History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c23.164.2

v2.c23.164.2

17) says that it should be performed on the foetus beginning to move and up to the time of delivery. Āśv., Śāṅ. and Hir. require that the moon must be in conjunction with a male nakṣatra. Hir. gṛ. alone prescribes that the saṁskāra should take place in a round apartment. It is remarkable that Āśv. alone requires that the woman should be seated on a bull's hide, which shows that till his day such a hide was not treated (as is done in modern times) as a very unholy thing. Pāraskara makes her sit on a soft chair or seat, while Gobhila prescribes a seat of northward pointed *darbhas*. There is great divergence as to the number of oblations and the verses to be repeated even in sūtras of the same Veda, e. g. Āśvalāyana prescribes eight oblations and eight mantras, but Śāṅkhāyana prescribes only six (by omitting the verses Ṛg. II. 32. 4-5). Gobhila, Khādira, Bhāradvāja, Pāraskara and Śāṅkhāyana prescribe the preparation of boiled rice with ghee thereon or sesame and the first three of these say that the woman should be asked to look at the ghee on the mass of rice and be questioned 'what do you see' and she should be made to reply 'I see progeny' (Bhāradvāja has the reply 'sons and cattle'). Almost all gṛhya sūtras agree that in parting the hair the husband is to use a bunch of unripe fruit (Gobhila, Pār. and Śāṅ. specifying that it was to be Udumbara fruit), a porcupine quill with three white spots and three bunches of kuśa grass.