The Grihya-Sûtras: Rules of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies, Part II — SBE Vol. 30 (trans. Oldenberg & Müller, 1892)

For instance, the seven Anushfubh verses which are quoted Sankhayana-Grzhya I, 19, 5. 6, give us the following relations, if we investigate them as we did those in Rig-veda X, 85:

U--¥ —-vu-¥ v-u* -uuw vuve --vUYX —--—--—_¥

Hee DP ROR

p. 14

Thus even the small number of fourteen hemistichs is enough to give us seven of the eight existing combinations, and no single one occurs at all often enough to allow us to call it predominant.

Or we may take the saying that accompanies the performance of the medh4ganana on the new-born child. In the version of Asvalayana * we have:

- =k ve medham te devak Savita

— valiv- = - medham te Asvinau devau. In the version adopted in the school of Gobhila® the xiv GRIHYA-SOTRAS.

1 For instance, in the verses which occur in the well-known story of Sunahksepa (Aitareya-Brahmana VII, 13 8eq.).

* Asvalayana-Grthya I, 15, 2.

* Mantra-Brahmaza I, 5, 9; cf. Gobhila-Grihya Il, 7, 21.

context of the first line is different, but the metre is the same: - = = -Ihyemedham te Mitravarusau.

Or the saying with which the pupil (brahmaérin) has to lay a log of wood on the fire of the teacher?:

- v- vu vl u--

Agnaye samidham aharsham

vur- ov -||- _ - Vv taya tvam Agne vardhasva.

There would be no object in multiplying the number of examples; those here given are sufficient to prove our proposition, that the development of the Grzhya rites in the form in which they are described to us in the Sftras, that especially their being accompanied with verses, which were to be recited by their performance, is later than the time of the oldest Vedic poetry, and coincides rather with the transition period in the development of the Anushfubh metre, a period which lies between the old Vedic and the later Buddhistic and epic form.

Besides the formulae intended to be recited during the performance of the various sacred acts, the Grzhya-sfitras contain a second kind of verses, which differ essentially from the first kind in regard to metre; viz. verses of ritualistic character, which are inserted here and there between the prose Sftras, and of which the subject-matter is similar to that of the surrounding prose. We shall have to consider these yagnagath4s, as they are occasionally called, later; at present let us go on looking for traces of the Grzhya ritual and for the origin of Grzhya literature in the literature which precedes the Sftras.

The Brahmaza texts, which, as a whole, have for their subject-matter the Vaiténika ceremonies celebrated with the three holy fires, furnish evidence that the Grzhya fire, together with the holy acts accomplished in connection with it, were also already known. The Aitareya-Brahmaza?® gives this

1 Asvalfyana-Grihya I, 21,1. In Pfraskara and in the Mantra-Brahmana only the first hemistich has the Anush‘ubh form. 3 Aitareya-Brahmaza VIII, 10, 9: etya gréhan paskad grvhyasyfgner upa-

‘INTRODUCTION. XV

The Aitareya-Brahmaza?® gives this

1 Asvalfyana-Grihya I, 21,1. In Pfraskara and in the Mantra-Brahmana only the first hemistich has the Anush‘ubh form. 3 Aitareya-Brahmaza VIII, 10, 9: etya gréhan paskad grvhyasyfgner upa-

‘INTRODUCTION. XV

fire the most usual name, the same name which is used for it in the Sidtras, gyzhya agni, and describes a ceremony to be performed over this fire with expressions which agree exactly with the style of the Grvzhya-sitras’. We often find in the Brahmaza texts also mention of the terminus technicus, which the Grihya-sitras use many times as a comprehensive term for the offerings connected with Grihya ritual, the word pakayag#a*. For instance, the Satapatha Brahmama’, in order to designate the whole body of offerings, uses the expression: all offerings, those that are Pakayag#as and the others. It is especially common to find the Pakayag#as mentioned in the Brahmama texts in connection with the myth of Manu. The Taittiriya Samhita* opposes the whole body of sacrifices to the PAkayag#as. The former belonged to the gods, who through it attained to the heavenly world; the latter concerned Manu: thus the goddess Id4 turned to him. Similar remarks, bringing Manu or the goddess Id4 into relation with the Pakayag#as, are to be found Taittiriya Samhita VI, 2, 5,4; Aitareya-Brahmama III, 40, 2. However, in this case as in many others, the Satapatha Brahmana contains the most detailed data, from which we see how the idea of Manu as the performer of Pakayag#as is connected with the history of the great deluge, out of which Manu alone was left. We read in the Satapatha Brahmaza®:

vish/dyanvarabdh4ya ritvig antatah kamsena Aaturgrthitas tisra Apyahuttr aindriA prapadam guhoti, &c.

