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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1the pupil) is born as a Brahmana along with the S4vitrt (which is repeated to him on that day).’ 5 It is not likely that verses of this kind are taken from more comprehensive and connected metrical texts. ® Cf. on this point below, p. xxxv. b 2 / xx GRIHYA-SOTRAS. Another Grzhya section in the Satapatha Brahmaza seems to have found its place there through a similar accidental kind of joining on to a preceding chapter as the above-mentioned passage. In XI, 5,5 a story of the battle of the gods and Asuras is told: the gods beat the Asuras back by means of constantly larger Sattra celebrations and conquer for themselves the world of heaven. It seems to me that the description of the great Sattras celebrated by the gods is the occasion of the joining on of a section beginning with the words!: ‘There are five great sacrifices (mahayag#As); they are great Sattras: the offering to Beings, the offering to men, the offering to the Fathers (i.e. the Manes), the offering to the Gods, the offering to the Brahman.’ After this introduction follows an account of one of the five great offerings, namely of the Brahmayagy%a, i.e. of the daily Veda recitation (svidhyaya). The third Adhyaya of Asval4yana’s Grthya-sdtra begins in exactly the same way with the sentence; ‘Now (follow) the five sacrifices: the sacrifice to the Gods, the sacrifice to the Beings, the sacrifice to the Fathers, the sacrifice to the Brahman, the sacrifice to men,’ and then follows here also a discussion of the Brahmayag#a, which is entirely analogous to that given in the Satapatha Brahmana. Asvaldyana here does not content himself with describing the actual course of ceremonies as is the rule in the Sdtra texts ; he undertakes, quite in the way of the Brahmama texts, to explain their meaning : ‘In that he recites the Rzkas, he thereby satiates the gods with oblations of milk, in that (he recites) the Yagus, with oblations of ghee,’ &c. It is plain that the mode of exposition adopted by Asvalayana in this passage, which is different from the usual Sftra style, finds its explanation in the supposition that exceptionally in this case the author of the Grihya-sitra had before him a Brahmaza text, which he could take as his model, whether that text was the Satapatha itself or another similar text. Among the extremely various prescriptions which we find 1 Satapatha Brahmaza XI, 5, 6, 1. INTRODUCTION. xxi
2Among the extremely various prescriptions which we find 1 Satapatha Brahmaza XI, 5, 6, 1. INTRODUCTION. xxi in the last sections of the Satapatha Brahmaaa, there is a rather long section, which also really belongs to the Grthya domain. To quote from this section!: ‘If a man wishes that a learned son should be born to him, famous, a public man, a popular speaker, that he should know all the Vedas, and that he should live to his full age, then, after having prepared boiled rice with meat and butter, they should both eat, being fit to have offspring,’ &c. Then follows a description of an Agya offering, after which the marital cohabitation is to be performed with certain formulas. This, however, is not the last of the acts through which the father assures himself of the possession of such a distinguished son; certain rites follow, which are to be performed at birth and after birth, the Ayushya ceremony and the Medhéganana. These rites are here prescribed for the special case where the father has the above-mentioned wishes for the prosperity of his child; but the description agrees essentially with the description of the corresponding acts in the Grthya-sfitras *, which are inculcated for all cases, without reference to a determined wish of the father. It is a justifiable conjecture that, although this certainly does not apply to the whole of ceremonies described in the Grihya-sitras, many portions of these ceremonies and verses that were used in connection with them, &c., were first developed, not as a universal rite or duty, but as the special possession of individuals, who hoped to attain special goods and advantages by performing the ceremony in this way. It was only later, as I think, that such prescriptions 1 Satapatha Brahmana XIV, 9, 4,17 = Brihad Arasyaka VI, 4, 18 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xv, p. 219 seq.). ® Cf. Prof. Max Miiller’s notes to the passage quoted from the Brshad Arasyaka. I must mention in this connection a point touched upon by Prof. Miiller, loc. cit. p. 222, note 1, viz. that Asvalayana, Grvhya I, 13, 1, expressly calls ‘the Upanishad’ the text in which the Pusavana and similar ceremonies are treated. It is probable that the Upanishad which Asvalayana had in mind treated these rites not as a duty to which all were bound, but as a secret that assured the realisation of certain wishes. This follows from the character of the Upanishads, which did not form a part of the Vedic course which all had to study, but rather contained a secret doctrine intended for the few. xxii GRIHYA-SOTRAS. assumed the character of universality, with which we find them propounded in the Grzhya-sitras.
