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


KHANDA 11.

1. Now (follows) the Vrishotsarga (i.e. setting a bull at liberty).

2. On the Kârttika full moon day or on that day of the Âsvayuga (month) that falls under (the Nakshatra) Revatî—

3. He sacrifices, after having kindled amid the cows a well-inflamed fire, Âgya oblations (with the words),

4. Here is delight; take delight here. Svâhâ!

p. 101

[paragraph continues] Here is still-standing; here is (your) own still-standing. Svâhâ!

'I have let the calf join its mother. May the calf, sucking its mother's breast, support increase of wealth among us. Svâhâ!'

5. With the verse, 'May Pûshan go after our cows' (Rig-veda VI, 54, 5) he sacrifices from (a mess of sacrificial food) belonging to Pûshan.

6. Having murmured the Rudra-(hymns),

7. (He takes) a one-coloured, two-coloured, or three-coloured (bull),

8. Or one that protects the herd,

9. Or that is protected by the herd,

10. Or it may also be red.

11. It should have all its limbs complete, and be the finest (bull) in the herd.

12. Having adorned that (bull),

13. And the four best young cows of the herd, having adorned those too,

14 14. (He says,) 'This young (bull) I give you as your husband; sporting with him, your lover, walk about. Do not desert us (?), being joined (with us) from your birth. In increase of wealth, in food may we rejoice. Svâhâ!'

15. When (the bull) is in the midst (of the cows), he recites over (them), 'Refreshing,' &c. (Rig-veda X, 169, I seq.) down to the end of the Anuvâka.

16. With the milk of all of them he shall cook milk-rice and feed Brâhmanas with it.


Footnotes

100:1 11, 1. A part of this chapter is nearly identical with the corresponding section of the Kâthaka-grihya; see Jolly's article, Das Dharma-sûtra des Vishnu, &c. (Sitzung der philos. philol. Classe der Bairischen Academie, 7 Juni, 1879), p. 39. Comp. also Pâraskara III, 9; Vishnu LXXXVI, and Jolly's remarks, in Deutsche Rundschau X, p. 428.

101:6 Rig-veda I, 43. 114; II, 33; VII, 46.

101:14 The translation 'do not desert us,' rests on the conjecture mâvasthâta; see the Various Readings, and the note on p. 245 of the German edition.


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