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The Grihya Sutras, Part 1 (SBE29), by Hermann Oldenberg, [1886], at sacred-texts.com


KHANDA 6.

1-2. 'Waters are ye by name; happy ones are ye by name; sappy ones are ye by name; undecaying ones are ye by name; fearless ones are ye by name; immortal ones are ye by name. Of you, being such, may I partake; receive me into your favour'—with these words (the teacher) makes the student sip water three times,

2. And hands over to him the staff with the five

p. 68

verses, 'Blessing may give us' (Rig-veda V, 51, 11-15).

3. An optional gift is the fee for the sacrifice.

4. After (the teacher) has led him round the fire, turning his right side towards it, (the student) goes through the village to beg food.

5. (Let him beg,) however, of his mother first,

6. Or of a woman who will not refuse.

7. Having announced the alms to his teacher, he may eat (the food himself) with the master's permission.

8. The daily putting on of fuel, the going for alms, the sleeping on the ground, and obedience to the teacher: these are the standing duties of a student.


Footnotes

67:1-2 6, 1, 2. Râmakandra: '. . . with this Mantra which the teacher tells him, and which he (the student) pronounces, he sips water p. 68 three times . . . He (the teacher) then gives him again the staff, which he had given him before silently.' I do not think that this double handing over of the staff agrees with the real meaning of the text; Gobhila also (II, 10) and Âsvalâyana (I, 22, 1) prescribe the dandapradâna after the repetition of the Sâvitrî, without mentioning that the same had been already done before; Pâraskara II, 2, II speaks of the handing over of the staff before the recital of the Sâvitrî, and does not state that it should be repeated afterwards.

All these ceremonies, the teaching of the Sâvitrî as well as the dandapradâna, were considered as forming part of the Upanayana, even though a longer or shorter space of time (chap. 5, 1-3) might elapse between the first arrival of the student at the teacher's house and the performing of these rites. This follows from chap. 11, Sûtras 2-4.

67:2 These five verses have already occurred above at I, 15, 12.

68:3 Comp. I, 14, 13-15.

68:4 4 seq. On the student's begging of alms compare the more detailed rules in Pâraskara II, 5; Âpastamba I, 3, &c.

68:7 Comp. the passages quoted by Professor Bühler on Âpastamba I, 3, 31 (S.B.E., vol. ii, p. 22).


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