on him—
2. (With the words), 'A Brahmacārin thou art. Eat water. Do the service. Do not sleep
in the day-time. Devoted to the teacher study the Veda.'
3. Twelve years lasts the Brahmakarya for (each) Veda, or until he has learnt it.
4. Let him beg (food) in the evening and in the morning.
5. Let him put fuel on (the fire) in the evening and in the morning.
6. Let him beg first of a man who will not refuse,
7. Or of a woman who will not refuse.
8. (In begging he should use the words), 'Sir, give food!'
9. Or, '(Sir, give) Anupravakanīya (food).'109
10. That (which he has received) he should announce to his teacher.110
11. He should stand the rest of the day.
12. After sunset (the student) should cook the Brāhmaudana (or boiled rice with
which the Brāhmanas are to be fed) for the Anupravakanīya sacrifice (the sacrifice to
be performed after a part of the Veda has been studied), and should announce to the
teacher (that it is ready).111

                                                                                                               
109
Food for the Anupravacanīya offering; see Sūtra 12.
110
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya II, 6, 7; Pāraskara II, 5, 8.
111
'The student should, according to the rules for the Pākayajñas, cook the Anupravakanīya food and
announce it to the teacher in the words, "The food is cooked."' Nārāyana.
   24  

13. The teacher should sacrifice, while the student takes hold of him, with the verse,
'The wonderful lord of the abode' (Rig-Veda I, 18, 6).
14. A second time with the Sāvitrī—
15. And whatever else has been studied afterwards.112
16. A third time to the Rishis.
17. A fourth time (the oblation) to (Agni) Sviṣṭakrit.
18. Having given food to the Brāhmanas he should cause them to pronounce the end
of the Veda (study).113
19. From that time (the student) should eat no saline food; he should observe chastity,
and should sleep on the ground through three nights, or twelve nights, or one year.
20. When he has fulfilled those observances, (the teacher) performs (for him) the
'production of intelligence,' (in the following way):114
21. While (the student) towards an unobjectionable direction115 (of the horizon)
sprinkles thrice (water) from the left to the right with a water-pot round a Palāsa (tree)
with one root, or round a Kuśa bunch, if there is no Palāsa, (the teacher) causes him to
say, 'O glorious one, thou art glorious.116 As thou, O glorious one, art glorious, thus, O
glorious one, lead me to glory. As thou art the preserver of the treasure of sacrifice for
the gods, thus may I become the preserver of the treasure of the Veda for men.'
22. Thereby, beginning with his having the hair cut, and ending with the giving in
charge, the imposing of observances has been declared.117
23. Thus for one who has not been initiated before.
24. Now as regards one who has been initiated before:
25. The cutting of the hair is optional,118
26. And the 'production of intelligence.'119
27. On the giving in charge there are no express rules (in this case);120
28. And on the time.121

                                                                                                               
112
Nārāyana mentions as such texts especially those belonging to the Āranyaka, viz. the Mahānāmnyas,
the Mahāvrata, and the Upanishad. But there is no reason why we should not think quite as well of the
Rig-veda Samhitā itself.
113
'He should say, "Sirs! Pronounce the end of the Veda (study)." And they should reply, "May an end
of the Veda (study) be made."' Nārāyana.
114
Comp. above, chap. 15, 2.
115
'The objectionable directions are three, the south, the southeast, the south-west.' Nārāyana.
116
Susravas, which I have translated by 'glorious,' at the same time means, 'endowed with good
hearing,' i.e. successful in study. The student therefore by the same word prays for glory and for
success in Vedic learning.
117
The rules stated above for the Upanayana, beginning with the prescription regarding the cutting of
the hair (given chap. 19, so in the words, 'whose [hair on the] head is arranged;' see the note there), and
ending with the ceremony prescribed chap. 20, 8, are to be extended also to other cases of the imposing
of a vow, such, for instance, as that mentioned chap. 18, 9.
118
See chap. 79, 10.
119
See above, Sūtra 20.
120
See chap. 20, 8.
   25  

29. (He should recite to him) as the Sāvitrī (the Rik),'That we choose of god Savitri'
(Rig-veda V, 82, 1).122

KAṆḌIKĀ 23.
1. He chooses priests (for officiating at a sacrifice) with neither deficient nor
superfluous limbs, 'who on the mother's and on the father's side (&c.),' as it has been
said above.123
2. Let him choose young men as officiating priests: thus (declare) some (teachers).
3. He chooses first the Brahman, then the Hotri, then the Adhvaryu, then the Udgātri.
4. Or all who officiate at the Ahīna sacrifices124 and at those lasting one day.
5. The Kauśītakinas prescribe the Sadasya125 as the seventeenth, saying, 'He is the
looker-on at the performances.'
6. This has been said in the two Rikas126 , 'He whom the officiating priests, performing
(the sacrifice) in many ways' (Rig-veda VIII, 58, I. 2).
7. He chooses the Hotri first.127
8. With (the formula), 'Agni is my Hotri; he is my Hotri; I choose thee so-and-so. as
my Hotri' (he chooses) the Hotri.
9. With (the formula), 'Candramas (the moon) is my Brahman; he is my Brahman; I
choose thee so-and-so. as my Brahman' (he chooses) the Brahman.
10. With (the formula), 'Āditya (the sun) is my Adhvaryu; (he is my Adhvaryu,
&c.)'—the Adhvaryu.
11. With (the formula), 'Parjanya is my Udgātri; (he is my Udgātri, &c.)'—the
Udgātri.
12. With (the formula), 'The waters are my reciters of what belongs to the Hotrakas'—
the Hotrakas.128
13. With (the formula), 'The rays are my camasādhvaryus'—the camasādhvaryus.129
                                                                                                               
121
See chap. 4, 1.
122
Instead of the ordinary Sāvitrī, Rig-veda III, 62, 10.
123
Comp. Srauta-sūtra IX, 3, 20; Grihya-sūtra I, 5, 1.
124
The Ahīna sacrifices are those which last more than one day, but not more than twelve days. The
priests officiating at such sacrifices are the sixteen stated in the Srauta-sūtra IV, 1, 6. 7. Those besides
the sixteen, though they are chosen (saty api varane) for taking part in the sacred performances, have
not the rank of ritvigas (officiating priests); such are the Sadasya, the Samitri, and the
Kamasādhvaryavah (schol. Srautas. loc. cit.) As to the Sadasya, however, there was some difference of
opinion (see the next Sūtra).
125
On the office of the Sadasya, see Indische Studien, X, 136, 144.
126
The two Rikas quoted here belong to the tenth among the Vālakhilya hymns, a hymn omitted in
many of the Rig-veda MSS. They give no special confirmation to the rules stated in our text, but
contain only a general allusion to the unity of the sacrifice, which the various priests perform in many
various ways.
127
'If the four (chief) priests have to be chosen, the choosing of the Brāhmana stands first in order (see
above, Sūtra 3); if all (the sixteen), then the choosing of the Hotri stands first in order.' Nārāyana.
128
The twelve priests of the sixteen (see § 4 note) who do not stand at the head of one of the four
categories. Those at the head are enumerated in the Sutras
   26  

14. With (the formula), 'The ether is my Sadasya'—the Sadasya.

15. He whom he has chosen should murmur, 'A great thing thou hast told me;
splendour thou hast told me; fortune thou hast told me; glory thou hast told me; praise
thou hast told me; success thou hast told me; enjoyment thou hast told me; satiating
thou hast told me; everything thou hast told me.'
16. Having murmured (this formula), the Hotri declares his assent (in the words),
'Agni is thy Hotri; he is thy Hotri; thy human Hotri am I.'
17. 'Candramas (the moon) is thy Brahman; he is thy Brahman (&c.)'—thus the
Brahman.
18. In the same way the others according to the prescriptions (given above).
19. And if (the priest who accepts the invitation) is going to perform the sacrifice (for
the inviting person, he should add), 'May that bless me; may that enter upon me; may
I thereby enjoy (bliss).'130
20. The functions of an officiating priest are not to be exercised, if abandoned (by
another priest), or at an Ahīna sacrifice with small sacrificial fee,131 or for a person
that is sick, or suffering, or affected with consumption, or decried among the people
in his village, or of despised extraction:132 for such persons (the functions of a Ritvig
should not be exercised).
21. He (who is chosen as a Ritvig) should ask the Somapravāka, 'What sacrifice is it?
Who are the priests officiating? What is the fee for the sacrifice?'133
22. If (all the conditions) are favourable, he should accept.
23. Let (the officiating priests) eat no flesh nor have intercourse with a wife until the
completion of the sacrifice.
24. 'By this prayer, O Agni, increase' (Rig-veda I, 31, 18)—with (this verse) let him
offer (at the end of the sacrifice) an oblation of Ājya in (his own) Dakṣināgni, and go
away where he likes;

                                                                                                               
129
See above, § 4 note.
130
Priests who only perform the Agnyādheya for a person, are, according to Nārāyana's note on this
Sūtra, not considered as p. 196 performing a sacrifice for him; consequently the formula given here is
only to be used by priests who are elected for a Soma sacrifice. Stenzler translates, 'So spricht er, wenn
er das Opfer durch sie vollziehen lassen will.' But this would be yakṣyamānah, not yājayishyan.
131
The tradition takes nīca-dakṣinasya as in apposition to ahīnasya, and I have translated accordingly.
But I cannot help thinking that the two words should be separated, so that we should have to translate,
'or at an Ahīna, or for a person that gives small sacrificial fee.' Thus the Brāhmana quoted by
Āpastamba (see the commentary on the Pañcavimsa Brāhmana, vol. i, p. 6, ed. Bibl. Indica) gives the
following questions which the Ritvig to be chosen should ask, 'Is it no Ahīna sacrifice? Is the Ritvig
office not abandoned by others? Is the sacrificial fee plentiful?' It is a very singular fact, that on the one
hand the assistance of a number of Ritvigas was unanimously declared necessary for the performance
of an Ahīna sacrifice, while on the other hand it was considered objectionable, at least among some of
the Vedic schools, to officiate at such a sacrifice. See Weber's Indische Studien, X, 150, 151.
132
On anudesyabhisasta Nārāyana says, sadesinābhisastasyaivam eke. anye tu srāddhe
pratishiddhasyety āhuh. It seems to me that anudesya (or rather ānudesya?) in Sāṅkhāyana-Sraut. V, 1,
10 (Indische Studien, X, 147) means the same, though the commentary on that Sūtra ascribes a
different meaning to that word.
133
The Somapravāka is the messenger who invites the priests on behalf of the sacrificer to officiate at
his intended Soma sacrifice. Comp. Indische Studien, IX, 308.
   27  

25. In the same way one who has not set up the (Srauta) fires, in his (sacred) domestic
fire with this Rik, 'Forgive us, O Agni, this sin' (Rig-veda I, 31, 16).

KAṆḌIKĀ 24.

1. When he has chosen the Ritviks, he should offer the Madhuparka134 (i.e. honey-
mixture) to them (in the way described in Sūtras 5 and following);
2. To a Snātaka, when he comes to his house;
3. And to a king;
4. And for a teacher, the father-in-law, a paternal uncle, and a maternal uncle.
5. He pours honey into curds,
6. Or butter, if he can get no honey.
7. A seat, the water for washing the feet, the Arghya water (i.e. perfumed water into
which flowers have been thrown), the water for sipping, the honey-mixture, a cow:
every one of these things they announce three times (to the guest).
8. With (the verse), 'I am the highest one among my people, as the sun among the
thunderbolts. Here I tread on him whosoever infests me'—he should sit down on the
seat (made of) northward-pointed (grass).
9. Or (he should do so) after he has trodden on it.
10. He should make (his host) wash his feet.
11. The right foot he should stretch out first to a Brāhmana,
12. The left to a Sūdra.
13. When his feet have been washed, he receives the Arghya water in the hollow of
his joined hands and then sips the water destined thereto, with (the formula), 'Thou art
the first layer for Ambrosia.'
14. He looks at the Madhuparka when it is brought to him, with (the formula), 'I look
at thee with Mitra's eye.'
15. He accepts it with his joined hands with (the formula), 'By the impulse of the god
Sāvitrī, with the arms of the two Asvins, with the hands of Pūṣan I accept thee.' He
then takes it into his left hand, looks at it with the three verses, 'Honey the winds to
the righteous one' (Rig-veda I, 90, 6 seqq.), stirs it about three times from left to right
with the fourth finger and the thumb, and wipes (his fingers) with (the formula), 'May
the Vasus eat thee with the Gāyatrī metre'—to the east;
16. With (the formula), 'May the Rudras eat thee with the Trishtubh metre'—to the
south;

                                                                                                               
134
Comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya II, 15. The second Sūtra is paraphrased by Nārāyana thus, 'To a person
that has performed the Samāvartana (see below, III, 8), when he comes on that day to his house with
the intention of forming a matrimonial alliance.'
   28  

17. With (the formula), 'May the Ādityas eat thee with the Jagatī metre'—to the west;
18. With (the formula), 'May the Viśve devās eat thee with the Anushtubh metre'—to
the north.
19. With (the formula), 'To the beings thee'—he three times takes (some of the
Madhuparka substance) out of the middle of it.
20. With (the formula), 'The milk of Virāj art thou'—he should partake thereof the
first time,
21. With, 'The milk of Virāj may I obtain'—the second time,
22. With, 'In me (may) the milk of Padyā Virāj135 (dwell)'—the third time.
23. (He should) not (eat) the whole (Madhuparka).
24. He should not satiate himself.
25. To a Brāhmana, to the north, he should give the remainder.
26. If that cannot be done, (he should throw it) into water.
27. Or (he may eat) the whole (Madhuparka).
28. He then makes a rinsing of his mouth follow (on the eating of the Madhuparka)
with the water destined thereto, with (the formula), 'Thou art the covering of
Ambrosia.'136
29. With (the formula), 'Truth! Glory! Fortune! May fortune rest on me!'—a second
time.
30. When he has sipped water, they announce to him the cow.
31. Having murmured, 'Destroyed is my sin; my sin is destroyed,' (he says,) 'Om, do
it,' if he chooses to have her killed.
32. Having murmured, 'The mother of the Rudras, the daughter of the Vasus' (Rig-
veda VIII, 101, 15), (he says,) 'Om, let her loose,' if he chooses to let her loose.
33. The Madhuparka should not be without flesh, without flesh.137
End of the First Adhyāya.

