{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe30/sbe30120.htm","path":"hin/sbe30/sbe30120.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe30/sbe30120.htm","text":"The Grihya Sutras, Part 2 (SBE30), by Hermann Oldenberg, [1892]\nIf the guh\u00fb has been elsewhere employed, let it be done with a ladle (sruva).\nCommentary.\nThe guh\u00fb is a sruk, a spoon, the sruva, a ladle.\nThe offering is made in the \u00c2havan\u00eeya fire.\nThe sacrificial vessels are kept from the first laying of the fires (\u00e2dh\u00e2na) for the whole life.\nAll sacrificial vessels and instruments are to be kept, and most of them are burnt with the sacrificer at his death.\nAt every sacrifice these vessels are to be purified.\nThe rule for the sacrifice are the Mantras and Br\u00e2hmanas.\nThe name Veda belongs both to the Mantras and Br\u00e2hmanas.\nThe Br\u00e2hmanas are the precepts for the sacrifice.\nThe rest of the Br\u00e2hmana, that which does not contain precepts, consists of explanations, i.e. reproof, praise, stories, and traditions.\nIt is difficult to find words corresponding to technical terms in Sanskrit. Arthav\u00e2da, which I have translated by explanation, means not only the telling of the meaning, but likewise the telling of the object; parakriti, story, means literally the action of another; pur\u00e2kalpa, traditions, means the former state. The difference between the two is stated to be that parakriti refers to the act of one person, pur\u00e2kalpa to that of several. This subject is fully treated in the P\u00fbrva-m\u00eem\u00e2ms\u00e2. Satyavrata begins a new S\u00fbtra with 'reproof' (nind\u00e2).\nAll the rest are Mantras.\nBut passages which are not handed down, are not to be classed as Mantras, as, for instance, the pravara, the words used in choosing priests, divine or human; \u00fbha, substitution of one word for another; and n\u00e2madheya-grahana, the mentioning of the names of particular sacrificers.\nThe reason why such passages are not to be treated as Mantras is that they should not be subject to some of the preceding rules, as, for instance, the murmuring, enjoined in S\u00fbtra IX. Those passages naturally vary in each sacrifice. With regard to the names a distinction is made\nbetween the g\u00e2rhyam n\u00e2ma, the domestic name of a person, such as Yag\u00f1asarman, and the astrological name, such as Rauhina, derived from the star Rohin\u00ee.\nLikewise the sound of a carriage and the sound of a drum.\nThese sounds, though serving for the sacrifice, are not to be considered as liable to the rules given for the recitation of Mantras.\nThe prohibition of reciting Mantras in the Sv\u00e2dhy\u00e2ya does not apply to the sacrifice, because there is then a different object.\nSv\u00e2dhy\u00e2ya, i.e. self-reading, is the name given to the study of the Veda, both in first learning and in afterwards repeating it. This study is under several restrictions, but these restrictions cease when the Veda is used for sacrificial purposes.\nSacrificial acts are accompanied by one Mantra.\nIf it is said that the priest cuts the plants with fourteen verses, that means that there are fourteen plants to be cut and that one verse is used for each plant.\nThis applies also to sacrificial acts which have a number and are to be carried out by separate (repeated) acts.\nIf a rule is given, such as trih prokshati, he sprinkles thrice, the mantra which accompanies the act, is recited once only. Again in the case of acts that require repetitions, such as rubbing, pounding, &c., the hymns are recited once only.\nThe same applies to rubbing, sleeping, crossing a river, down-pours of rain, the conjuring of unlucky omens, unless they happened some time ago.