History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.30

v2.c26.30

Some of the gṛhyasūtras propose a peculiar mystical method of selecting a bride. The Āśv. gṛ. (I. 5. 3) after stating that one should select a girl endowed with good characteristics (lakṣaṇas) proceeds 'lakṣaṇas are very difficult to discern' and therefore prescribes (I. 5. 5-6) that eight lumps of different kinds of earth should be taken respectively from a field that yields two crops a year, from a cow-stable, from a vedi (sacrificial altar, after sacrifice is performed), from a pool of water that does not dry up, from a gambling place, from a place where four roads meet, from a barren spot, and from a burial ground; then he should recite over the lumps the formula 'ṛta (right) has been born first in the beginning; truth is founded (or fixed) in ṛta; may this girl attain here that for which she is born; may what is true be visible;' then he says to the girl 'take one of these'. According as she chooses the lump, it may respectively be deemed that she will have offspring rich in food (if she chooses the lump of the earth taken from the field of two crops a year &c.), or rich in cattle, or rich in spiritual lustre or rich in everything, or addicted to gambling, or wandering in different directions or poor, or that she will bring death to her husband (if she takes the lump of the earth from the burial ground). The Gobhila gṛ. II. 1. 4-9 speaks of these lumps and adds that a ninth lump may be formed by mixing up the earths of all eight varieties and that if she takes up any one of the four lumps of earth from an altar, furrow, a pool or a cow-stable or (according to some) the ninth lump, she may be selected. The Laugākṣi gṛ. 14. 4-7 contains the same rules as in Gobhila. Āp. gṛ.¹⁰²⁹ (III. 15-18) prescribes a somewhat different method. If both sides agree, the bridegroom (or his friends) should place in one lump of earth several kinds of seeds (such as rice, barley &c.); he should take (a lump having in it) the dust from an altar, a third having a clod from a ploughed field, a lump having cowdung inside and (a fifth having) a clod of earth from a cemetery and keeping them before the girl ask her to touch one of them (the five). If she touches any one of the first four, that is an indication of future prosperity (of the nature of the object touched), but the last (viz. clod of earth from cemetery) is objectionable. The Vārāha gṛ. 10 and Bhār. gṛ. I. 11 speak of only four lumps of earth viz. from a field, from an altar, from a cow-stable, and from a cemetery and say that one should not marry a girl who takes up the lump of cemetery earth. Mānava gṛ. (I. 7. 9-10) speaks of eight lumps but substitutes a lump of earth where dūrvā grows and a lump from under a tree filled with fruit for earth from a pool of water and one from a gambling place and adds that the eight lumps should be placed in a temple and if the girl takes up the lump from a cemetery or from a barren spot or from where four roads meet she should not be married. Many digests like the Gṛ. R. (pp. 13-22) contain long quotations which dilate upon the indications about the auspiciousness or otherwise of girls from their several physical features.