                                                                                                               
135
On Padyā Virāj, see the note on Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya III, 7, 5.
136
Comp. above, Sūtra 13.
137
Comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya II, 15, 2. The phrase ‘without flesh’ is repeated twice for stress.
   29  

ADHYĀYA 2
KAṆḌIKĀ 1.
1. On the full moon day of the Śrāvana month138 the Śrāvana ceremony (is
performed).
2. Having filled a new jug with flour of fried barley, he lays (this jug) and a spoon for
offering the Balis on new strings of a carrying pole (and thus suspends them).
3. Having prepared fried barley grains, he smears half of them with butter.
4. After sunset he prepares a mess of cooked food and a cake in one dish and
sacrifices (the cooked food) with the four verses, 'Agni, lead us on a good path to
wealth' (Rig-veda I, 189, 1 seqq.), verse by verse, and with his hand the (cake) in one
dish with (the formula), 'To the steady One, the earth-demon, svāhā!'
5. (The cake) should be (entirely) immersed (into the butter), or its back should be
visible.
6. With (the verse), 'Agni, do not deliver us to evil' (Rig-veda I, 189, 5) he sacrifices
over it (the butter) in which it had lain.
7. With (the verse), 'May the steeds at our invocation be for a blessing to us' (Rig-
veda 7: 38, 7) (he sacrifices) the besmeared grains with his joined hands,
8. The other (grains) he should give to his people.139
9. Out of the jug he fills the spoon with flour, goes out (of the house) to the east,
pours water on the ground on a clean spot, sacrifices with (the formula), 'To the
divine hosts of the serpents svāhā!' and does reverence to them with (the formula),
'The serpents which are terrestrial, which are aerial, which are celestial, which dwell
in the directions (of the horizon)—to them I have brought this Bali; to them I give
over this Bali.'
10. Having gone round (the Bali) from left to right, he sits down to the west of the
Bali with (the words), 'The serpent art thou; the lord of the creeping serpents art thou;
by food thou protectest men, by cake the serpents, by sacrifice the gods. To me, being
in thee, the serpents being in thee should do no harm. I give over the firm one (i.e. the
spoon) to thee.'
11. 'Firm one, (I give) so-and-so. (in charge) to thee! Firm one, (I give) so-and-so. (in
charge) to thee!'—with (these words he gives) his people, man by man, (in charge to
the serpent god);
12. 'Firm one, I give myself in charge to thee!'—with these words himself at the end.
13. Let no one step between it (i.e. the Bali, and the sacrificer), until the giving in
charge has been performed.

                                                                                                               
138
Nārāyana's observation that the Srāvana full moon can fall also under certain other Nakṣatras than
Sravana itself, furnishes no reason why we should think here of solar months, as Prof. Stenzler
proposes.
139
See above, Sūtra 3. 9. See above, Sūtra 1.
   30  

14. With (the formula), 'To the divine hosts of the serpents svāhā!'—let him offer the
Bali in the evening and in the morning, till the Pratyavarohana (i.e. the ceremony of
the 'redescent').140
15. Some count (the days till the Pratyavarohana) and offer the corresponding
number of Balis already on that day (on which the Sravanā ceremony is performed).141

KAṆḌIKĀ 2.

1. On the full moon day of Āśvayuja the Āśvayujī ceremony (is performed).
2. Having decorated the house, having bathed and put on clean garments, they142
should pour out a mess of cooked food for Paśupati, and should sacrifice it with (the
formula), To Paśupati, to Siva, to Samkara, to Prishātaka svāhā!'
3. He should sacrifice with his joined hands a mixture of curds and butter (prishātaka)
with (the formula), 'May what is deficient be made full to me; may what is full not
decay to me. To Prishātaka svāhā!'
4. 'United with the seasons, united with the manners, united with Indra and Agni,
svāhā!143
'United with the seasons, united with the manners, united with the Viśve devās, svāhā!
'United with the seasons, united with the manners, united with Heaven and Earth,
svāhā!'—with (these formulas) a mess of cooked food is offered at the Āgrayana
sacrifice by one who has set up the (sacred Srauta) fires.
5. Also by one who has not set up the (Srauta) fires (the same offering is performed)
in the (sacred) domestic fire.

KAṆḌIKĀ 3.

1. On the full moon of Mārgasīrsha the 'redescent' (is performed)—on the fourteenth
(Tithi),144
2. Or on (the Tithi of) the full moon (itself).
3. Having again145 renovated the house by (giving a new) coating (to the walls), by
spreading out (a new roof), and by levelling (the floor), they should sacrifice after

                                                                                                               
140
On the Pratyavarohana, see the third chapter of this Adhyāya.
141
I.e. two Bali offerings for each day, one for the morning and one for the evening.
142
'The plural "They should sacrifice it" means, that while the sacrifice is performed by the
householder, his sons and the other persons belonging to the house should touch him.' Nārāyana.
143
The Āgrayana sacrifice, which is offered when the sacrificer is going to partake of the first-fruits of
the harvest, is treated of, with relation to a sacrificer who keeps the Srauta fires, in the Srauta-sūtra II,
q. This Sūtra in my opinion should be understood as a supplementary addition to that chapter.
Nārāyana refers the rule here given to the case of any incident or danger (āpad) which prevents the
sacrificer from performing the ceremony in its fuller form, as prescribed in the Srauta-sūtra.
144
On the ceremony of 'redescent,' comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya IV, 17; Pāraskara III, 2. The fourteenth
Tithi of the bright fortnight, preceding the full moon, is referred to.
   31  

sunset (oblations) of milk-rice with (the texts), 'Beat away, O white one, with thy foot,
with the forefoot and with the hind-foot, these seven daughters of Varuna and all that
belong to the king's tribe. Svāhā!
'Within the dominion of the white one no serpent has killed anything. To the white
one, the son of Vidārva, adoration! Svāhā!'
4. Here no oblation to (Agni) Sviṣṭakrit (is made).
5. 'May we be secure from Prajāpati's sons'146 —thus he murmurs while looking at the
fire.
6. (Saying), 'Be happy and friendly to us'—he should think in his mind of the winter.
7. To the west of the fire is a well-spread layer (of straw); on that he should sit down,
murmur (the verse), 'Be soft, O earth' (Rig-veda I, 22, 15), and lie down (on that
layer) with his people, with the head to the east and the face to the north.
8. The others, as there is room.
9. Or following on each other from the eldest to the youngest.
10. Those who know the Mantras, should murmur the Mantras.147
11. Arising (they should) three times (murmur the verse), 'From that place may the
gods bless us' (Rig-veda I, 22, 16).148
12. The same (verse) a fourth time with their faces to the south, to the west, and to the
north.149
13. Having arisen, having murmured the hymns sacred to the Sun and the auspicious
hymns, having prepared food and given to the Brāhmanas to eat, he should cause
(them) to pronounce auspicious words.

KAṆḌIKĀ 4.

1. On the eighth days of the four dark fortnights of (the two seasons of) winter and
Sisira the Aṣṭakās (are celebrated).150
2. Or on one (of these days).151
3. The day before, he should offer to the Ancestors (i.e. Manes)—
                                                                                                               
145
'Again' refers to chap. 2, 2. As to the words 'they should sacrifice,' comp. the note on the same Sūtra.
The first Mantra reoccurs in Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya IV, 18, 1. The text of the second should be, na vai
śvetasyādhyācāre, &c.; comp. Pāraskara II, 14, 5.
146
The serpents are the children of Kasyapa (i.e. Prajāpati) and Kadrū; see Mahābhārata I, 1074 seqq.
147
'The Mantras beginning from "Be soft, O earth" (Sūtra 7) down to the auspicious hymns (Sūtra 13).'
Nārāyana.
148
It follows from Sūtra 12 that they are to turn here their faces to the east.
149
They mutter one Pāda of that verse, which is in the Gāyatrī metre, turned towards each of the three
directions.
150
Comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya III, 12 seqq. The four p. 206 months of Hemanta and Sisira are
Mārgasīrsha, Pausha, Māgha, and Phālguna.
151
The statement of the Prayogaratna that in case the sacrificer should celebrate only one Aṣṭakā
festival, the Aṣṭakā of the Māgha month is to be selected, well agrees with the designation of this
Aṣṭakā as 'the one Aṣṭakā' (ekāṣṭakā); see Weber, Naxatra II, 341 seq.; Indische Studien, XV, 145.
   32  

4. Boiled rice, boiled rice with sesamum seeds, rice-milk—

5. Or cakes made of four Sarāvas (of ground grain)—
6. Sacrificing with the eight (verses), 'May the lower (Ancestors) and the higher arise'
(Rig-veda 10:15, 1 seqq.), or with as many (verses) as he likes.
7. Then on the next day the Aṣṭakās (are celebrated) with an animal (sacrifice) and
with a mess of cooked food.152
8. He may also give grass to an ox,
9. Or he may burn down brushwood with fire—
10. With (the words), 'This is my Aṣṭakā.'
11. But he should not omit celebrating the Aṣṭakā.
12. This (Aṣṭakā) some state to be sacred to the Viśve devās, some to Agni, some to
the Sun, some to Prajāpati, some state that the Night is its deity, some that the
Nakṣatras are, some that the Seasons are, some that the Ancestors are, some that cattle
is.
13. Having killed the animal according to the ritual of the animal sacrifice, omitting
the sprinkling (with water) and the touching of the animal with a fresh branch, he
should draw out the omentum and sacrifice it with (the verse), 'Carry the omentum,
Jātavedas, to the Ancestors, where thou knowest them resting afar. May streams of fat
flow to them; may all these wishes be fulfilled. Svāhā!'153
14. Then (follow oblations) of the Avadāna portions and the cooked food, two with
(the two verses), 'Agni, lead us on a good path to wealth' (Rig-veda I, 189, 1 seq.),
(and other oblations with the texts), 'May summer, winter, the seasons be happy to us,
happy the rainy season, safe to us the autumn. The year be our lord who gives breath
to us; may days and nights produce long life. Svāhā!154
'Peaceful be the earth, happy the air, may the goddess Heaven give us safety. Happy
be the quarters (of the horizon), the intermediate quarters, the upper quarters; may the
waters, the lightnings protect us from all sides. Svāhā!
'May the waters, the rays carry our prayers (to the gods); may the creator, may the
ocean turn away evil; may the past and the future, (may) all be safe to me. Protected
by Brahman may I pour forth songs. Svāhā!
'May all the Ādityas and the divine Vasus, the Rudras, the protectors, the Maruts sit
down (here). May Prajāpati, the abounding one, the highest ruler, bestow vigour,
offspring, immortality on me. Svāhā!
'Prajāpati, no other one than Thou (Rig-veda 10:121, 10).'
15. The eighth (oblation) is that to (Agni) Sviṣṭakrit.
16. He should give to the Brāhmanas to eat: this has been said.155

                                                                                                               
152
Comp. the nearly identical passage in Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya III, 14, 3 seqq. and the note there.
Āśvalāyana evidently gives these rules not as regarding one special Aṣṭakā but all of them.
153
Comp. above, I, 11, 1. 2. 10. As to the Mantra, comp. Sāṅkhāyana III, 13, 3.
154
I read, as Prof. Stenzler and the Petersburg Dictionary do, svārā kṣarāni. Comp. Pāraskara III, 3, 6.
155
See above, chap. 3, 13.
   33  

KAṆḌIKĀ 5.
1. On the following day the Anvaṣṭakya (i.e. the ceremony following the Aṣṭakā, is
performed).
2. Having prepared (a portion) of that same meat,156 having established the fire on a
surface inclined towards the south, having fenced it in, and made a door on the north
side of the enclosure, having strewn round (the fire) three times sacrificial grass with
its roots, without tossing it, turning the left side towards the fire, he should put down
the things to be offered, boiled rice, boiled rice with sesamum seeds, rice-milk, meal-
pap with curds, and meal-pap with honey.
3. (The ceremony should be performed) according to the ritual of the Piṇḍa-pitri-
yajña.157
4. Having sacrificed (of those sorts of food) with the exception of the meal-pap with
honey, let him give (lumps of those substances) to the Ancestors.158
5. And to (their) wives, with the addition of rum and the scum of boiled rice.
6. Some (place the lumps to be offered) into pits, into two or into six:
7. In those situated to the east he should give (the offerings) to the Ancestors.
8. In those to the west, to the wives.
9. Thereby the ceremony celebrated in the rainy season on the Māgha day, in the dark
fortnight after the full moon of Prauṣṭhapada (has been declared).159
10. And thus he should offer (a celebration like the Anvaṣṭakya) to the Ancestors
every month, observing uneven numbers (i.e. selecting a day with an uneven number,
inviting an uneven number of Brāhmanas, &c.).160
11. He should give food at least to nine (Brāhmanas),
12. Or to an uneven number;
13. To an even number on auspicious occasions or on the performance of meritorious
deeds (such as the consecration of ponds, &c.);161
14. To an uneven number on other (occasions).
15. The rite is performed from left to right. Barley is to be used instead of sesamum.162

KAṆḌIKĀ 6.

