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


KANDIKÂ 14.

1. Now the Pumsavana (i.e. the ceremony to secure the birth of a male child),

2. Before (the child in his mother's womb) moves, in the second or third month (of pregnancy).

3. On a day on which the moon stands in conjunction with a Nakshatra (that has a name) of masculine gender, on that day, after having caused (his wife) to fast, to bathe, and to put on two garments which have not yet been washed, and after having in the night-time crushed in water descending roots and shoots of a Nyagrodha tree, he inserts (that into her right nostril) as above, with the two (verses),

p. 292

[paragraph continues] 'The gold-child' (Vâg. Samh. XIII, 4) and 'Formed of water' (ibid. XXXI, 17);

14_4. A Kusa needle and a Soma stalk, according to some (teachers).

5. And he puts gall of a tortoise on her lap.

If he desires; 'May (the son) become valiant,' he recites over him (i.e. over the embryo), modifying the rite (?), 'The Suparna art thou' (Vâg. Samh. XII, 4), (the Yagus) before (the formulas called) 'steps of Vishnu.'


Footnotes

291:3 14, 3. The words 'as above' refer to chap. 13, 1.

292:14_4 Comp. Sâṅkhâyana-Grihya I, 20, 3.

292:5 The commentators state that kûrmapitta (gall of tortoise) means 'a dish with water.' I place no confidence in this statement, though I cannot show at present what its origin is. I am not sure about the translation of vikrityâ (or vikritya?). But it seems impossible to me that it should be the name of the metre Vikriti. 'Steps of Vishnu' is a name for the Yagus following in the Samhitâ on the one prescribed in this Sûtra. It begins, 'Vishnu’s step art thou, &c.' (Vâg. Samh. XII, 5).


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