History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c34.222

v2.c34.222

*Tarpaṇa*—(satiating by offering water). As stated in Manu II. 176, every day one has to perform tarpaṇa of gods, sages and pitṛs. The water to be offered to gods is poured by that part of the right hand which is called *devatīrtha* and that for the pitṛs by the pitṛ-tīrtha. A person was to perform tarpaṇa according to the gṛhyasūtra of the Vedic śākhā which he or his ancestors studied. There is a good deal of divergence among the several gṛhyasūtras. Here the procedure of tarpaṇa prescribed by the Āśv. gṛ. (III. 4. 1-5) will be first set out. In the Devatātarpaṇa the following deities are enumerated and one has to add the words 'tṛpyatu', 'tṛpyetām', or 'tṛpyantu' with each devatā according as it is one deity, two deities or more and offer water to each (e. g. 'Prajāpatis-tṛpyatu, Brahmā tṛpyatu, ...... Dyāvāpṛthivī tṛpyetām' &c.). The deities are 31 viz. Prajāpati, Brahmā, Vedas, devas, ṛṣis, all metres, oṁkāra, vaṣaṭkāra, vyāhṛtis, the Gāyatrī, sacrifices (yajñas), heaven and earth, the air (antarikṣa), days and nights, the Sāṅkhyas, siddhas, oceans, the rivers, the mountains, the fields, herbs, trees, Gandharvas and Apsarases, snakes, birds, cows, sādhyas, vipras, yakṣas, the rakṣases, the bhūtas (beings) that have these (rakṣas) at the end. In modern times the fields, herbs, trees, Gandharvas and Apsarases are put in one compound word and form only one devatā, while after bhūtas there is a separate deity 'evam-antāni tṛpyantu'. Haradatta on Āśv. gṛ. III. 3. 2 refers to the view of some that take 'evam-antāni' as a separate mantra but his opinion was that the phrase 'evam-antāni' only described the preceding devatās and that the devatās stopped at 'rakṣāṁsi'. He further adds that the tarpaṇa to these was done by the prājāpatya tīrtha (of the hand).