                                                                                                               
156
The meat is that of the animal killed on the Aṣṭakā day; see chap. 4, 53.
157
This ritual is given in the Srauta-sūtra II, 6 seq.
158
He sacrifices the two oblations prescribed in the Srauta-sūtra II, 6, 12, to Soma pitrimat and to Agni
kavyavāhana.
159
Comp. the note on Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya III, 13, 1.
160
Comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya IV, 1, 1.
161
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya IV, 4, 4.
162
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya IV, 4, 6. 9.
   34  

1. When going to mount a chariot he should touch the wheels with his two hands
separately with (the words), 'I touch thy two fore-feet. Thy two wheels are the Brihat
and the Rathantara (Sāmans).'163
2. 'Thy axle is the Vāmadevya'—with (these words he touches) the two (naves) in
which the axle rests.164
3. He should mount (the chariot) with the right foot first, with (the words), 'With
Vāyu's strength I mount thee, with Indra's power and sovereignty.'
4. He should touch the reins, or if the horses have no reins, (he should touch) the
horses with a staff, with (the words), 'With Brahman's splendour I seize you. With
truth I seize you.'
5. When (the horses) put themselves in motion, he should murmur, 'Go forward to
thousandfold successful vigour, divine chariot, carry us forward!'—(and the verse),
'Free, strong be thy limbs!' (Rig-veda VI, 47, 26.)
6. With this (verse he should touch also) other articles of wood.165
7. 'May the two oxen be strong, the axle firm' (Rig-veda III, 53, i7)—with (this verse)
he should touch (each) part of the chariot (alluded to in that verse).
8. With (the verse), 'The earth, the good protectress, the unattained heaven' (Rig-veda
10:63, 10) (he should ascend) a ship.
9. With a new chariot he should drive round a widely known tree or round a pool that
does not dry up, with his right side turned towards it, and then should fetch branches
which bear fruits,
10. Or something else that belongs to the household.
11. (He then) should drive (in that chariot) to an assembly.
12. Having murmured, while looking at the sun, (the verse), 'Make our renown
highest' (Rig-veda IV, 31, 15), he should descend.
13. 'To the bull among my equals' (Rig-veda 10:166, 1)—(this verse he should
murmur) while approaching (that assembly?).
14. 'May we be called to-day Indra's best friends' (Rig-veda I, 167, 10)—when the sun
is setting.
15. 'Thus I address you, O daughters of heaven, while you arise' (Rig-veda IV, 51,
11)—when day appears.

KAṆḌIKĀ 7.
1. Now the examination of the ground (where he intends to build a house).

                                                                                                               
163
'He should touch at the same time the right wheel with his right hand, the left wheel with his left
hand.' Nārāyana.
164
On the Vedic form of the chariot and of the wheels, comp. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 247.
165
According to Nārāyana this Sūtra would refer only to other vehicles of wood, which he is directed to
touch with that Rik when going to mount them. Perhaps the commentator is right; the wording of the
Rik is well in keeping with his explanation.
   35  

2. (It must be) non-salinous soil of undisputed property,

3. With herbs and trees,
4. On which much Kuśa and Vīrana grass grows.
5. Plants with thorns and with milky juice he should dig out with their roots and
remove them—
6. And in the same way the following (sorts of plants), viz. Apāmārga, potherbs,
Tilvaka, Parivyādha.
7. A spot where the waters, flowing together from all sides to the centre of it, flow
round the resting-place, having it on their right side, and then flow off to the east
without noise—that possesses all auspicious qualities.
8. Where the waters flow off, he should have the provision-room built.
9. Thus it becomes rich in food.
10. On a spot which is inclined towards the south, he should have the assembly-room
constructed; thus there will be no gambling in it.
11. (But others say that) in such (an assembly-room) the young people become
gamblers, quarrelsome, and die early.
12. Where the waters flow together from all directions, that assembly-room (situated
on such a spot) brings luck and is free from gambling.

KAṆḌIKĀ 8.
1. Now he should examine the ground in the following ways.
2. He should dig a pit knee-deep and fill it again with the same earth (which he has
taken out of it).
3. If (the earth) reaches out (of the pit, the ground is) excellent; if it is level, (it is) of
middle quality; if it does not fill (the pit, it is) to be rejected.
4. After sunset he should fill (the pit) with water and leave it so through the night.
5. If (in the morning) there is water in it, (the ground is) excellent; if it is moist, (it is)
of middle quality; if it is dry, (it is) to be rejected.
6. White (ground), of sweet taste, with sand on the surface, (should be elected) by a
Brāhmana.
7. Red (ground) for a Kṣatriya.
8. Yellow (ground) for a Vaiśya.
9. He should draw a thousand furrows on it and should have it measured off as
quadrangular, with equal sides to each (of the four) directions;
10. Or as an oblong quadrangle.
   36  

11. With a Samī branch or an Udumbara branch he sprinkles it (with water), going
thrice round it, so that his right side is turned towards it, reciting the Santātīya
hymn.166
12. And (so he does again three times) pouring out water without interruption, with
the three verses, 'O waters, ye are wholesome' (Rig-veda 10:9, 1 seqq.).
13. In the interstices between the bamboo staffs he should have the (single) rooms
constructed.167
14. Into the pits in which the posts are to stand, he should have an Avakā, i.e. (the
water-plant called) Sīpāla put down; then fire will not befall him: thus it is understood
(in the Sruti).
15. Having put (that plant) into the pit in which the middle-post is to stand, he should
spread (on it) eastward-pointed and northward-pointed Kuśa grass and should sprinkle
(on that grass) water into which rice and barley have been thrown, with (the words),
'To the steady one, the earth-demon, svāhā!'168
16. He then should, when (the middle-post) is being erected, recite over it (the two
verses), 'Stand here, fixed in the ground, prosperous, long-lasting (?), standing amid
prosperity. May the malevolent ones not attain thee!169
'To thee (may) the young child (come), to thee the calf …..; to thee (may) the cup of
Parisrut (come); (to thee) may they come with pots of curds.'

KAṆḌIKĀ 9.
1. (Over) the bamboo staff, when it is put on (the middle-post, he recites the
hemistich),
2. 'Rightly ascend the post, O staff, bestowing on us long life henceforward.'
3. On four stones, on which Dūrvā grass has been spread, he should establish the
water-barrel with (the words), 'Arise on the earth'—
4. Or with (the verse), 'The Araṅgara170 sounds, three times bound with the strap. It
praises the welfare; may it drive away ill.'
5. He then should pour water into it with (the verse), 'Hither may king Varuna come
with the plentiful (waters); at this place may he stay contented; bringing welfare,
dropping ghee may they lie down together with Mitra.'
6. He then 'appeases' it (in the following way).171
                                                                                                               
166
The hymn of which all verses (except a few) commence with, and frequently contain, the word sam
(Rig-veda VII, 35).
167
The bamboo staffs (vamsa) rest on the chief posts (sthūnā); see chap. 9, 1. 2.
168
Comp. chap. 1, 4.
169
Comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya III, 3, 1 and the note there. How stāmirāvatīm should be corrected and
translated is quite uncertain. Instead of poshasva Prof. Stenzler proposes to read poshasya, as
Sāṅkhāyana has; I have adopted this correction.—In the second verse jāyatām saha seems to be
corrupt; comp. my note on Sāṅkhāyana III, 2, 9. Instead of parisritah we should read, as Sāṅkhāyana,
Pāraskara, and the Atharva-veda (III, 12, 7) have, parisrutah.
170
The meaning of Araṅgara is unknown to me; it seems to be a musical instrument. Comp. Atharva-
veda 20:135, 13.
   37  

7. He puts gold into water into which rice and barley have been thrown, and (with that
water) he sprinkles it three times, going round it with his right side turned towards it,
with the Santātīya hymn.172
8. And (so he does again three times) pouring out water without interruption, with the
three verses, 'O waters, ye are wholesome' (Rig-veda 10:9, I seqq.).173
9. In the middle of the house he should cook a mess of food, sacrifice (therefrom)
with the four verses, 'Vāstoshpati, accept us' (Rig-veda 7: 54, 1 seqq.), verse by verse,
should prepare food, should give to the Brāhmanas to eat, and should cause them to
say, 'Lucky is the ground! Lucky is the ground!'174

KAṆḌIKĀ 10.
1. It has been declared how he should enter the house (when returning from a
journey).175
2. The house, when he enters it, should be provided with seed-corn.
3. He should have his field ploughed under the Nakṣatras Uttarāh Proṣṭhapadās,
(Uttarāh) Phālgunyas, or Rohinī.176
4. In order that the wind may blow to him from the field, he should offer oblations
with the hymn, 'Through the lord of the field' (Rig-veda 4: 57), verse by verse, or he
should murmur (that hymn).
5. He should speak over the cows when they go away, the two verses, 'May refreshing
wind blow over the cows' (Rig-veda 10: 169, I seq.).177
6. When they come back, (he should recite the following verses,)178
'May they whose udder with its four holes is full of honey and ghee, be milk-givers to
us; (may they be) many in our stable, rich in ghee.
'Come hither to me, giving refreshment, bringing vigour and strength. Giving
inexhaustible milk, rest in my stable that I may become the highest one'
And, 'They who have raised their body up to the gods'—the rest of the hymn (Rig-
veda 10:169, 3. 4).
7. Some recite (instead of the texts stated in Sūtra 6) the Āgāvīya hymn.179
8. He should approach their herds, if the cows do not belong to his Guru, with (the
words), 'Prospering are ye; excellent are ye, beautiful, dear. May I become dear to
you. May you see bliss in me.'180

                                                                                                               
171
The ground on which the house is to be built.
172
On the Santātīya hymn, see above, chap. 8, Ir.
173
This Sūtra is identical with chap. 8, 12.
174
Comp. above, chap. 3, 13.
175
See Srauta-sūtra II, 5, 17 seqq. It is there expressly stated that these rules refer also to an Anāhitāgni.
176
Sāṅkhāyana IV, 13, 1.
177
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya III, 9.
178
Sāṅkhāyana, loc. cit.—Should the reading upa maitu be corrected into upa maita?
179
The hymn commencing ā gāvo agman (hither came the cows) is Rig-veda 6:28.
   38  

End of the Second Adhyāya.

                                                                                                               
180
Perhaps the last words (which are repeated twice in order to mark the end of the Adhyāya) should be
written sam mayi gānīdhvam, 'live with me in harmony together.'
   39  

ADHYĀYA 3, KAṆḌIKĀ 1.
1. Now (follow) the five sacrifices:
2. The sacrifice to the Gods, the sacrifice to the Beings, the sacrifice to the Ancestors,
the sacrifice to Brahman, the sacrifice to men.
3. Here now, if he makes oblations over the (sacred) fire, this is the sacrifice to the
Gods.
If he makes Bali offerings, this is the sacrifice to the Beings.
If he gives (Piṇḍa offerings) to the Ancestors, this is the sacrifice to the Ancestors.
If he studies (Vedic) texts, this is the sacrifice to Brahman.
If he gives to men, this is the sacrifice to men.
4. These (five kinds of) sacrifices he should perform every day.