3xxii GRIHYA-SOTRAS. assumed the character of universality, with which we find them propounded in the Grzhya-sitras. It is scarcely necessary to go through the sections of the texts of other Vedic schools referring to the Grzhya ritual in the same way in which we have done it in the case of the Satapatha Brahmana. The data which we have produced from the great Brahmaaa of the white Yagur-veda, will be sufficient for our purpose, which is to give an idea of the stage in which the literary treatment of the Grvzhya ritual stood during the Brahmaza period. As we see, there were then properly no Grthya texts; but many of the elements which we find later in the Gvthya texts were either already formed or were in the process of formation. Most of the verses which are used for the Grthya acts— in so far as they are not verses composed in the oldest period for the Soma offering and transferred to the Grzhya ceremonies—bear the formal imprint of the Brahmama period ; the domestic sacrificial fire and the ritual peculiarities of the Pakayag#as which were to be performed at it, were known; descriptions of some such Pakayag#as were given in prose; there were also already Slokas which gave in metrical form explanations about certain points of the Grzhya ritual, just as we find in the Brahmaza texts analogous Slokas referring to subjects connected with the Srauta ritual. Thus was the next step which the literary development took in the Sdtra period prepared and rendered easy. The more systematic character which the exposition of the ritualistic discipline assumed in this period, necessarily led to the taking of this step: the domain of the Grthya sacrifices was recognised and expounded as a second great principal part of the ritual of sacrifices alongside of the Srauta domain which was alone attended to in the earlier period. The Grthya-sitras arose which treat, according to the expression of Asvaldyana in his first sentence, of the grthy4nzi' as distinguished from the vaitanik4ni, or, as Sankh4yana says, of the pakayag#As, or, as Paraskara says, of the grihyasthalipakanam karma. The 1 Similarly Gobhila: grthyakarmaai. INTRODUCTION. XXill Grihya-sitras treat their subject of course in exactly the same style in which the sacrifices of the Srauta ritual had been treated by the Srauta-sitras, which they constantly assume to be known and which are the works of teachers of the same Vedic schools, and oftentimes even perhaps the works of the same authors. Only certain differences in the character of the two groups of texts are naturally conditioned on the one hand by the greater complexity of the Srauta sacrifices and the comparative simplicity of the Grihya sacrifices, on the other hand by the fact that the Srauta-sftras are entirely based on Brdhmamna texts, in which the same subjects were treated, while the Grzhyasitras,as we have seen, possessed such a foundation only for a very small portion of their contents.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1the pupil) is born as a Brahmana along with the S4vitrt (which is repeated to him on that day).’ 5 It is not likely that verses of this kind are taken from more comprehensive and connected metrical texts. ® Cf. on this point below, p. xxxv. b 2 / xx GRIHYA-SOTRAS. Another Grzhya section in the Satapatha Brahmaza seems to have found its place there through a similar accidental kind of joining on to a preceding chapter as the above-mentioned passage. In XI, 5,5 a story of the battle of the gods and Asuras is told: the gods beat the Asuras back by means of constantly larger Sattra celebrations and conquer for themselves the world of heaven. It seems to me that the description of the great Sattras celebrated by the gods is the occasion of the joining on of a section beginning with the words!: ‘There are five great sacrifices (mahayag#As); they are great Sattras: the offering to Beings, the offering to men, the offering to the Fathers (i.e. the Manes), the offering to the Gods, the offering to the Brahman.’ After this introduction follows an account of one of the five great offerings, namely of the Brahmayagy%a, i.e. of the daily Veda recitation (svidhyaya). The third Adhyaya of Asval4yana’s Grthya-sdtra begins in exactly the same way with the sentence; ‘Now (follow) the five sacrifices: the sacrifice to the Gods, the sacrifice to the Beings, the sacrifice to the Fathers, the sacrifice to the Brahman, the sacrifice to men,’ and then follows here also a discussion of the Brahmayag#a, which is entirely analogous to that given in the Satapatha Brahmana. Asvaldyana here does not content himself with describing the actual course of ceremonies as is the rule in the Sdtra texts ; he undertakes, quite in the way of the Brahmama texts, to explain their meaning : ‘In that he recites the Rzkas, he thereby satiates the gods with oblations of milk, in that (he recites) the Yagus, with oblations of ghee,’ &c. It is plain that the mode of exposition adopted by Asvalayana in this passage, which is different from the usual Sftra style, finds its explanation in the supposition that exceptionally in this case the author of the Grihya-sitra had before him a Brahmaza text, which he could take as his model, whether that text was the Satapatha itself or another similar text. Among the extremely various prescriptions which we find 1 Satapatha Brahmaza XI, 5, 6, 1. INTRODUCTION. xxi