1 Some of the places in which the St. Petersburg dictionary sees names of the Grthya fire in Brahmama texts are erroneous or doubtful. Taittirtya Samhita V, 5,9, 2, not gréhya but gahya is to be read. Aup4sana, Satapatha Brahmama XII, 3, 5, 5, seems not to refer to a sacrificial fire. Following the identity of aupfsana and sabhya maintained in the dictionary under the heading aupasana, one might be tempted in a place like Satapatha Brahmana II, 3, 2, 3 to refer the words ya esha sabhayam agniz to the domestic fire. A different fire is however really meant (KAtydyana-Srauta-sitra IV, 9, 20).

3 Sankhayana I, 1,1: pakayag#an vyakhyasyamas ; I, 5, 1 = Paraskara I, 4, 1; katvarah pakayag#a hutoxhutah prahuta’ pr&sita iti.

SI, 4, a, 10: sarvan yagi#an ... you ka pakayag#a you Aetare.

‘I, 7,1, 3: sarvena vai yagitena devas suvargam lokam 4yan, pakayagstena
Manur asramyat, &c.

5 I, 8,1, 6 seq. The translation is that of Prof. Max Miiller (India, what can it teach us? p. 135 seq.).

xvi GRIHYA-SOTRAS.

SI, 4, a, 10: sarvan yagi#an ... you ka pakayag#a you Aetare.

‘I, 7,1, 3: sarvena vai yagitena devas suvargam lokam 4yan, pakayagstena
Manur asramyat, &c.

5 I, 8,1, 6 seq. The translation is that of Prof. Max Miiller (India, what can it teach us? p. 135 seq.).

xvi GRIHYA-SOTRAS.

‘Now the flood had carried away all these creatures, and thus Manu was left there alone. Then Manu went about singing praises and toiling, wishing for offspring. And he sacrificed there also with a P4&ka-sacrifice. He poured clarified butter, thickened milk, whey, and curds in the water as a libation.’ It is then told how the goddess Id4 arose out of this offering. I presume that the story of the Pakayag#a as the first offering made by Manu after the great flood, stands in a certain correlation to the idea of the introduction of the three sacrificial fires through Purdravas!. Purdravas is the son of Id4; the original man Manu, who brings forth Ida through his offering, cannot have made use of a form of offering which presupposes the existence of Id4, and which moreover is based on the triad of the sacred fires introduced by Purfravas; hence Manu’s offering must have been a Pakayag#a; we read in one of the Grzhya-sitras*: ‘All Pakayag#as are performed without Id.’

There are still other passages in the Brahmamza texts showing that the Grzhya offerings were already known; I will mention a saying of Yag#avalkya’s reported in the Satapatha Brahmaza*: he would not allow that the daily morning and evening offering was a common offering, but said that, in a certain measure, it was a Pakayag#a. Finally I would call attention to the offering prescribed in the last book of the Satapatha Brahmava* for the man ‘who wishes that a learned son should be born to him;’ it is there stated that the preparation of the Agya (clarified butter) should be performed ‘according to the rule of the Sthalipaka (pot-boiling),’ and the way in which the offering is to

1 It is true that, as far as I know, passages expressly stating this with regard to Purfravas have not yet been pointed out in the Brahmama texts; but the words in Satapatha Brihmaa XI, 5, 1, 14-17, and even in Rig-veda X, 95, 18 stand in close connection to this prominent characteristic of Purfiravas in the later texts.

2 Sankhdyana I, ro, 5. 3 II, 3, 1, a1.

* XIV, 9, 4, 18 = Brihadaraxyaka VI, 4, 19 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xv, p. 220). Cf. Gréhya-samgraha I, 114 for the expression sthalipakavrit& which is here used, and which has a technical force in the Gvthya literature.

INTRODUCTION. xvii

be performed is described by means of an expression, upaghatam}, which often occurs in the Grshya literature in a technical sense.