KAṆḌIKĀ 2.
1. Now the rules how one should recite (the Vedic texts) for one's self.181
2. He should go out of the village to the east or to the north, bathe in water, sip water
on a clean spot, clad with the sacrificial cord; he should spread out, his garment being
not wet, a great quantity of Darbha grass, the tufts of which are directed towards the
east, and should sit down thereon with his face turned to the east, making a lap,
putting together his hands in which he holds purifiers (i.e. Kuśa blades), so that the
right hand lies uppermost.
It is understood (in the Sruti), 'This is what Darbha grass is: it is the essence of waters
and herbs. He thus makes the Brahman provided with essence.'
Looking at the point where heaven and earth touch each other, or shutting his eyes, or
in whatever way he may deem himself apt (for reciting the Veda), thus adapting
himself he should recite (the sacred texts) for himself.
3. The Vyāhritis preceded by (the syllable) Om (are pronounced first).
4. He (then) repeats the Sāvitrī (Rig-Veda III, 62, 10), (firstly) Pāda by Pāda, (then)
hemistich by hemistich, thirdly the whole.

KAṆḌIKĀ 3.
1. He then should recite for himself (the following texts, viz.) the Rikas, the Yajus,
the Sāmans, the Atharvan and Aṅgiras hymns, the Brāhmanas, the Kalpa (Sūtras), the
Gāthās, the (texts in honour of kings and heroes, called) Nārāsamsīs, the Itihāsas and
Purānas.182

                                                                                                               
181
1 seqq. Comp. Satapatha Brāhmana XI, 5, 6, 1 seqq.
182
On this and the following paragraphs comp. chiefly Satapatha Brāhmana XI, 5, 6. Other
enumerations, contained in the Veda itself, of the texts that were considered as forming the Veda or as
attached to the body of the Veda, are found in the Satapatha Brāhmana XIV, 5, 4, 10 (Sacred Books,
XV, 111), and in the Khāndogya Upanishad VII, 1 (Sacred Books, I, 109)
   40  

2. In that he recites the Rikas, he thereby satiates the gods with oblations of milk — in
that (he recites) the Yajus, with oblations of ghee — the Sāmans, with oblations of
honey — the Atharvan and Aṅgiras hymns, with oblations of Soma — the
Brāhmanas, Kalpas, Gāthās, Nārāsamsīs, Itihāsas and Purānas, with oblations of
ambrosia.
3. In that he recites the Rikas, rivers of milk flow, as a funeral oblation, to his
Ancestors. In that (he recites) the Yajus, rivers of ghee — the Sāmans, rivers of honey
— the Atharvan and Aṅgiras hymns, rivers of Soma — the Brāhmanas, Kalpas,
Gāthās, Nārāsamsīs, Itihāsas and Purānas, rivers of ambrosia.
4. After he has recited (those texts) as far as he thinks fit, he should finish with the
following (verse),
'Adoration to Brahman! Adoration be to Agni! Adoration to the Earth! Adoration to
the Herbs! Adoration to the Voice! Adoration to the Lord of the Voice! Adoration I
bring to great Vishnu!'

KAṆḌIKĀ 4.
1. He satiates the deities: 'Prajāpati,183 Brahman, the Vedas, the gods, the Rishis, all
metres, the word Om, the word Vashat, the Vyāhritis, the Sāvitrī, the sacrifices,
Heaven and Earth, the air, days and nights, the numbers, the Siddhas, the oceans, the
rivers, the mountains, the fields, herbs, trees, Gandharvas and Apsaras, the snakes, the
birds, the cows, the Sādhyas, the Vipras, the Yakṣas, the Rakṣas, the beings that have
these (Rakṣas, &c.) at their end.'184
2. Then the Rishis: 'The (Rishis) of the hundred (Rikas), the (Rishis) of the middle
(Mandalas), Gritsamada, Visvāmitra, Vāmadeva, Atri, Bharadvāja, Vasiṣṭha, the
Prajāthas, the Pavamāna hymns, the (Rishis) of the short hymns, and of the long
hymns.'185
3. (Then) with the sacrificial cord suspended over the right shoulder:
4. 'Sumantu, Gaimini, Vaisampāyana, Paila, the Sūtras, the Bhāshyas, the Bhārata, the
Mahābhārata, the teachers of law, Gānanti, Bāhavi, Gārgya, Gautama, Sākalya,
Bābhravya, Māndavya, Māndūkeya, Gārgī Vākaknavī, Vadavā Prātītheyī, Sulabhā
Maitreyī, Kahola Kauśītaka, Mahā-Kauśītaka, Paiṅgya, Mahāpaiṅgya, Suyajña
Sāṅkhāyana, Aitareya, Mahaitareya, the Sākala (text), the Bāshkala (text),
Sugātavaktra, Audavāhi, Mahaudavāhi, Saugāmi, Saunaka, Āśvalāyana—and
whatsoever other teachers there are, may they all satiate themselves.'186

                                                                                                               
183
Prajāpati and the following words stand in the nominative; the verb to be supplied is tripyatu
(tripyantu), 'may he (they) satiate himself (themselves).'
184
Comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya IV, 9. Nārāyana: 'Having finished (the Svādhyāya) he satiates with water
oblations these deities.'
185
Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya IV, 10. Sāṅkhāyana has pāvamānāh, the (Rishis) of the Pavamāna hymns,' but
pragāthāh as Āśvalāyana has, and not as we should expect, prājāthāh.
186
The names from Kahola Kauśītaki down to Āśvalāyana stand in the accusative; tarpayāmi, 'I satiate
so-and-so.' is to be supplied.
   41  

5. After he has satiated the Ancestors one by one,187 and has returned to his house,
what he gives (then), that is the sacrificial fee.
6. And it is also understood (in the Sruti), 'May he be standing, walking, sitting, or
lying, (the texts belonging to) whatsoever sacrifice he repeats, that sacrifice indeed he
has offered.'188
7. It is understood (in the Sruti), 'Regarding this (Svādhyāya) there are two cases in
which the study (of the sacred texts) is forbidden: when he is impure himself, and
when the place is.'

KAṆḌIKĀ 5.
1. Now (follows) the Adhyāyopākarana (i.e. the ceremony by which the annual course
of study is opened);
2. When the herbs appear, (when the moon stands in conjunction) with Sravana, in the
Śrāvana month,189
3. Or on the fifth (Tithi of that month), under (the Nakṣatra) Hasta.
4. Having sacrificed the two Ājya portions, he should offer Ājya oblations (to the
following deities, viz.) Sāvitrī, Brahman, Belief, Insight, Wisdom, Memory,
Sadasaspati, Anumati, the metres, and the Rishis.190
5. He then sacrifices grains with curds (with the following texts):
6. 'I praise Agni the Purohita'—this one verse (Rig-Veda I, 1, 1),
7. 'The Kushumbhaka (mungoose?) has said it'—'If thou criest, O bird, announce luck
to us Sung by Jamadagni'—'In thy abode the whole world rests' —'Come to our
sacrifice, O you that are worthy of sacrifice, with care'—'Whosoever, be he ours, be
he alien'—'Look on, look about'—'Come here, Agni, the Maruts' friend'—'The
oblation, O king, cooked for thee'—each time two verses;191
8. 'United is your will' (Rig-veda 10:191, 4)—this one verse;
9. 'That blessing and bliss we choose'—this one verse.192

                                                                                                               
187
Nārāyana: 'He satiates his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, and goes to his house. What he
then gives, for instance, food offered to guests, or given as alms (to religious beggars), is considered as
the sacrificial fee for the Brahmayajña.'
188
Comp. Satapatha Brāhmana XI, 5, 7, 3. 4.
189
Perhaps the division of these Sūtras should be altered, so that srāvanasya would belong to Sūtra 2. In
this case we should have to translate, '2. When the herbs appear, (on a day on which the moon stands in
conjunction) with Sravana. 3. Or on the fifth (Tithi) of the Srāvana month, under (the Nakṣatra) Hasta.'
Comp. srāvanasya pañkamīm, Par. II, 10, 2. If we count the month beginning with the bright fortnight,
and assume that the full moon day of Srāvana falls, as the name of the month implies, on Sravana, the
fifth Tithi of that month will fall indeed on Hasta. Comp. on the dates of the Upākarana, Prof. Weber's
remarks, Die vedischen Nachrichten von den Naxatra II, 322, and on the special symbolical
signification of the Nakṣatra Sravana in this connection, my note on Sāṅkhāyana IV, 5, 2.
190
On the two Ājya portions, comp. above, I, 3, 5; 10, 13 seqq.
191
Comp. Sāṅkhāyana IV, 5, 8. The verses with which the oblations are performed, are the first and last
verses of each Mandala.
192
This is the last verse of the Rik-Samhitā in the Bāshkala Sākhā. See my note on Sāṅkhāyana IV, 5,
9.
   42  

10. When he intends to study (the Veda together with pupils), he should, while the
pupils take hold of him, sacrifice to those deities193, and sacrifice to (Agni) Sviṣṭakrit,
and partake of the grains with curds; then (follows) the 'cleaning.'
11. Sitting down to the west of the fire on Darbha grass, the tufts of which are
directed towards the east, he should put Darbha blades into a water-pot, and making a
Brahmāñjali194 (i.e. joining his hands as a sign of veneration for the Brahman), he
should murmur (the following texts):
12. The Vyāhritis preceded by (the syllable) Om (stand first); (these) and the Sāvitrī
he should repeat three times and then recite the beginning of the Veda.
13. In the same way at the Utsarga (i.e. at the ceremony performed at the end of the
term of Vedic study).
14. He should study six months.
15. One who has performed the Samāvartana195 (should live during that time)
according to the regulations for Brahmacārins.
16. The others according to the rules.196
17. Some say that he should have intercourse with his wife.197
18. That (is a practice) sacred to Prajāpati.
19. This (Upākarana) they call vārshika (i.e. belonging to the rainy season).
20. On the middle Aṣṭakā they offer food to those deities, and descend into water.198
21. They satiate those same deities (with water oblations),
22. (And besides) the Ācāryas, the Rishis, and the Ancestors.
23. This is the Utsarjana.199

KAṆḌIKĀ 6.
1. Instead of the Kāmya ceremonies (i.e. the ceremonies, prescribed in the Srauta-
sūtra, by which special wishes are attained, oblations of) boiled (rice) grains, for the
attainment of those wishes, (should be made by the Grihya sacrificer).200
2. He attains (thereby) those same wishes.

                                                                                                               
193
The expression, 'Those deities' would, according to Nārāyana, refer not only to the deities stated in
Sūtra 4, but also to the deities of the first and last verses of the Mandalas (Sūtras 6 seqq.). On the grains
with curds, comp. Sūtra 5. The technical sense of the 'cleaning' is explained in the Srauta-sūtra I, 8, 2;
The sacrificer covers his joined hands with the Kuśa grass spread out round the fire, and has water
sprinkled on them.
194
On the term brahmāñjali, comp. Manu II, 71.
195
On the Samāvartana, see below, chap. 8 seq. The restrictions referred to consist in the interdiction of
eating honey and meat, of having sexual intercourse, of sleeping in a bedstead and in the day-time, &c.
Nārāyana.
196
ie. the Brahmacārins.
197
I.e. one who has performed the Samāvartana.
198
After the six months (Sūtra 14) have elapsed, on the Aṣṭakā of Māgha.
199
Or Utsarga, see Sūtra 13.
200
Nārāyana divides this Sūtra into two: 1. atha kāmyānām sthāne kāmyāh; 2. karavah.
   43  

3. For a person that is sick, or suffering, or affected with consumption, a mess of

boiled (rice) grains in six oblations (should he offered)—
4. With this (hymn), 'I loosen thee by sacrificial food, that thou mayst live' (Rig-veda
10:161).
5. If he has seen a bad dream, he should worship the sun with the two verses, 'To-day,
god Savitri' (Rig-veda V, 82, 4, 5), and with the five verses, 'What bad dreams there
are among the cows' (Rig-veda VIII, 47, 14 seqq.),
6. Or with (the verse), 'Whosoever, O king, be it a companion or a friend' (Rig-veda
II, 28, 10).
7. When he has sneezed, yawned, seen a disagreeable sight, smelt a bad smell, when
his eye palpitates, and when he hears noises in his ears, he should murmur, 'Well-eyed
may I become with my eyes, well-vigoured with my face, well-hearing with my ears.
May will and insight dwell in me!'
8. If he has gone to a wife to whom he ought not to go, or if he has performed a
sacrifice for a person for whom he ought not to do so, or has eaten forbidden food, or
accepted what he ought not to accept, or pushed against a piled-up (fire altar) or
against a sacrificial post, he should sacrifice two Ājya oblations with (the verses),201
'May my faculties return into me, may life return, may prosperity return; may my
goods return to me; may the divine power return into me. Svāhā!
'These fires that are stationed on the (altars called) Dhishnyās, may they be here in
good order, each on its right place. (Agni) Vaisvānara, grown strong, the standard of
immortality, may he govern my mind in my heart. Svāhā!'202
9. Or (he may sacrifice) two pieces of wood,
10. Or murmur (the same two verses without any oblation).

