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Paraskaragrihyasutra 3.3.5

The Grihya-sûtras, Part I (SBE 29) 3.3.5

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3.3.5

Having cooked a mess of sacrificial food and having sacrificed the two Âgya portions, he sacrifices Âgya oblations with (the texts):
(a) 'Thirty sisters go to the appointed place, putting on the same badge. They spread out the seasons, the knowing sages; having the metres in their midst they walk around, the brilliant ones. Svâhâ!
(b) 'The shining one clothes herself with clouds, with the ways of the sun, the divine night: manifold animals which are born, look about in this mother's lap. Svâhâ!
(c) 'The Ekâshtakâ, devoting herself to austerities, has given birth to a child, to the majesty of Indra. Through him the gods have conquered the hostile tribes; he became the killer of the Asuras through his (divine) powers. Svâhâ!
(d) 'You have made me who am not the younger (sister), the younger; speaking the truth I desire this: may I be in his (i.e. the sacrificer's?) favour, as you are; may none of you supplant the other in her work.
(e) 'In my favour dwelt the omniscient one; he has found a firm standing; he has got a footing. May I be in his (i.e. the sacrificer's?) favour, as you are; may none of you supplant the other in her work.
(f) 'On the five dawns follows the fivefold milking; on the cow with the five names, the rive seasons. The five regions (of the sky) are established through the fifteenfold (Stoma); with one common face (they look over) the one world. Svâhâ!
(g) 'She who shone forth as the first, is the child of truth. One (of them) bears the majesty of the waters; one wanders in the courses of the sun; one (in those) of the heat; Savitri shall govern one. Svâhâ!
(h) 'She who shone forth as the first has become a cow in Yama's realm. Give us milk, thou who art rich in milk, year by year. Svâhâ!
(i) 'She, the owner of bright bulls, has come to us with clouds and with light, she who has all shapes, the motley one, whose banner is fire. Carrying on the common work, leading us to old age, come to us thou who art exempt from old age, Ushas! Svâhâ!
(k) 'The consort of the seasons, the first one has come to us, the leader of days, the producer of offspring. Being one, thou shinest manifold, Ushas. Being free from old age, thou leadest to old age everything else. Svâhâ!'

3.3.5.n1

Comp. Taitt. Samhitâ IV, 3, 11; Atharva-veda III, 10.

3.3.5.n2

341:a (a) The thirty sisters seem to be the days of the month. As to madhyekhandas, comp. Taitt. Samh. loc. cit. § 1: khandasvatî ushasâ pepisâne; § 2: katushtomo abhavad yâ turîyâ yagñasya pakshâv rishayo bhavantî, gâyatrîm trishtubham gagatîm anushtubham brihad arkam yuñgânâh suvar âऽbharann idam.

3.3.5.n3

342:d (d) Probably one Ashtakâ addresses the others, her sisters, as Gayarâma explains this verse.

3.3.5.n4

342:f (f) The explanation by which the 'fivefold milking' is referred to what is called in Taitt. Brâhmana II, 2, 9, 'the milkings of Pragâpati,' seems to me more than doubtful, for 'the milkings of Pragâpati' are only four: viz. the dark night, the moonlight, the twilight, and the day.

3.3.5.n5

343:i (i) Sukra-rishabhâ cannot be translated, as Professor Stenzler does, 'die schönste unter den Lichtern' (Mâdhava: sukreshu nakshatrâdishu sreshthâ), for this meaning of rishabhâ occurs only in later texts. The word is a Bahuvrîhi compound, as the Petersburg Dictionary explains it.

Commentaries (3)

Linked texts (1)