Shantikamalakara 10.42_39

10.42_39

Now the ritual manual composed by our father: / The performer makes the ritual resolution: 'For the appeasement of all evil portents indicated by bad months and the like at my wife's first appearance of menses, I shall perform the propitiatory rite for the appearance of menses along with the sacrifice to the planets.' Having performed the worship of Gaṇeśa, the puṇyāhavācana, the worship of the mother goddesses, and the Nāndīśrāddha, he should select the preceptor and the officiating priests. The preceptor touches the ground in the north-east, in the center, and to the south and north with the mantra 'mahī dyauḥ'; on three heaps of unhusked rice measuring a droṇa, having established the three pitchers with repetitions of the mantra 'ā kalaśeṣu'; for the nine verses 'pra su va āpaḥ', the ṛṣi is Pratīmedhā, the deities are the rivers, the metre is Jagatī; for 'yāḥ pravaḥ', the ṛṣi is Vasiṣṭha, the deities are the rivers, the metre is Śakvarī; having filled them with water with these two [hymns], he places scent with 'gandhadvārām', all medicinal herbs with 'yā oṣadhīḥ', and barley grains in the three with 'oṣadhayaḥ saṃ'—or he may place the thirty-two medicinal herbs as available: udumbara, kuśa, dūrvā grass, red lotus, campaka, bilva, viṣṇukrāntā, tulasī, barhiṣ, śaṅkhapuṣpī, śatāvarī, aśvagandhā, nirguṇḍī, red and yellow sahasrā, apāmārga, palāśa, jackfruit, bandhūka, priyaṅgu, wheat, unhusked rice, aśvattha, curd, milk, ghee, lotus petal, blue lotus, white, red and yellow kuraṇṭaka, guñjā, vacā, and bhadramustā. Then in the three sacred pots: dūrvā grass with 'kāṇḍāt kāṇḍāt', five sprouts with 'aśvatthed vaḥ', the seven earths with 'syonā', a fruit with 'yāḥ phalinīḥ', the five jewels with 'sa hi ratnāni', and having wrapped them with cloth with 'hiraṇyarūpaḥ', placing full dishes filled with barley and the like together with cloths with 'pūrṇā darvi'; having drawn eight petals there, having invoked Bhuvaneśvarī in the center with the Gāyatrī; having invoked Indrāṇī in the southern pitcher with 'vṛṣākapiḥ', 'indrāṇī', the metre is Paṅkti; having invoked Indra in the northern pitcher with 'indratvā', the ṛṣi is Viśvāmitra, the deity is Indra, the metre is Gāyatrī; he should worship them with their respective mantras with the sixteen offerings. Then, having touched the central pitcher, he mutters the Gāyatrī eight thousand [times] or one thousand eight [times]—the ṛṣis are the sons of Indirā, the deity is Śrī, the first three are Triṣṭubhs, one is Prastārapaṅkti, two are Triṣṭubhs, the final is Prastārapaṅkti; the application is in muttering.