I, 14

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

KHANDA 14.

1. 'This woman, strewing grains, prays thus, "May I bring bliss to my relations; may my husband live long. Svâhâ!"'—while the husband murmurs (this) text, she sacrifices standing.

2 ². (All the ceremonies,) beginning from the treading

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upon the stone, (are repeated) in the same way for a second time,

3. And in the same way a third time.

4. Silently, if they like, a fourth time.

5 ⁵. (The Âkârya?) makes (them) step forward in a north-eastern direction seven steps (with the words),

6. 'For sap with one step, for juice with two steps, for the prospering of wealth with three steps, for comfort with four steps, for cattle with five steps, for the seasons with six steps. Friend be with seven steps.'

7. (The Âkârya?) 'appeases' those (foot-steps) with water.

8 ⁸. With the three Âpohishthîyâ verses (Rig-veda X, 9, 1-3) he wipes (them) with the Stheyâ water,

9 ⁹. And sprinkles it on their heads.

10. (The bridegroom then) says, 'I give you a cow.'

11. Let him give something to the Brâhmanas each time at the Sthâlîpâkas and other rites;

12 ¹². To him who knows the Sûryâ hymn the bride's shift.

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13 13-15. A cow is the optional gift to be given by a Brâhmana,

14. A village by a Râganya,

15. A horse by a Vaisya.

16 ¹⁶. A hundred (cows) with a chariot (he gives to a father) who has only daughters.

17. To those versed in the sacrificial rites he gives a horse.

Footnotes

37:2 14, 2. The treading on the stone is prescribed in chap. 13, 12.

38:5 5, 7. According to Nârâyana it is the teacher who makes them walk the seven steps; the Paddhati says that the bridegroom or the Âkârya causes her to do so. Comp. Pâraskara I, 8, 1; Âsvalâyana I, 7, 19, &c.

38:8 Comp. chap. 13, 9.

38:9 Probably we should read mûrdhanî (acc. dual.), not mûrdhani. Âsvalâyana has sirasî. Of course the heads of both the bridegroom and the bride were sprinkled with water; comp. Âsvalâyana I, 7, 20, &c.

38:12 The Sûryâ hymn is Rig-veda X, 85. Comp. the note above on chap. 13, 4.

39:13-15 These Sûtras, treating of the fee for the sacrifice, are identical with Pâraskara I, 8, 15-18. Apparently they are taken from the same lost original from which several identical passages in the Sûtras of Pâraskara and Sâṅkhâyana seem to be derived (see the notes on chap. 5, 1; 13, 7). They stand rather out of place here, for they return to the same subject which had already been treated of in Sûtra 10, though in that Sûtra, as very frequently is the case in our text and in similar ones, only the case of the bridegroom being a Brâhmana has been taken notice of.

39:16 Comp. the passages quoted by Professor Stenzler on Pâraskara I, 8, 18. Nârâyana has the following note: 'To a duhitrimat, i.e. to the father of a girl who has no brother, he shall give a hundred cows and besides a chariot, in order to destroy the guilt brought about by marrying a girl who has no brother.' Possibly we should here emancipate ourselves from the authority of the commentators, and explain duhitrimat 'he who gives his daughter in marriage,' the bride's father. Comp. Âpastamba II, 11, 18; II, 13, 12; Weber, Indische Studien, V, 343, note 2.