KAṆḌIKĀ 7.
1. If the sun sets while he is sleeping without being sick, he should spend the rest of
the night keeping silence, without sitting down, and should worship the sun (when it
rises) with the five (verses), 'The light, O sun, by which thou destroyest darkness'
(Rig-veda 10:37, 4 seq.).
2. If (the sun) rises (while he is sleeping without being sick), being fatigued without
having done any work, or having done work that is not becoming, he should keep
silence, &c., as before, and perform his worship (to the sun) with the following four
(verses, Rig-veda 10:37, 9 seq.).203

                                                                                                               
201
Nārāyana is evidently wrong in explaining caityam yūpañ ka by agnikayanastham yūpam (which is
not, as Prof. Stenzler takes it, der Opferpfahl auf einem Bestattungsplatze). Comp. Gobhila III, 3, 34;
Grihya-samgraha-parisiṣṭa II, 4.
202
I have translated the second verse in Sūtra 8, as if the text had kalpantām. The MSS. give kalpatām.
Atharva-veda VII, 67 has kalpayantām.
203
Perhaps we should correct the text, akarmasrāntam anabhirūpena karmanā vā vājyata iti, &c.
   44  

3. Invested with the sacrificial cord, constantly fulfilling the prescribed duties
regarding the use of water, he should perform the Sandhyā (or twilight devotion),
observing silence.204
4. In the evening he should, turning his face to the north-west, to the region between
the chief (west) point and the intermediate (north-western) point (of the horizon),
murmur the Sāvitrī, (beginning) when the sun is half set, until the stars appear.
5. In the same way in the morning—
6. Standing, with his face turned to the east, until the disk (of the sun) appears.
7. If a dove flies against his house or towards it, he should sacrifice with (the hymn),
'O gods, the dove' (Rig-veda 10:165), verse by verse, or should murmur (that hymn).
8. 'We have thee, O Lord of the path' (Rig-veda 6:53)—if he is going out for doing
some business.
9. 'Bring us together, Pūṣan, with a knowing one' (Rig-Veda 6:54)—if he wishes to
find something lost, or if he has strayed.205
10. 'Journey over the ways, Pūṣan' (Rig-veda 1:42)—if he is going out on a long or
dangerous way.

KAṆḌIKĀ 8.
1. Now when returning (home from his teacher) he should get the following things,
viz. a jewel (to be tied round the neck), two ear-rings, a pair of garments, a parasol, a
pair of shoes, a staff, a wreath, (pounded seed of the Karañja fruit) for rubbing with,
ointment, eye salve, a turban; (all that) for himself and for the teacher.
2. If he cannot get it for both, only for the teacher.
3. He then should get a piece of wood of a tree which is sacrificially pure, in a north-
eastern direction—
4. Sappy (wood) if he wishes for the enjoyment of food, or for prosperity, or for
splendour; dry (wood), if for holy lustre,
5. (Wood) which is both (sappy and dry, in its different parts), if (he wishes) for both.
6. Having put the piece of wood on high,206 and having given a cow and food to the
Brāhmanas, he should perform the ceremony of shaving the beard.
7. He should alter the texts so that they refer to himself.207
8. With Ekaklītaka208 (he should perform the rubbing).

                                                                                                               
204
See Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya II, 9. There the same word anvaṣṭamadesa occurs.
205
Mūlha may either mean, 'having lost his way,' or 'bewildered in his mind.' Nārāyana prefers the
latter explanation ('prajñāhīnah').
206
'On high' means 'not on the ground' (Nārāyana). On the gaudānikam karma (the shaving of the
beard), comp. above, Adhyāya I, Kandikā 18. The word 'ceremony' would mean here, according to
Nārāyana, that he should perform the rite alone, without observing such prescriptions as stated above,
I, 18, 7.
207
Thus, instead of 'Herb! protect him!' (I, 17, 8) he is to say, 'Herb! protect me!' and so on.
   45  

9. Having washed himself with lukewarm water, and having put on two (new)
garments which have not yet been washed, with (the verse), 'Garments with fat
splendour you put on, (Mitra and Varuna)' (Rig-veda I, 152, 1); he should anoint his
eyes with (the words), 'The sharpness of the stone art thou; protect my eye.'
10. With (the words), 'The sharpness of the stone art thou; protect my ear'—he should
tie on the two ear-rings.
11. After having salved his two hands with ointment, a Brāhmana should salve his
head first,
12. A Rājanya his two arms,
13. A Vaiśya the belly,
14. A woman her secret parts,
15. Persons who gain their livelihood by running, their thighs.
16. With (the formula), 'Free from pain art thou, free from pain may I become'—he
should put on the wreath.
17. Not (such a wreath) which is called mālā.
18. If they call it mālā, he should cause them to call it srag.
19. With (the formula), 'The standing-places of the gods are you; protect me from all
sides'—he steps into the shoes, and with (the formula), 'The heaven's covering art
thou'—he takes the parasol.
20. With (the formula), 'Reed thou art; from the tree thou descendest; protect me from
all sides'—(he takes) a staff of reed.
21. Having with the hymn 'Giving life' tied the jewel to his neck and arranged the
turban (on his head), he should standing put the piece of wood (on the fire).209

KAṆḌIKĀ 9.
1. (He says), 'Memory and reproach210 and knowledge, faith, and wisdom as the fifth,
what is sacrificed, and what is given, and what is studied, and what is done, truth,
learning, vow—
'The vow which belongs to Agni together with Indra, with Prajāpati, with the Rishis,
with the royal ones among the Rishis, with the Ancestors, with the royal ones among
the Ancestors, with the human beings, with the royal ones among the human beings,
                                                                                                               
208
Ekaklītaka is, according to Nārāyana and the Prayogaratna, the seed of such a Karañja fruit
(Pongamia Glabra, Vent.) which contains only one grain of seed. Such grains are pounded before he
rubs himself therewith.
209
On the hymn beginning with the words 'Giving life,' see Prof. Stenzler's note on this Sūtra. Its first
verse is identical with Vājasaneyi Samhitā 34:50 (comp. also Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya III, 1, 7), and so are
most of its verses found in that Samhitā or in the Atharva-veda; the whole of it occurs among the Rig-
veda Khilas (vol. vi, p. 25, 2-12).
210
'"My memory and my non-memory, that is my double vow"—in this way the twelve (parts of which
the first section of the Mantra consists) should be recited.' Nārāyana. I think the commentator is wrong
here, and that section should rather be recited as it is given in the text without any alteration; it forms a
regular Sloka. Agneh instead of Agne is a conjecture of Prof. Stenzler, which I have adopted.
   46  

with shine, over-shine, after-shine, counter-shine, with gods and men, with
Gandharvas and Apsaras, with wild animals and domestic animals,—the vow,
belonging to my own self, dwelling in my own self, that is my universal vow. Hereby,
O Agni, I become addicted to the universal vow. Svāhā!'
2. With (the hymn), 'Mine, Agni, be vigour' (Rig-veda 10:128, 1), verse by verse, he
should put pieces of wood (on the fire).211
3. He should pass that night at a place where they will do honour to him.212
4. When, after having finished his (task of) learning, he has offered something to the
teacher, 213 or has received his permission, he should take a bath(which signifies the
end of his studentship).
5. He (i.e. the Snātaka) has to keep the following observances:
6. He shall not bathe in the night-time; he shall not bathe naked; he shall not lie down
naked; he shall not look at a naked woman, except during sexual intercourse; he shall
not run during rain; he shall not climb up a tree; he shall not descend into a well; he
shall not swim with his arms across a river; he shall not expose himself to danger. 'A
great being indeed is a Snātaka'—thus it is understood (in the Sruti).

KAṆḌIKĀ 10.
1. If (a student) wishes to be dismissed (by his teacher),214 he should pronounce before
the teacher his (i.e. the teacher's?) name—
2. (And should say), 'Here we will dwell, sir!'215
3. With a loud voice (the words) following after the name.
4. 'Of inhalation and exhalation'—(this he says) with a low voice,
5. And (the verse), 'Come hither, Indra, with thy lovely-sounding, fallow-coloured
(horses)' (Rig-veda III, 45, 1).
6. The aged one then murmurs, 'To inhalation and exhalation I, the wide-extended
one, resort with thee. To the god Savitri I give thee in charge'—and the verse.216

                                                                                                               
211
According to Nārāyana the hymn should be recited including the Khila, so that ten pieces of wood
are offered. Now the hymn consists of nine verses; there can be, consequently, only one Khailika verse,
which is, I suppose, the first verse of the Khila quoted above, p. 228.
212
By a Madhuparka (Nārāyana). Compare Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya III, 1, 14.
213
Nārāyana: He makes an offer to the teacher in the words, 'What is it that I can do for you?'—and
what the teacher tells him, that he does.
214
Nārāyana refers this rule to a student who has performed the Samāvartana and wishes to go away.
But a comparison of Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya II, 18 seems to make it probable that the ceremony described
here has nothing to do with the Samāvartana.
I take this chapter rather for a description of the way in which a student has to take leave of his teacher
when setting out on a journey. 'His name' is the teacher's name, according to Nārāyana.
215
Sāṅkhāyana II, 18, 1. Sāṅkh. has aham vatsyāmi; Āśvalāyana, idam vatsyārnah. The commentator
says that instead of idam the Āsrama is to be named which the student chooses to enter upon, for
instance, Devadatta, we will dwell in the state of a householder, sir!'
216
I have translated, as Prof. Stenzler has also done, according to Sāṅkhāyana's reading, prānāpānā . . .
tvayā. The 'aged one' is the teacher, the verse that which is quoted in Sūtra 5.
   47  

7. When he has finished (that verse), and has muttered, 'Om! Forwards! Blessing!' and
recited (over the student the hymn), 'The great bliss of the three' (Rig-veda 10:185)—
(he should dismiss him).
8. On one who has been thus dismissed, danger comes from no side—thus it is
understood (in the Sruti).
9. If he hears (on his way) disagreeable voices of birds, he should murmur the two
hymns, 'Shrieking, manifesting his being' (Rig-veda II, 42, 43), and (the verse), 'The
divine voice have the gods created' (Rig-veda 8:100, 11).
10. 'Praise the renowned youth who sits on the war-chariot' (Rig-veda II, 33, 11)—if
(he hears disagreeable voices) of deer.
11. From the direction, or from the (being) from which he expects danger, towards
that direction he should throw a fire-brand, burning on both sides, or having twirled
about a churning-stick from the right to the left, with (the words), 'Safety be to me,
Mitra and Varuna; encounter the foes and burn them up with your flame. May they
find none who knows them and no support; divided by discord may they go to
death'—
12. He turns the churning-stick downwards with (the verse), 'The combined wealth of
both, heaped together' (Rig-veda 10:84, 7).

KAṆḌIKĀ 11.
1. If unknown danger from all sides (menaces him), he should sacrifice eight Ājya
oblations with (the formulas),217
'Prithivī (the earth) is covered; she is covered by Agni. By her, the covered one, the
covering one, I ward off the danger of which I am in fear. Svāhā!
'Antarikṣa (the air) is covered; it is covered by Vāyu. By it, the covered, the covering,
I ward off the danger of which I am in fear. Svāhā!
'Dyaus (the heaven) is covered; she is covered by Āditya (the sun). By her, &c.
'The quarters (of the horizon) are covered; they are covered by Kandramas (the
moon). By them, &c.
'The waters are covered; they are covered by Varuna. By them, &c.
'The creatures are covered; they are covered by Prāna (the breath). By them, &c.
'The Vedas are covered; they are covered by the metres. By them, &c.
'All is covered; it is covered by Brahman. By it, &c. Svāhā!'
2. Then, stationing himself towards the north, east, he murmurs the Svasti-Ātreya and,
'Of what we are in fear, Indra' (Rig-veda VIII, 61, 13 seqq.), down to the end of the
hymn.218

                                                                                                               
217
'Covered' is vrita; 'I ward off' is the causative of the same verb, vāraye.
218
The Svasti-Ātreya is the part of the hymn V, 51, which very frequently contains the word svasti (vv.
11-15). There is a Khila appended to that hymn (Rig-veda, vol. iii, p. 30), which, according to
Nārāyana, is also to be murmured on this occasion.
   48  

KAṆḌIKĀ 12.
1. When a battle is beginning, (the royal Purohita) should cause the king to put on his
armour (in the following way).
2. (The Purohita) stations himself to the west of (the king's) chariot with (the hymn?),
'I have brought thee hither; be here' (Rig-veda 10:173).219
3. With (the verse), 'Like a thunder-cloud is his countenance' (Rig-veda 6:75, 1), he
should tender the coat of mail to him.
4. With the following (verse) the bow.
5. The following (verse) he should cause him to repeat.
6. He should murmur himself the fourth.
7. With the fifth he should tender the quiver to him.
8. When (the king) starts, the sixth.
9. The seventh (he recites) over the horses.
10. The eighth he should cause (the king) to repeat while looking at the arrows;
11. (The verse), 'Like a serpent it encircles the arm with its windings' (Rig-veda 6:75,
14), when he ties to his arm the leather (by which the arm is protected against the
bow-string).
12. He then mounts up to (the king on his chariot), while he is driving, and causes him
to repeat the Abhīvarta hymn (Rig-veda 10:174) and the two verses, 'He who, Mitra
and Varuna' (Rig-veda 8:101, 3 seq.).220
13. He then should look at him with the Apratiratha, Sāsa, and Sauparna hymns.221
14. The Sauparna is (the hymn), 'May the streams of honey and ghee flow
forwards.'222
15. (The king) should drive (in his chariot successively) to all quarters (of the
horizon).
16. He should commence the battle in the line of battle invented by Āditya or by
Usanas.
17. He 223 should touch the drum with the three verses, 'Fill earth and heaven with thy
roar' (Rig-veda VI, 47, 29 seqq.).