\nIf several members of the body are to be rubbed, the verses required for the purpose are recited once only. A prayer is enjoined if one wakes during the night. If one wakes more than once that prayer is. not to be repeated. In crossing a river the necessary verse is not to be repeated at every wave, nor during a down-pour, at every drop of rain. If some unlucky sight has to be conjured, the conjuring verse is spoken once and not repeated, unless some time has elapsed and a new unlucky sight presents itself.\nIn case of a journey, however, one hymn is used till the object (of the journey) has been accomplished.\nI read pray\u00e2ne tu-\u00e2-arthanirvritteh. Another reading is arthanivrittih.\nIt is the same also with regard to acts which do not produce an immediate effect.\nThe commentators distinguish between acts which\nproduce a visible effect, such as pounding or sprinkling, and acts which do not, such as addressing, approaching, looking. The latter are called asamnip\u00e2tin. Thus when the stones used for the preparation of Soma are addressed, the hymn which is used for addressing them, is not repeated for each single stone, the same as in S\u00fbtra XL. S\u00fbtras XLI and XLII are sometimes joined.\nRepetition takes place in the case of the Havishkrit, Adhrigu, Puronuv\u00e2ky\u00e2, and Manot\u00e2 hymns, (because they have to be used) at different times.\nHavishkrit-adhrigu-puronuv\u00e2ky\u00e2-manotam is to be taken as a Dvandva compound.\nThe Havishkrit hymn is an invocation when the havis is made. The Adhrigu hymn is 'Daivy\u00e2h samit\u00e2rah,' &c. The Puronuv\u00e2ky\u00e2 hymn is that which precedes the Y\u00e2gy\u00e2, immediately after the Sampraisha. The Manot\u00e2 hymn is 'Tvam hy agne prathamo manot\u00e2,' &c. These hymns are to be repeated, if the act which they accompany has to be repeated after a certain interval.\nWhen it is expressly stated, one sacrificial act may be accompanied by many hymns.\nThus we read, 'He takes the Abhri, the hoe, with four Mantras.'\nOne ought to let the beginnings of a sacrificial act coincide with the end of the Mantras.\nThe mantra which indicates the nature and purpose of a sacrificial act should come first, and as soon as it has been finished the act should follow. See Katy. I, 3, 5.\nIn the case of the \u00e2gh\u00e2ra, sprinkling of clarified butter, and of dh\u00e2r\u00e2, pouring out of Soma, the beginning of the mantra and the act takes place at the same time.\nMantras are indicated by their first words.\nThese first words are often called Prat\u00eekas, and rules are given in \u00c2sval\u00e2yana's Srauta-s\u00fbtras I, 1, 17-19, as to the number of words that should form such a prat\u00eeka, if it is meant for one verse, for three verses, or for a whole hymn. According to \u00c2sval\u00e2yana, if one foot is quoted, it is meant for a verse; if an imperfect foot of an initial verse is quoted, it is meant for a whole hymn; if more than a foot is quoted, it is meant for three verses.\nOne should know that with the beginning of a following mantra, the former mantra is finished.\nIn the case of Hotr\u00e2 and Y\u00e2gam\u00e2na-mantras, an aggregation takes place.\nHotr\u00e2s are mantras recited by the Hotri-priest. Y\u00e2gam\u00e2n\u00e2s are mantras recited by the sacrificer himself. They are hymns which accompany, but do not enjoin any sacrificial act.\nIn the case of the Y\u00e2gy\u00e2s and Anuv\u00e2ky\u00e2s this (the aggregation) is optional.\nThe Y\u00e2gy\u00e2 is explained by prayakkhati y\u00e2gyay\u00e2, the Anuv\u00e2ky\u00e2 by \u00e2hvayaty anuv\u00e2kyay\u00e2. Sometimes more than one are mentioned, but in that case the priest is free to do as he likes. According to the same principle, when we read that one should sacrifice with rice or with barley, that means that rice should be used after the rice-harvest, barley after the barley-harvest, and not that rice and barley should be used at the same time.","title":"Grihya Sutras, Part 2 (SBE30): \u00c2pastamba's Yag\u00f1a-Paribh\u00e2sh\u00e2-S\u00fbtras: S\u00fbtras 26-50","type":"page"}