Grihya Sutras, Part 2 (SBE30): Grihya Sûtra of Hiranyakesin: I, 3, 10

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PATALA 3, SECTION 10.

1. With (the formula), 'Stand in your places for the sake of the enjoyment of food. Stand in your places for the sake of long life. Stand in your places for the sake of holy lustre. May I be blessed with long life, an enjoyer of food, adorned with holy lustre.'

2. Then (the teacher) makes him wash himself with lukewarm water, with the three verses, 'O waters, ye are wholesome' (Taitt. Samh. IV, I, 5, 1), with the four verses, 'The gold-coloured, clean, purifying (waters)' (Taitt. Samh. V, 6, 1), and with the Anuvâka, 'The purifier, the heavenly one' (Taitt. Brâhmana I, 4, 8).

3. 3 Or (instead of performing these rites in the neighbourhood of water) they make an enclosure in a cow-stable and cover it (from all sides); that (the student) enters before sunrise, and in that (enclosure) the whole (ceremony) is performed. 'On that day the sun does not shine upon him,' some say. 'For he who shines (i.e. the sun), shines by the splendour of those who have taken the bath. Therefore the face of a Snâtaka is, as it were, resplendent (?).'

4. 4 (His friends or relations) bring him all sorts of

6 They bring him two ear-rings and a perforated pellet of sandal wood or of Badarî wood, overlaid with gold (at its aperture); these two things he ties to a Darbha blade, holds them over the fire, and pours over them (into the fire) oblations (of ghee) with (the Mantras),

'May this gold which brings long life and splendour and increase of wealth, and which gets through (all adversities), enter upon me for the sake of long life, of splendour, and of victory. Svâhâ!

Footnotes

165:3 10, 3. Rephâyatîva dîpyatîva. Mâtridatta. Comp. Âpastamba Dharma-sûtra II, 6, 14, 13, and Bühler's note, S.B.E., vol. ii, p. 135.

165:4 Comp. above, I, 2, 8, 4.

166:6 Regarding the first Mantra, comp. Vâgas. Samhitâ XXXIV, 50. In the fifth Mantra we ought to read oshadhis trâyamânâ. Comp. below, I, 3, 11, 3; Pâraskara I, 13; Atharva-veda VIII, 2, 6.