                                                                                                               
219
According to Nārāyana the Pratīka here signifies not the verse, but the whole hymn, though a whole
Pāda is given (comp. Srauta-sūtra I, 1, 17).
220
The Abhīvarta hymn begins with the word abhīvartena, and is ascribed to Abhīvarta Āṅgirasa.
221
The Apratiratha hymn is Rig-veda 10:103 (ascribed to Apratiratha Aindra); the Sāsa, 10:152
(ascribed to Sāsa Bhāradvāja). On the Sauparna, see the next Sūtra.
222
This hymn is not found in any Vedic Samhitā, as far s I know, nor does it occur in the
Suparnādhyāya. I have followed Prof. Stenzler's conjecture pra dhārā yantu instead of pradhārayantu,
which is confirmed by Sāyana's note on Aitareya Brāhmana VI, 25, 7; VIII, 10, 4 (pp. 365, 399 ed.
Aufrecht).
223
According to Nārāyana the subject is the king.
   49  

18. With (the verse), 'Shot off fall down' (Rig-veda VI, 75, 16), he should shoot off
the arrows.
19. 'Where the arrows fly' (l.l. v. 17)—this (verse) he224 should murmur while they are
fighting.
20. Or he should teach (the king the texts mentioned). Or he should teach (the king).

End of the Third Adhyāya.

ADHYĀYA 4, KAṆḌIKĀ 1.

1. If disease befalls one who has set up the (sacred Srauta) fires, he should leave his
home (and go away) to the eastern, or northern, or north-eastern direction.225
2. 'The sacred fires are fond of the village'—thus it is said.
3. Longing for it, desirous of returning to the village they might restore him to health-
thus it is understood (in the Sruti).226
4. Being restored to health, he should offer a Soma sacrifice, or an animal sacrifice, or
an ordinary sacrifice, and take his dwelling (again in the village).227
5. Or without such a sacrifice.228
6. If he dies, one should have a piece of ground dug up to the south-east or to the
south-west—
7. At a place which is inclined towards the south or towards the south-east.
8. According to some (teachers), inclined towards south-west.
9. (The piece of ground dug up should be) of the length of a man with upraised arms,
10. Of the breadth of one Vyāma (fathom),
11. Of the depth of one Vitasti (span).
12. The cemetery should be free from all sides.
13. It should be fertile in herbs.
14. But plants with thorns and with milky juice, &c., as stated above.229
15. From which the waters flow off to all sides: this is a characteristic required for the
cemetery (smasāna)230 where the body is to be burned.231

                                                                                                               
224
Here the subject is the Purohita.
225
Comp. Srauta-sūtra VI, 9, 1. The funeral rites according to the Grihya-sūtras have been treated of by
Prof. Max Müller, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. ix.
226
I.e. longing for the village. I here differ from Prof. Stenzler's translation, 'Indem sie, um nach dem
Dorfe zu kommen, ihm Gutes wünschen.' Prof. Stenzler here follows Nārāyana, who has the following
note, grāmam āgantum ikkhanto’gnaya enam āhitāgnim āsamsante, ayam agado bhaved iti.
227
Comp. Srauta-sūtra VI, 9, 7.
228
Srauta-sūtra VI, 10, 1.
229
See above, II, 7, 5.
   50  

16. 'They cut off (from the dead body) the hair, the beard, the hairs of the body, and
the nails'— this has been stated above.232
17. (They should provide) plenty of sacrificial grass and of butter.233
18. They here234 pour clarified butter into curds.
19. This is the 'sprinkled butter' used for the Ancestors (i.e. Manes).

KAṆḌIKĀ 2.
1. (The relations of the dead person) now carry (his sacred) fires and (his) sacrificial
vessels in that direction.235
2. After them aged persons forming an odd number, men and women not going
together, (carry) the dead body.
3. Some (say) that (the dead body should be carried) in a cart with a seat, drawn by
cows.
4. (Some prescribe) a she-animal for covering (the dead body with its limbs):236
5. A cow,
6. Or a she-goat of one colour.
7. Some (take) a black one.
8. They tie (a rope) to its left fore-foot and lead it behind (the dead body).
9. Then follow the relations (of the dead person), wearing their sacrificial cords below
(round their body), with the hair-locks untied, the older ones first, the younger ones
last.
10. When they have thus arrived at the place, the performer (of the rites) walks three
times round the spot with his left side turned towards it, and with a Samī branch
sprinkles water on it, with (the verse), 'Go away, withdraw, and depart from here'
(Rig-veda 10:14, 9).237
11. To the south-east, on an elevated corner (of that place), he places the Āhavanīya
fire,
12. To the north-west the Gārhapatya fire,238

                                                                                                               
230
Nārāyana: By the word smasāna (cemetery) two different smasānas are designated here, because
below (Sūtra 15) a distinction is added (to the word smasāna), in the words, 'This is a characteristic
required for the smasāna where the body is to be burned.' Thus the place where the body is burned, and
the place where the gathered bones are deposited, both are called smasāna.
231
See the note on Sūtra 12.
232
See the Srauta-sūtra VI, 10, 2.
233
Dvigulpham barhir ājyañ ca. Nārāyana explains dvigulpha by prabhūta. Comp. bahulatrina,
Kātyāyana XXV, 7, 15.
234
'Here' means, at a ceremony directed to the Manes. Nārāyana.
235
In the direction stated above, chap. 1, 6.
236
See chap. 3, 20-25.
237
Kartodakena (i.e. kartā udakena) is evidently the right reading, not gartodakena.
238
The words, 'on an elevated corner' (Sūtra 11) have to be supplied.
   51  

13. To the south-west the Dakṣina fire.

14. After that a person that knows (how to do it), piles up between the fires a pyre of
fuel.239
15. After sacrificial grass and a black antelope's skin with the hair outside has been
spread out there, they place the dead body thereon, which they have carried so as to
pass by the Gārhapatya fire on its north-side, turning its head towards the Āhavanīya.
16. To the north (of the body they seat) the wife (of the deceased),240
17. And a bow for a Kṣatriya.
18. Her brother-in-law, being a representative of her husband, or a pupil (of her
husband), or an aged servant, should cause her to rise (from that place) with (the
verse), 'Arise, O wife, to the world of life' (Rig-veda 10:18, 8).241
19. The performer (of the rites) should murmur (that verse), if a Sūdra242 (makes her
rise from the pyre).
20. With (the verse), 'Taking the bow out of the hand of the deceased' (Rig-veda
10:18, 9), (he takes away) the bow.
21. It has been stated (what is to be done) in case a Sūdra (should perform this act).
22. Having bent the bow, he should, before the piling up (of the things mentioned
below, which are put on the dead body) is done, break it to pieces, and throw it (on
the pyre).243

KAṆḌIKĀ 3.
1. He should then put the following (sacrificial) implements (on the dead body).244
2. Into the right hand the (spoon called) Juhū.
3. Into the left the (other spoon called) Upabhrit.
4. On his right side the (wooden sacrificial sword called) Sphya, on his left (side) the
Agnihotrahavanī (i.e. the ladle with which the Agnihotra oblations are sacrificed).
5. On his chest the (big sacrificial ladle called) Dhruvā. On his head the dishes. On his
teeth the pressing-stones.
6. On the two sides of his nose the two (smaller sacrificial ladles called) Sruvas.
7. Or, if there is only one (Sruva), breaking it (in two pieces).

                                                                                                               
239
As to the pronoun enam, which refers, with an irregular p. 239 construction, to the dead person,
comp Satapatha Brāhmana 12:5, 2, 7.
240
The wife is made to lie down on the pyre.
241
Possibly the words devarah and patisthānīyah refer to two different persons, so that we should have
to translate, 'Her brother-in-law, (or some other) representative of her husband, &c.'
242
This refers to the case of the aged servant. The word for which we have put Sūdra here and in Sūtra
21, is vrishala.
243
See Sūtra 19.
244
On the different implements mentioned in the following Sūtras, comp. Prof. Max Müller's paper in
the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. ix, pp. vii seqq.; lxxviii seqq.
   52  

8. On his two ears the two Prāsitraharanas (i.e. the vessels into which the portion of
the sacrificial food belonging to the Brahman is put).245
9. Or, if there is only one (Prāsitraharana), breaking it (in two pieces).
10. On his belly the (vessel called) Pātrī,
11. And the cup into which the cut-off portions (of the sacrificial food) are put.
12. On his secret parts the (staff called) Samyā.
13. On his thighs the two kindling woods.
14. On his legs the mortar and the pestle.
15. On his feet the two baskets.
16. Or, if there is only one (basket), tearing it (in two pieces).
17. Those (of the implements) which have a hollow (into which liquids can be
poured), are filled with sprinkled butter.246
18. The son (of the deceased person) should take the lower and the upper mill-stone
for himself.
19. And the implements made of copper, iron, and earthenware.247
20. Taking out the omentum of the she-animal [that has been sacrificed] he should
cover therewith the head and the mouth (of the dead person) with the verse, 'Put on
the armour (which will protect thee) against Agni, by (that which comes from) the
cows' (Rig-veda 10:16, 7).248
21. Taking out the kidneys (of the animal) he should lay them into the hands (of the
dead body) with the verse, 'Escape the two hounds, the sons of Saramā' (Rig-veda
10:14, 10), the right (kidney) into the right (hand), the left into the left.
22. The heart (of the animal he puts) on the heart (of the deceased).
23. And two lumps (of flour or rice), according to some (teachers).249
24. (Only) if there are no kidneys, according to some (teachers).250
25. Having distributed the whole (animal), limb by limb (placing its different limbs on
the corresponding limbs of the deceased), and having covered it with its hide, he
recites, when the Pranīta water is carried forward, (the verse), 'Agni, do not overturn
this cup' (Rig-veda 10:16, 8).251

                                                                                                               
245
On the Prāsitra and the Prāsitraharanas, comp. Hillebrandt, Neu- and Vollmondsopfer, pp. 119 (with
note 6), 120, 131
246
Nārāyana explains āsecanavanti by bilavanti. On prishadājya ('sprinkled butter') comp. the two last
Sūtras of the first chapter.
247
The statement in Satapatha Brāhmana XII, 5, 2, 14 is somewhat different.
248
Anustaranyā vapām. See chap. 2, 4.
249
Nārāyana states that these lumps are not put, as one would be inclined to believe, on the heart, but
into the hands of the deceased. Sūtra 24 shows that this interpretation is correct.
250
I.e. if there is no Anustaranī animal, which is considered as optional (see chap. 2, 4).
251
Comp. Kātyāyana 25:7, 35.
   53  

26. Bending his left knee he should sacrifice Ājya oblations into the Dakṣina fire with
(the formulas), 'To Agni svāhā! To Kāma svāhā! To the world svāhā! To Anumati
svāhā!'
27. A fifth (oblation) on the chest of the deceased with (the formula), 'From this one
verily thou hast been born. May he now be born out of thee,252 so-and-so.! To the
heaven-world svāhā!'

