Matsyapurana 16
English (machine translation) 16
- Language
- English
16.1
Sūta said: / Having heard all this in its entirety, Manu questioned Keśava / about the various times for ancestral rites and likewise the different kinds of ancestral rites,
16.2
[saying]: 'Which twice-born men are to be fed at ancestral rites, and which are to be avoided? / Or at which division of the day should one perform an ancestral rite for the ancestors?
16.3
In what [vessel] given, and how, does the ancestral rite reach them, O Madhusūdana? / By what rule should it be performed, and how does it satisfy the ancestors?'
16.4
Matsya said: / 'One should perform an ancestral rite day after day with food and water, / or even with milk, roots, and fruits, bringing pleasure to the ancestors.
16.5
The ancestral rite is said to be threefold: regular, occasional, and optional. / First I shall describe the regular rite, which is devoid of water offering and invocation,
16.6
and is to be known as having no invocation of deities; the pārvaṇa rite is prescribed for new-moon days and festivals. / The pārvaṇa rite is declared to be of three kinds; listen now, O ruler of the earth!
16.7
Hear, O king, of those who are to be employed in the pārvaṇa rite: / one who maintains the five sacred fires, a snātaka, one who knows the Trisuparṇa, one versed in the six Vedāṅgas,
16.8
a Vedic scholar, the son of a Vedic scholar, skilled in ritual injunctions, / all-knowing, a knower of the Veda, versed in mantras, of known lineage, endowed with good family,
16.9
a knower of the Purāṇas, conversant with righteousness, intent on recitation and muttered prayers, / a devotee of Śiva, devoted to ancestors, a devotee of Sūrya, or a Vaiṣṇava,
16.10
devoted to Brahmā, knowing yoga, tranquil, self-subdued, and virtuous. / With effort, one should also feed a daughter's son, one's own friends, and elders,
16.11
a maternal uncle whose wealth has been consumed, a kinsman, priests, teachers, Soma-drinkers, / one who expounds the texts, one who investigates sacrificial rites,
16.12
one who knows the rules of Sāman chanting, a sanctifier of the sanctifiers of the row, / a Sāmaveda chanter, a student of the Veda, one devoted to the Veda, and a knower of the Absolute.'
16.13
The śrāddha where these [brahmins] eat is alone truly effective. / These should be fed with care; now learn from me those who are to be avoided:
16.14
an outcaste, an accused sinner, a eunuch, slanderers, the deformed and diseased, / one with diseased nails, one with dark teeth, sons born of adultery or widow-remarriage, keepers of horses,
16.15
a younger brother married before the elder, an appointed son, the reckless, the insane, the cruel, / those living like cats or herons, hypocrites, professional temple-priests and the like,
16.16
the ungrateful, atheists, and likewise dwellers in mleccha lands, / Triśaṅkus, Barbars, Drāvas, Vītas, Draviḍas, Koṅkaṇas,
16.17
and especially all sectarian ascetics should be avoided at the time of śrāddha. / On the preceding day or on the very day, self-controlled, one should issue the invitation.
16.18
For the ancestors attend upon those invited twice-born; / having become the wind, they follow them and sit beside them as they are seated.
16.19
Touching his right knee, saying, ‘You are invited by me,’ / having thus invited, he should recite the rules of restraint to the kinsmen of the ancestors:
16.20
‘You must be free from anger, intent on purity, and chaste at all times; / and so must I, the performer of the śrāddha.’
16.21
One who maintains the sacred fire, having performed the pitṛyajña called tarpaṇa, / should always perform the piṇḍānvāhāryaka śrāddha at the waning of the moon.
16.22
On ground smeared with cow dung and sloping toward the south, / or in a cow-pen, or near water, he should perform the śrāddha with devotion.
16.23
One who maintains the fire should offer the sacrificial caru for the ancestors with equal handfuls, / saying, ‘I offer unto the ancestors,’ and place everything toward the south.
16.24
Then, having poured clarified butter over it, he should make three lines of offerings in front; / these too should be made oblong for it, four fingers broad.
16.25
He should prepare three ladles made of khadira wood and inlaid with silver, / measuring a cubit, very smooth, excellent, with tips shaped like hands.
16.26
A water-vessel, bronze, a stirring spoon, sacrificial wood, kuśa grass, / sesame seeds, vessels, good cloth, fragrances, incense, and ointment:
16.27
over the right shoulder, slowly toward the south, he should bring all of it. / Having thus arranged everything before the house upon the ground
16.28
smeared with cow dung, [he should draw] a circle with cow urine; / having worshipped it with unbroken grains and flowers over his right shoulder,
16.29
he should wash the feet of the vipras, welcoming them again and again. / On the seats prepared with darbha grass according to rule,
16.30
having seated the vipras who have sipped water, he should invoke them: / two for the divine rite, three for the ancestral rite, or one for each.
