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The Grihya Sutras, Part 1 (SBE29), by Hermann Oldenberg, [1886], at sacred-texts.com


KANDIKÂ 10.

1. If (a student) wishes to be dismissed (by his teacher), he should pronounce before the teacher his (i.e. the teacher's?) name—

2. (And should say), 'Here we will dwell, sir!'

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3. With a loud voice (the words) following after the name.

4. 'Of inhalation and exhalation'—(this he says) with a low voice,

5. And (the verse), 'Come hither, Indra, with thy lovely-sounding, fallow-coloured (horses)' (Rig-veda III, 45, 1).

6. The aged one then murmurs, 'To inhalation and exhalation I, the wide-extended one, resort with thee. To the god Savitri I give thee in charge'—and the verse.

7. When he has finished (that verse), and has muttered, 'Om! Forwards! Blessing!' and recited (over the student the hymn), 'The great bliss of the three' (Rig-veda X, 185)—(he should dismiss him).

8. On one who has been thus dismissed, danger comes from no side—thus it is understood (in the Sruti).

9. If he hears (on his way) disagreeable voices of birds, he should murmur the two hymns, 'Shrieking, manifesting his being' (Rig-veda II, 42, 43), and (the verse), 'The divine voice have the gods created' (Rig-veda VIII, 100, 11).

10. 'Praise the renowned youth who sits on the war-chariot' (Rig-veda II, 33, 11)—if (he hears disagreeable voices) of deer.

11. From the direction, or from the (being) from which he expects danger, towards that direction he should throw a fire-brand, burning on both sides, or having twirled about a churning-stick from the right to the left, with (the words), 'Safety be to me, Mitra

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and Varuna; encounter the foes and burn them up with your flame. May they find none who knows them and no support; divided by discord may they go to death'—

12. He turns the churning-stick downwards with (the verse), 'The combined wealth of both, heaped together' (Rig-veda X, 84, 7).


Footnotes

230:1 10, 1. Nârâyana refers this rule to a student who has performed the Samâvartana and wishes to go away. But a comparison of Sâṅkhâyana-Grihya II, 18 seems to make it probable that the ceremony described here has nothing to do with the Samâvartana.

I take this chapter rather for a description of the way in which a student has to take leave of his teacher when setting out on a journey. 'His name' is the teacher's name, according to Nârâyana.

230:2 Sâṅkhâyana II, 18, 1. Sâṅkh. has aham vatsyâmi; Âsvalâyana, idam vatsyârnah. The commentator says that instead of idam the Âsrama is to be named which the student chooses to enter upon, for instance, Devadatta, we will dwell in the state of a householder, sir!'

231:6 I have translated, as Prof. Stenzler has also done, according to Sâṅkhâyana's reading, prânâpânâ . . . tvayâ. The 'aged one' is the teacher, the verse that which is quoted in Sûtra 5.


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