KAṆḌIKĀ 4.
1. He gives order, 'Light the fires together.'
2. If the Āhavanīya fire reaches (the body) first, he should know, 'It has reached him
in the heaven-world. He will live there in prosperity, and so will this one, i.e. his son,
in this world.'253
3. If the Gārhapatya fire reaches (the body) first, he should know, 'It has reached him
in the air-world. He will live there in prosperity, and so will this one, i.e. his son, in
this world.'254
4. If the Dakṣina fire reaches (the body) first, he should know, 'It has reached him in
the world of men. He will live there in prosperity, and so will this one, i.e. his son, in
this world.'255
5. If (the three fires) reach (the body) in the same moment, they say that this signifies
the highest luck.256
6. While (the body) is burning, he recites over it the same texts, 'Go on, go on, on the
ancient paths' (Rig-veda 10:14, 7).257
7. Being burnt by a person who knows this, he goes to the heaven-world together with
the smoke (of the funeral pyre)—thus it is understood (in the Sruti).
8. To the north-east of the Āhavanīya fire he should have a knee-deep pit dug and
should have an Avakā, i.e. (the water-plant called) Sīpāla put down into it. From that
(pit) he (i.e. the deceased) goes out and together with the smoke he goes up to the
heaven-world—thus it is understood (in the Sruti).258
9. After he has recited (the verse), 'These living ones have separated from the dead'
(Rig-veda 10:18, 3), they turn round from right to left and go away without looking
back.
10. When they have come to a place where standing water is, having once (plunged
into it and) emerged from it, they pour out one handful (of water), pronounce the

                                                                                                               
252
He who is born out of the deceased, is Agni. See Satapatha Brāhmana II, 3, 3, 5; and also XII, 5, 2,
15.
253
Satapatha Brāhmana XII, 5, 2, 10.
254
Satapatha Brāhmana l.l. § 9.
255
Satapatha Brāhmana l.l. § 11.
256
Satapatha Brāhmana l.l. § 12.
257
'The same texts' means that the texts indicated in the Srauta-sūtra VI, 10, 19 (twenty-four verses
taken from the hymns X, 14, 16, 17, 18, 154) have to be recited.
258
Comp. above, II, 8, 14.
   54  

Gotra name and the proper name (of the deceased), go out (of the water), put on other
garments, wring out (the old garments) once, lay them away with their skirts to the
north, and sit down until the stars appear.259
11. Or they may enter (their houses), when still (a part) of the sun-disk is seen,
12. The younger ones first, the older ones last.260
13. When they have come to the houses, they touch a stone, the fire, cow's dung, fried
barley, sesamum seeds, and water.
14. Let them not cook food during that night.
15. Let them subsist on bought or ready-made food.261
16. Let them eat no saline food for three nights.
17. Let them optionally for twelve nights avoid the distribution of gifts and the study
(of Vedic texts), if one of the chief Gurus (has died).262
18. Ten days after (the death of) Sapindas,263
19. And of a Guru who is no Sapinda,
20. And of unmarried female relations.
21. Three nights after (the death of) other teachers,264
22. And of a relation who is no Sapinda,
23. And of married female relations,
24. Of a child that has no teeth,
25. And of a dead-born child.
26. One day, after (the death of) a fellow-pupil,
27. And of a Srotriya of the same village.

KAṆḌIKĀ 5.
1. The gathering (of the bones is performed) after the tenth (Tithi from the death), (on
a Tithi) with an odd number, of the dark fortnight, under a single Nakṣatra.265
                                                                                                               
259
'All the Samānodaka relations (see Manu V, 60), men and women, should pour out one handful of
water each. Pronouncing p. 244 the Gotra name and the proper name of the deceased, saying, for
instance, "Devadatta, belonging to the Gotra of the Kāsyapas, this water is for thee!"—they sprinkle it
out, with southward-turned faces.' Nārāyana.
260
Possibly praviseyuh (they should enter) belongs to this Sūtra. In Prof. Stenzler's edition and in the
commentary of Nārāyana it is taken as belonging to Sūtra 11.
261
Vasiṣṭha IV, 15. Nārāyana here observes, 'Some authorities omit this Sūtra.'
262
'Father and mother and the teacher who, after having performed the Upanayana for him, has taught
him the whole Veda, are the chief Gurus. When these have died, they should avoid giving gifts and
studying the Veda either for twelve nights, or for ten nights, this rule standing in correlation with the
following one.' Nārāyana.
263
The Sapinda relationship is generally defined as the relationship within six degrees, though the
statements in the different p. 245 texts do not exactly agree. See Āpastamba II, 15, -2; Manu V, 60;
Gautama XIV, 13 (with Prof. Bühler's note, Sacred Books, vol. ii, p. 247, &c.).
264
Comp. Sūtras 17, 19.
   55  

2. A man into a male urn266 without special marks, a woman into a female one without
special marks.
3. Aged persons of an odd number, not men and women together (gather the bones).267
4. The performer of the ceremony walks three times round the spot with his left side
turned towards it, and sprinkles on it with a Samī branch milk mixed with water, with
the verse, 'O cool one, O thou that art full of coolness' (Rig-veda 10:16,14).268
5. With the thumb and the fourth finger they should put each single bone (into the,
urn) without making a noise,
6. The feet first, the head last.
7. Having well gathered them and purified them with a winnowing basket,269 they
should put (the urn) into a pit, at a place where the waters from the different sides do
not flow together, except rain water, with (the verse), 'Go to thy mother Earth there'
(Rig-veda 10:18, 10).
8. With the following (verse) he should throw earth (into the pit).
9. After he has done so, (he should repeat) the following (verse).
10. Having covered (the urn) with a lid with (the verse), 'I fasten to thee' (Rig-veda
10:18,13), they then should go away without looking back, should bathe in water, and
perform a Śrāddha270 for the deceased.

KAṆḌIKĀ 6.
1. They who have lost a Guru by death, or are afflicted by other misfortune, should
perform on the new-moon day an rectification ceremony.
2. Before sunrise they should carry their fire271 together with its ashes and with its
receptacle to the south with the half-verse, 'I send far away the flesh-devouring Agni'
(Rig-veda 10:16,9).
3. Having thrown that (fire) down at a place where four roads meet or somewhere
else, they walk round it three times, turning their left sides towards it, beating their
left thighs with their left hands.272
                                                                                                               
265
Nārāyana (comp. the Āśvalāyana-Grihya-Parisiṣṭa III, 7) understands this Sūtra in a different way.
'After the tenth Tithi of the dark fortnight, on a Tithi with an odd number, is e. on the eleventh,
thirteenth, or fifteenth.' The single Nakṣatras are those the name of which does not denote two
Nakṣatras (as, for instance, the two Ashādhās). Comp. Kāty.-Sraut. XXV, 8, 1; Manu V, 59.
266
Urns, with or without protuberances like female breasts, are considered as female or male
accordingly.
267
See chap. 2, 2.
268
Comp. chap. 2, 10.
269
Nārāyana explains pavana by sūrpa. He says that the 'performer' (kartri) repeats this and the
following texts.
270
They should give a Srāddha to the deceased exclusively, according to the Ekoddiṣṭa rite.' Nārāyana.
271
According to Nārāyana the fire means here not the sacred domestic fire, but a common kitchen fire.
I doubt whether thecommentator is right. The ceremonies described in the following Sūtras seem to
point rather to a renewal of the sacred Grihya fire, the old one having proved unlucky to the sacrificer.
In the same way, in the Srauta ritual, a sacrificer who, after having performed the Ādhāna, has bad
luck, performs the Punarādheya.
   56  

4. They then should return home without looking back, bathe in water, have their hair,
their beards the hair of their bodies, and their nails cut, and furnish themselves with
new jars, pots, vessels for rinsing the mouth, wreathed with garlands of Samī flowers,
with fuel of Samī wood, with two pieces of Samī wood for kindling fire, and with
branches to be laid round the fire, with bull's dung and a bull's hide, fresh butter, a
stone, and as many bunches of Kuśa grass as there are young women (in the house).
5. At the time of the Agni(-hotra)273 he should kindle fire with the hemistich, 'Here
may this other Jātavedas' (Rig-veda 10:16, 9).
6. Keeping that (fire) burning, they sit till the silence of the night, repeating the tales
of the aged, and getting stories of auspicious contents, Itihāsas and Purānas, told to
them.
7. When all sounds have ceased, or when (the others) have gone to the house or the
resting-place, (the performer of the ceremony)274 should pour out an uninterrupted
stream of water, beginning at the south side of the door, with (the verse), 'Spinning
the thread follow the light of the aerial space' (Rig-veda 10:53, 6), (going round the
house), ending at the north side of the door.
8. Having then given its place to the fire,275 and having spread to the west of it a bull's
hide with the neck to the east, with the hair outside, he should cause the people
belonging to the house to step on that (hide) with (the verse), 'Arise to long life,
choosing old age' (Rig-veda 10:18, 6).
9. With (the verse), 'This I lay round the living' (Rig-veda 10:18, 4), he should lay
branches round (the fire).
10. After having with (the words), 'A mountain276 (i.e. a stone) they shall place
between themselves and death,' placed a stone to the north of the fire, and having
sacrificed with the four (verses), 'Go hence, O death, on another way' (Rig-veda
10:18, 1-4), verse by verse, he should look at his people with (the verse), 'As the days
follow each other' (ibid. 5).
11. The young women (belonging to the house) should, with each hand separately,
with their thumbs and fourth fingers, with young Darbha blades, salve their eyes with
fresh butter, and throw (the Darbha blades) away, turning their faces away.

                                                                                                               
272
Comp. Kātyāyana-Srauta-sūtra V, 10, r5.
273
The text has agnivelāyām, which Nārāyana explains by agni-hotra-viharana-kāle aparāhne. He
states that the fire should be produced by attrition of two new kindling woods (arani), mentioned in
Sūtra 4. The fire thus kindled is to be used, he says, as a kitchen-fire. Herein he seems to me to have
misunderstood the meaning of the ceremony; see the note on Sūtra 2. The hemistich quoted in this
Sūtra (which is the second half of the same verse of which the first half is prescribed in Sūtra 2) clearly
points to the sacred quality of the fire in question; it runs thus, 'Here may this other Jātavedas carry the
offerings to the gods, the knowing one.'
274
The person who pours out the water is, as Nārāyana says, the kartri, i.e. the performer of the whole
ceremony. The word cannot be translated, as Prof. Stenzler does, der Bestatter, no funeral ceremonies
being here treated of.
275
See above, I, 8, 9. Here Nārāyana sees that the fire is the sacred one. He says, athasabdo’smin
kāle’gnyantaram aupāsanam upasamādadhyād iti jñāpanārtham.
276
The words, 'A mountain,' &c., stand at the end of the verse quoted in Sūtra 9.
   57  

12. (The performer of the ceremony) should look at them, while they are salving
themselves, with (the verse), 'These women, being no widows, having noble
husbands' (Rig-veda 10:18, 7).
13. With (the verse), 'Carrying stones, (the river) streams forward; take hold of each
other' (Rig-veda 10:53, 8)—the performer (of the ceremony) first should touch the
stone.
14. After that, stationing himself to the northeast, while (the others) go round with the
fire, with bull's dung, and with an uninterrupted stream of water, repeating the three
verses, 'O waters, ye are wholesome' (Rig-veda 10:9, i seqq.), he should murmur the
verse, 'These have led round the cow' (Rig-veda 10:155, 5).
15. A tawny-coloured bull should he lead round—thus they say.
16. They then sit down at a place where they intend to tarry, having put on garments
that have not yet been washed.
17. (There) they sit, avoiding to sleep, till sunrise.
18. After sunrise, having murmured the hymns sacred to the sun and the auspicious
hymns, having prepared food, having made oblations with (the hymn), 'May he drive
evil away from us with his shine' (Rig-veda I, 97), verse by verse, having given to the
Brāhmanas to eat, he should cause (them) to pronounce auspicious words.277
19. A cow, a cup of metal, and a garment that has not yet been washed, constitute the
sacrificial fee.