16.31
Even if wealthy, the wise man should not make a large gathering here. / Having first attended to the vipras for the gods with arghya and other offerings, the wise man,
16.32
permitted by the vipras, a vipra should perform the ritual in the fire according to rule; / then, having placed the caru in a bronze vessel in accordance with his own Gṛhyasūtra,
16.33
the wise man should make an offering to Agni-Soma and Yama, / or in the Dakṣiṇāgni if recognized, or whichever single fire the best of the twice-born maintains.
16.34
Wearing the sacred thread over the left shoulder, having performed the sprinkling of water and the like, / everything thereafter must be performed over the right shoulder by the one who knows.
16.35
And from that remnant of the sacrificial food having made six piṇḍas, then / he should give water mixed with sesame by means of the water-vessels with his left hand.
16.36
Bending his left knee carefully, holding darbha grass, free from envy, / having carefully drawn lines, [he should perform] the preliminary ablution over the offerings.
16.37
Facing the south, placing the ladle in his hand, / having placed each single piṇḍa in succession on all the darbha grasses,
16.38
he should then pour out [water] upon the darbha grasses while reciting names and gotras. / Upon those darbha grasses he should wipe that hand for the sharers of the wipe-offerings.
16.39
In the same manner, he should then perform the subsequent ablution once again; / having bowed to all six seasons with fragrances, incense, offerings, and the like,
16.40
having thus invoked it all with the Vedic mantras as prescribed. / For one with a single sacred fire, there should be only a single offering line and likewise one ladle.
16.41
Then, having made an interval, he should give food on kuśa grasses for the wives; / in the same way, regarding the piṇḍas and other items, he should perform the invocation and dismissal.
16.42
Then, having taken portions from the piṇḍas in due order, / a man should carefully cause those very vipras to eat first.
16.43
Because the twice-born eat the portions taken from that food, / it is therefore called the anvāhāryaka [śrāddha] at the waning of the moon.
16.44
Having first given water with sesame and a pavitra into their hands, / he should give the tip of that piṇḍa, saying, ‘May this be svadhā to them.’
16.45
Praising the food, he should always feed them sweet and pure food; / he should avoid giving way to anger, remembering Hari Nārāyaṇa.
16.46
Knowing they are satisfied, he should scatter food of every kind; / having taken up food with water, he should cast the water upon the ground.
16.47
When they have sipped water, he should again give water with flowers and unbroken grains; / he should bring all the benedictory articles above the piṇḍa.
16.48
He should begin and conclude with the gods; otherwise, the śrāddha is ruined. / Likewise having dismissed the brāhmaṇas, having circumambulated them,
16.49
facing the southern direction, a man should pray to the ancestors: / ‘May our givers multiply, as well as the Vedas and our lineage;
16.50
may faith not depart from us, and may we have much to give; / may our food be abundant, and may we receive guests;
16.51
may there be those who ask of us, and may we not ask of anyone!’ / Saying ‘May this be so,’ that anvāhārya is called the pārvaṇa [śrāddha].
16.52
As at the waning of the moon, so it is declared elsewhere too. / He should give the piṇḍas to cows, goats, or vipras, or cast them into fire or water,
16.53
or scatter them before the vipras, or cause birds to eat them. / But the wife, endowed with modesty, should eat the middle piṇḍa, [saying,]
16.54
‘O ancestors, place here an embryo that increases the lineage.’ / The food remnants should remain until the vipras are dismissed.
16.55
When the ancestral rite is concluded, he should then perform the vaiśvadeva. / Then, tranquil, he should eat with his dear ones what was enjoyed by the ancestors.
16.56
Eating again, traveling, riding in vehicles, exertion, and sexual intercourse: / the performer of the śrāddha and the eater of the śrāddha must avoid all of these,
16.57
as well as recitation of the Veda, quarreling, and sleeping by day at all times. / In this manner one should offer the śrāddha without agitation here.
16.58
When the sun is in Virgo, Aquarius, or Taurus, during the dark fortnights at all times, / wherever it must be offered after the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa, / there it should always be offered by one maintaining the fire according to this rule.
Translations (1)
- The Matsya Puranam — A Taluqdar of Oudh 1916, English
Linked texts (1)
- Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit