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


KHANDA 9.

1. Having bathed,

2. And having submerged himself at the time prescribed for the bath, he satiates the deities:

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3. 'Agni may satiate himself; Vâyu may satiate himself; Sûrya may satiate himself; Vishnu may satiate himself; Pragâpati may satiate himself; Virûpâksha may satiate himself; Sahasrâksha may satiate himself; Soma, Brahman, the Vedas, the gods, the Rishis, and all the metres, the word Om, the word VASHAT, the Mahâvyâhritis, the Sâvitrî, the sacrifices, heaven and earth, the Nakshatras, the air, days and nights, the numbers, the twilights, the oceans, the rivers, the mountains, fields, herbs, trees, Gandharvas and Apsaras, the serpents, the birds, the Siddhas, the Sâdhyas, the Vipras, the Yakshas, the Rakshas, the beings that have these (Rakshas, &c.) at their end, may satiate themselves.

'I satiate the Sruti; I satiate the Smriti; I satiate the firmness; I satiate the delight; I satiate

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the success; I satiate the thought; I satiate belief and insight, and the memory, cows and Brâhmanas, movable and immovable things. All beings may satiate themselves!'—so far with the sacrificial cord suspended over the left shoulder.


Footnotes

120:1 9, 1. It is not expressly stated in our text for what occasion the tarpana (i.e. satiating of deities, Rishis, &c. with water-offerings), which is treated of in chap. 9-10, shall be prescribed. The comparison of Baudhâyana II, 9 might perhaps lead us to believe that the ceremony in question is to be performed whenever the sacrificer takes a bath. But the two texts which are most closely connected with ours, the Sâmbavya and Âsvalâyana Grihyas, seem to point clearly to another conclusion. The Sâmbavya-sûtra transposes the rules about the tarpana to the place which would correspond to Sûtra II, 7, 28 of our text. The passage of the Sâmbavya-sûtra runs thus: mûle kundam kritvâ yathoktam adbhih parishiñkaty athemâs (so the MS.) tarpayati Agnih Pragâpatir Virûpâkshah, &c. It ends: pitarah pitâmahâh prapitâmahâh Pailah Kaholah Kaushîtakah (sic) Kaholâya Kaushîtakaye svadhâstv iti pratipurushah (sic) pitms tarpayitvâ. The last words are taken from the Sûtra IV, 6, 6 of our text. Thus there can be no doubt that Sâmbavya intended to prescribe the tarpana for the conclusion of the p. 121 vedâdhyayana. The same can be said of Âsvalâyana, who also by the position which he assigns to the tarpana sections (III, 4) brings it into a similar connection with the vedâdhyayana (see Nârâyana's commentary on Âsv., loc. cit.). We may also refer to the treatise about the study of the Âranyaka, which is appended to the Sâṅkhâyana-Grihya as its sixth book; there the tarpana is mentioned quite in the same connection (VI, 6, 10 seq.). I believe, therefore, that in our text, chapters 9 and 10 have found their place here as a sort of supplementary addition to chap. 6, 6, just as in the first book the list of Nakshatras seems likewise appended to the Sûtra I, 25, 5.

According to Nârâyana, snâtah in the first Sûtra would refer to the bath which forms part of the Samâvartana ceremony (see III, 1, 1), so that it would be the Grihastha, who has taken the Samâvartana bath, to whom the following rules refer.

121:3 Comp. the similar lists of Âsvalâyana, Grihya III, 4; Sâmbavya, quoted in my German edition of Sâṅkhâyana, p.153; and Baudhâyana II, 9 (S.B.E., vol. xiv, pp. 252 seq.). The last seems to be the most modern.

It should be observed that the section of the list contained in this Sûtra, as well as that given below, chap. 10, 3, is divided into p. 122 two parts, in the first of which the name of the being to be worshipped is given in the nominative case, with the verb tripyatu, while in the second it stands in the accusative, with the verb tarpayâmi. The first part of this section contains the names of gods and of divine beings, such as the rivers, the mountains, &c.; in the second part are found abstract qualities or notions, such as mati, dhriti, sruti. Similarly in chapter 10, 3 the Vedic poets, a few ancient teachers, and wise women, such as Gârg or Sulabhâ, form the first part of the list, and then follow, in the accusative case, the names of such doctors as Sàükhâyana, Âsvalâyana, Sâkalya. In Âsvalâyana's Sûtra of the first of our two sections only the first part reoccurs, the second is omitted, while the second section is found there in its entirety, with the same difference of names given in the nominative and accusative cases. The conjectures, however, which I had once based on this difference (see my German edition, pp. 152, 153) as to the distinction of a more ancient part of the list, and of later supplements, are perhaps too hazardous.


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