KAṆḌIKĀ 7.
1. Now at a Śrāddha ceremony, at that which is celebrated on the Parvan day, or for
the attainment of special wishes, or at the Ābhyudayika Śrāddha (i.e. the Śrāddha
celebrated when some good luck has happened), or at the Ekoddiṣṭa Śrāddha (the
Śrāddha directed to a single dead person).278
2. He causes Brāhmanas who are endowed with learning, moral character, and correct
conduct, or with one of these (characteristics), who have been invited in time, who
have taken a bath, washed their feet, and sipped water, to sit down, as representatives
of the Ancestors, with their faces turned to the north, one for each one of the
Ancestors, or two for each, or three for each.
3. The larger their number is, the greater is the reward (which the sacrificer is entitled
to expect).
4. But in no case one (Brāhmana) for all (the Ancestors).
5. Optionally (he may invite only one Brāhmana) except at the first (Śrāddha).279

                                                                                                               
277
See above, II, 3, 13.
278
Comp. on the Srāddha ceremonies in general the note on Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya IV, 1, 1, and the
quotations given there. The Pārvana Srāddha, which is celebrated on the new-moon day, is treated of
by Sāṅkhāyana IV, 1, the Ābhyudayika Srāddha, IV, 4, the Ekoddiṣṭa Srāddha, IV, 2.
279
Anādye. Of the different interpretations of this word which Nārāyana gives, it may suffice here to
quote two. The first Srāddha may either mean the Pārvana Srāddha, because this stands first among the
different kinds of Srāddha ceremonies enumerated in Sūtra 1; or it may mean the Sapindīkarana (see
   58  

6. By (the exposition of) the Piṇḍa sacrifice (the corresponding rules) have been
declared (for the Śrāddha ceremonies also).280
7. Having given water (to the Brāhmanas),
8. Having given to them double-folded Darbha blades, and a seat,281
9. Having (again) given water (to them),282
10. Having poured water into three vessels of metal, of stone, and of earthen-ware, or
(into three vessels) made of the same substance, over which he has put Darbha grass,
And having recited over (that water the verse), 'For luck and help the divine waters'
(Rig-veda 10:9, 4), he pours sesamum seeds into it with (the formula), 'Sesamum art
thou; Soma is thy deity; at the Gosava sacrifice thou hast been created by the gods. By
the ancients thou hast been offered. Through the funeral oblation render the Ancestors
and these worlds propitious to us. Svadhā! Adoration!'
12. (The different rites are performed) from the right to the left.283
13. With (the part) of the other (i.e. left) hand between the thumb (and the fore-
finger), because he wears the sacrificial cord over his left shoulder, or with the right
hand which he seizes with the left (he offers the Arghya water to the Ancestors with
the words), 'Father, this is thy Arghya. Grandfather, this is thy Arghya. Great-
grandfather, this is thy Arghya'—having first offered (ordinary) water (to the
Ancestors).284
14. When he is going to hand over that (Arghya water to the Brāhmanas who
represent the Ancestors, he says once each time), 'Svadhā! The Arghya water!'
15. Over (the Arghya water) which has been poured out, he should recite the verse,
'The celestial waters which have been produced on the earth, the aerial waters and the
waters which are terrestrial, the gold-coloured ones, apt for sacrifice, may these
waters bring us luck and be kind to us.' Pouring together285 what has been left (in the
                                                                                                               
Sāṅkhāyana IV, 3), for this is the first occasion on which a dead person receives Srāddha oblations
together with two others of the Ancestors.
280
The sacrifice to the Manes, as forming part of the Srauta ritual, is explained in the Srauta-sūtra II, 6
seq.
281
Yājñavalkya I, 229.
282
Yājñavalkya I, 230. The reading of several words of the Mantra is doubtful, and the parallel texts, as
Prof. Stenzler has not failed to observe, differ; especially the words pratnavadbhih prattah seem to me
to be corrupt. The word pratnavat is only known to the Petersburg Dictionary as having the meaning,
'containing the word pratna,' which will not do here. Thus, I think that the reading pratnam adbhih
priktah should be adopted; the translation would be, 'Anciently thou hast been mixed with water.'
283
Comp. Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya IV, 4, 6.
284
The part of the hand above the thumb is called the 'Tīrtha belonging to the Manes;' see, for instance,
Baudhāyana's Dharma-sūtra I, 8, 16. The sacrificer is here understood to wear his sacrificial cord
suspended over the left shoulder (he is 'yājñopavītin'). But as the oblation here treated of is directed to
the Manes, it is required that he should be prācīnāvītin. Now he is considered as prācīnāvītin, according
to Nārāyana, not only if the cord is suspended over his right shoulder (which is the ordinary meaning of
prācīnāvītin), but also if the hand with which he performs the rites, and the shoulder over which he
wears the sacred cord, are either both right or both left. Thus here, acting with the left-hand and
wearing the cord over the left shoulder, he becomes prācīnāvītin.
The last word (appūrvam) is separated by Nārāyana from the rest, so that it forms a separate Sūtra.
285
The sacrificer gives the water to the Brāhmanas, and these pour it out. Instead of prithivī
sambabhūvuh (prithivī being intended as a locative; see Lanman, Noun-inflection in the Veda, p. 389)
   59  

three Arghya vessels) he moistens his face with that water, if he desires that a son
should be born to him.
16. 'He should not take up the first vessel, into which the Arghya water for the
Ancestors has been poured. Hidden the Ancestors dwell therein: thus Saunaka has
said.'286
17. In that moment the gifts of perfumes, garlands, incense, lights, and clothes are
offered (to the Brāhmanas).287
18. Having taken some food (of the Sthālīpāka prepared for the Piṇḍapitriyajña), and
having besmeared it with ghee, he asks (the Brāhmanas) for their permission by
saying, 'I shall offer it in the fire,' or, 'I will sacrifice my offering in the fire,' or, 'I will
offer it in the fire.'
19. The permission (is given in the words), 'It may be offered,' or, 'Sacrifice thy
offering,' or, Offer it.'
20. He then sacrifices in the fire as stated above.288
21. Or, if they give their permission, in the hands (of the Brāhmanas).289
22. 'The mouth of the gods verily is the fire, the mouth of the Ancestors is the hand'—
thus says the Brāhmana.
23. If in the hands, he assigns to them other food, after they have sipped water.
24. The food (is put together) with the food.290
25. It is said, 'What is given away and offered, that brings prosperity.'291
26. When he sees that they are satiated, he should recite (the verses) containing the
word madhu, and (the verse), 'They have eaten, they have enjoyed themselves' (Rig-
veda I, 82, 2).292
27. Having asked them, 'Relished?' and having taken the food, whatever food he has
used, together with the Sthālīpāka, in order to make lumps thereof, he should offer the
rest (to the Brāhmanas).293

                                                                                                               
we should read, no doubt, as the parallel texts have, payasā sambabhūvuh: 'The celestial waters which
have united themselves with milk.'
286
This is a Sloka.
287
Manu III, 209; Yājñavalkya I, 231.
288
The oblations alluded to in this Sūtra are prescribed in the Srauta-sūtra, II, 6, 12. They are directed
to Soma pitrimat and to Agni kavyavāhana.
289
According to Manu (III, 212) this is done only in case there is no fire. Possibly abhyanujñāyām
belongs to Sūtra 20, so that we should have to translate, 'He then sacrifices . . . if they give their
permission. Or in the hands.'
290
'The food which is left from the oblations he puts with the food (Sūtra 23) which is to be eaten by
the Brāhmanas, and has been put into the vessels.' Nārāyana.
291
Is sriṣṭam to be understood in the sense of visriṣṭam? Nārāyana explains it by prabhūtam.
292
The verses containing the word madhu are Rig-veda I, 90, 6-8.
293
On the question, 'Relished?' compare Sāṅkhāyana-Grihya IV, 2, 5. For several kinds of Srāddha
ceremonies a Sthālīpāka is prescribed, for others it is not; for the Srāddhas of the last kind the words
'Together with the Sthālīpāka' are not valid.
   60  

28. After they have either accepted (that rest of food), or left it (to him), and have
finished eating, he should, before they have sipped water, put down the lumps for the
Ancestors.
29. After they have sipped water, according to some (teachers).
30. Having strewn the food on the ground and suspended the sacrificial cord over his
left shoulder, he should dismiss the Brāhmanas, (saying to them), 'Say Om!
Svadhā!'294
31. Or, 'So be it! Svadhā!'

KAṆḌIKĀ 8.
1. Now the spit-ox295 (sacrificed to Rudra).
2. In autumn or in spring, under the (Nakṣatra) Ārdrā.
3. The best of his herd,
4. (An ox) which is neither leprous nor speckled;
5. One with black spots, according to some;296
6. If he likes, a black one, if its colour inclines to copper-colour.
7. He sprinkles it with water, into which he has thrown rice and barley,
8. From head to tail,
9. With (the formula), 'Grow up, agreeable to Rudra the great god.'
10. He should let it grow up. When it has cut its teeth, or when it has become a bull.297
11. To a quarter (of the horizon) which is sacrificially pure,298
12. At a place which cannot be seen from the village,
13. After midnight,
14. According to some, after sunrise.
15. Having caused a Brahman who is versed in learning and knows the practice (of
this sacrifice), to sit down, having driven a fresh branch with leaves into the ground as
a sacrificial post, (having taken) two creeping plants or two Kuśa ropes as two girdles,
and having wound the one round the sacrificial post, and tied the other round the
middle of the animal's head,299 he binds it to the sacrificial post or to the girdle (which
he had tied to that post) with (the formula), 'Agreeable to him to whom adoration (is
brought), I bind thee.

                                                                                                               
294
They reply, 'Om! Svadhā!'
295
According to Nārāyana, the 'spit-ox' sacrifice is so called because it is offered to Rudra the spit-
wearer.
296
Kalmāsho nāma krishnabindukitah. Nārāyana.
297
This Sūtra should rather be divided into two.
298
I.e. to the east or the north.
299
Round the middle of the head means, between the two horns. Nārāyana.
   61  

16. The sprinkling with water and what follows is the same as at the animal
sacrifice.300
17. We shall state what is different.
18. Let him sacrifice the omentum with the Pātrī or with a leaf—thus it is understood
(in the Sruti)—
19. With (the formulas), 'To Hara, Mrida, Sarva, Siva, Bhava, Mahādeva, Ugra,
Bhīma, Paśupati, Rudra, Saṅkara, Īsāna svāhā!'
20. Or with the last six (parts of that formula),
21. Or with (the formula), 'To Rudra svāhā!'
22. Let him make Bali offerings301 towards the four quarters (of the horizon), to each
on four rings of Kuśa net-work, with (the formulas), 'The hosts, Rudra, which thou
hast towards the eastern direction, to them this (offering is brought). Adoration to
thee! Do no harm to me!' In this way the assigning (of the offerings is performed)
according to the different quarters (of the horizon).
23. With the following four hymns he should worship the four quarters, viz. 'What
shall we to Rudra,' 'These prayers to Rudra,' 'To thee, O father,' 'These songs to Rudra
with the strong bow' (Rig-veda I, 43, 114; II, 33; VII, 46).
24. (This) worship to the quarters (of the horizon) (is performed) at all sacrifices to
Rudra.
25. The husks and chaff (of the rice), the tail, the skin, the head, the feet (of the
sacrificial animal) he should throw into the fire.
26. He should turn the skin to some use, according to Sāmvatya.302
27. To the north of the fire, on rows of Darbha grass, or on rings of Kuśa net-work, he
should pour out the blood (of the sacrificial animal) with (the formula), 'Hissing ones!
Noisy ones! Searching ones! Seizing ones! Serpents! What here belongs to you, take
that.'303
28. Then, turning to the north, (he assigns it) to the serpents (in the words), 'Hissing
ones! Noisy ones! Searching ones! Seizing ones! Serpents! What here belongs to you,
take that.'
Then the serpents take whatever has flowed down there of blood or of the contents of
stomach and entrails.
29. All names, all hosts, all exaltations belong to him;—to a sacrificer who knows
that, he gives joy.
30. Even to a man who only with words sets forth (some part) of that (ceremony), he
will do no harm; thus it is understood (in the Sruti).
                                                                                                               
300
See above, I, 11.
301
This Bali offering is performed, according to Nārāyana, before the Sviṣṭakrit oblation of the chief
sacrifice. On kusasūna the commentator has the note, 'Darbhastambais trinais ca kalpavad (or rather, as
Prof. Stenzler writes, katakavad) grathitvā sarveshām agram grihītvā, ekīkritya grathitāh kusasūnā
ukyante.'
302
Perhaps Sāmvatya is a mis-spelling of the name of the well-known Grihya teacher Sāmbavya.
303
Darbhavītā is explained in the commentary by darbharāji.
   62  

31. He should not partake of that (sacrifice).

32. They should not take anything belonging to it into the village. For this god will do
harm to (human) creatures.304
33. He should keep away his people from the vicinity (of the place where he has
sacrificed).
34. On an express injunction, however, he should partake (of that sacrificial food), for
it will bring luck.
35. This spit-ox sacrifice procures wealth, (open) space, purity, sons, cattle, long life,
splendour.
36. After he has sacrificed, he should let loose another (animal).305
37. He should not be without such an animal.
38. Then he will not be without cattle—thus it is understood (in the Sruti).
39. Muttering the Santātīya hymn, he should go to his house.306
40. If disease befalls his cattle, he should sacrifice to that same god in the midst of his
cow-stable—
41. A mess of cooked food, which he sacrifices in its entirety.
42. Having thrown the sacrificial grass and the Ājya into the fire, he should lead his
cows through the smoke.
43. Murmuring the Santātīya hymn, he should go in the midst of his cattle.
44. Adoration to Saunaka! Adoration to Saunaka!

End of the Fourth Adhyāya.

End of the Āśvalāyana-Grihya-sūtra.

                                                                                                               
304
Instead of abhimāruka we ought to read abhimānuka. See Aitareya Brāhmana III, 34, and the
Petersburg Dictionary s. v. abhimānuka.
305
He should destine another young animal in the way stated above (Sūtras 7 seqq.) to a new Sūlagava
sacrifice.
306
Rig-veda VII, 35. Comp. above, II, 8, 11.