2Among the extremely various prescriptions which we find 1 Satapatha Brahmaza XI, 5, 6, 1. INTRODUCTION. xxi in the last sections of the Satapatha Brahmaaa, there is a rather long section, which also really belongs to the Grthya domain. To quote from this section!: ‘If a man wishes that a learned son should be born to him, famous, a public man, a popular speaker, that he should know all the Vedas, and that he should live to his full age, then, after having prepared boiled rice with meat and butter, they should both eat, being fit to have offspring,’ &c. Then follows a description of an Agya offering, after which the marital cohabitation is to be performed with certain formulas. This, however, is not the last of the acts through which the father assures himself of the possession of such a distinguished son; certain rites follow, which are to be performed at birth and after birth, the Ayushya ceremony and the Medhéganana. These rites are here prescribed for the special case where the father has the above-mentioned wishes for the prosperity of his child; but the description agrees essentially with the description of the corresponding acts in the Grthya-sfitras *, which are inculcated for all cases, without reference to a determined wish of the father. It is a justifiable conjecture that, although this certainly does not apply to the whole of ceremonies described in the Grihya-sitras, many portions of these ceremonies and verses that were used in connection with them, &c., were first developed, not as a universal rite or duty, but as the special possession of individuals, who hoped to attain special goods and advantages by performing the ceremony in this way. It was only later, as I think, that such prescriptions 1 Satapatha Brahmana XIV, 9, 4,17 = Brihad Arasyaka VI, 4, 18 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xv, p. 219 seq.). ® Cf. Prof. Max Miiller’s notes to the passage quoted from the Brshad Arasyaka. I must mention in this connection a point touched upon by Prof. Miiller, loc. cit. p. 222, note 1, viz. that Asvalayana, Grvhya I, 13, 1, expressly calls ‘the Upanishad’ the text in which the Pusavana and similar ceremonies are treated. It is probable that the Upanishad which Asvalayana had in mind treated these rites not as a duty to which all were bound, but as a secret that assured the realisation of certain wishes. This follows from the character of the Upanishads, which did not form a part of the Vedic course which all had to study, but rather contained a secret doctrine intended for the few. xxii GRIHYA-SOTRAS. assumed the character of universality, with which we find them propounded in the Grzhya-sitras.
3xxii GRIHYA-SOTRAS. assumed the character of universality, with which we find them propounded in the Grzhya-sitras. It is scarcely necessary to go through the sections of the texts of other Vedic schools referring to the Grzhya ritual in the same way in which we have done it in the case of the Satapatha Brahmana. The data which we have produced from the great Brahmaaa of the white Yagur-veda, will be sufficient for our purpose, which is to give an idea of the stage in which the literary treatment of the Grvzhya ritual stood during the Brahmaza period. As we see, there were then properly no Grthya texts; but many of the elements which we find later in the Gvthya texts were either already formed or were in the process of formation. Most of the verses which are used for the Grthya acts— in so far as they are not verses composed in the oldest period for the Soma offering and transferred to the Grzhya ceremonies—bear the formal imprint of the Brahmama period ; the domestic sacrificial fire and the ritual peculiarities of the Pakayag#as which were to be performed at it, were known; descriptions of some such Pakayag#as were given in prose; there were also already Slokas which gave in metrical form explanations about certain points of the Grzhya ritual, just as we find in the Brahmaza texts analogous Slokas referring to subjects connected with the Srauta ritual. Thus was the next step which the literary development took in the Sdtra period prepared and rendered easy. The more systematic character which the exposition of the ritualistic discipline assumed in this period, necessarily led to the taking of this step: the domain of the Grthya sacrifices was recognised and expounded as a second great principal part of the ritual of sacrifices alongside of the Srauta domain which was alone attended to in the earlier period. The Grthya-sitras arose which treat, according to the expression of Asvaldyana in his first sentence, of the grthy4nzi' as distinguished from the vaitanik4ni, or, as Sankh4yana says, of the pakayag#As, or, as Paraskara says, of the grihyasthalipakanam karma. The 1 Similarly Gobhila: grthyakarmaai. INTRODUCTION. XXill Grihya-sitras treat their subject of course in exactly the same style in which the sacrifices of the Srauta ritual had been treated by the Srauta-sitras, which they constantly assume to be known and which are the works of teachers of the same Vedic schools, and oftentimes even perhaps the works of the same authors. Only certain differences in the character of the two groups of texts are naturally conditioned on the one hand by the greater complexity of the Srauta sacrifices and the comparative simplicity of the Grihya sacrifices, on the other hand by the fact that the Srauta-sftras are entirely based on Brdhmamna texts, in which the same subjects were treated, while the Grzhyasitras,as we have seen, possessed such a foundation only for a very small portion of their contents.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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