History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c23.298

v2.c23.298

gṛ. (II. 2) prescribes a homa with eight oblations. Gobhila speaks of candradarśana. It says that on the 3rd *tithi* of the third bright fortnight after birth, the father bathes the child in the morning, worships in the evening the moon with folded hands, then the mother, having dressed the child, hands it with its face to the north from the south to north to the father and herself passes behind the back of the father and stands to the north of him, who worships with the three verses⁵⁸⁵ 'Oh thou whose hair is well parted, thy heart' (Mantrabrāhmaṇa I. 5. 10-12), then the father hands back the son to the mother with the words 'that this son may not come to harm and be torn from his mother'. Then in the following bright fortnights, the father filling his joined hands with water and turning his face towards the moon, lets the water flow out of his joined hands once with the Yajus 'what is the moon' (Mantrabrāhmaṇa I. 5. 13) and twice silently. The Khādiragṛhya has practically the same rules, except that it does not speak of two times. It will be noted that both omit the sight of the sun, but only mention the seeing of the moon. Laghu-Āśvalāyana VII. 1-3 speaks of the performance of ābhyudayika śrāddha, then reciting the sūkta from 'svasti no mimitām' (Ṛg. V. 51. 11) and 'āśu śiśānaḥ' (Ṛg. X. 103. 1), showing the boy to the sun in the courtyard of one's father-in-law or in that of another and then repeating the verse 'that eye' (Vāj. S. 36. 24). The Sm. C. remarks that those in whose śākhā this rite is not mentioned need not perform it. The Saṃskāraprakāśa pp. 250-256 and Saṃskāraratnamālā pp. 886-888 give an extensive description and make of this saṃskāra a matter of great pomp, festivity and rejoicing. Yama⁵⁸⁶ quoted in Saṃ. Pr. says that seeing the sun and seeing the moon should be done respectively in the 3rd and 4th months from birth.