History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.482

v6.c82.482

Among the saṁskāras it is best to begin with Jātakarma (rites at the birth of a child). The Ratnamālā⁹⁰⁹ provides that the rites on the birth of a son should be performed on a *mṛdu*, *dhruva*, *kṣipra* or a *cara nakṣatra* and the good recommend the giving of a name when Jupiter or Venus is in *catuṣṭaya* (i e. in the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th bhāva in the infant's horoscope). As regards birth some writers (e. g. M. M. IV. 19) speak of Gaṇḍānta which is inauspicious in birth, marriage and starting on a journey or invasion, viz the conjunction of 15th tithi with pratipad for two ghaṭikās, similarly half a ghaṭikā when Cancer and Lion or Scorpion and Archer or Fish and Ram join and the four ghaṭikās of the junction of Revatī and Aśvinī, Āśleṣā and Maghā, Jyeṣṭhā and Mūla These Gaṇḍānta conjunctions produce evil for the child's father or mother &c. Similar results are predicted for birth on certain parts of Āśleṣā and Mūla. About naming a child Manu provides that it should be performed on the 10th or 12th day from birth or on an auspicious tithi or on a muhūrta or nakṣatra possessed of auspicious characteristics ⁹¹⁰ About *caula* or *cūḍākarma* (tonsure) Āśvalāyana-gṛhya (I. 17. 1) provides a simple rule that it should be performed in the third year after birth or according to family usage, while Manu (II 35) provides that it may be performed in the first or third year; the Aśv. gr, however, has provided for caula, upanayana, godāna and marriage the proper time of the northward passage of the sun, the fortnight of the waxing moon and an auspicious nakṣatra The Āp. gr. (16. 3) states that it may be performed in the 3rd year after birth on Punarvasu naksatra. But medieval writers have added numerous astrological details For example, the Rājamārtanda devotes thirty-two verses to *cūlā* (folios 16 to 18), one remarkable provision being that the Yavanas regarded *cūdākn ma* in the Sun's northward passage as auspicious⁹¹¹ Vyāsa quoted by Sm. C. says 'tonsure should be performed on Aśvinī, Śravana, Svātī, Citrā, Pusya, Punarvasu, Dhanisthā, Revatī, Jyesthā, Mrgaśirsa and Hasta and should not be performed on the person's naksatra of birth, nor on Pūrvābhādrapadā, Uttarābhādrapadā and Krttikā, one should avoid for tonsure the first tithi (after amāvāsyā), *riktā tithi* (4th, 9th and 14th), *Visti*, Sunday, Tuesday, Saturday and night⁹¹²