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


KHANDA 6.

1. If he will acquire a wife, let him recite over the wooers (whom he sends to the girl's father) when they go away, the verse, 'Thornless' (Rig-veda X, 85, 23).

2. When they arrive, they take flowers, fruits, barley, and a pot of water.

3. They say thrice, 'Here I am, sir!'

4. When these words have been uttered, they ask the girl in marriage, reciting the clan names, the dwellers turning their faces to the east, the visitors to the west.

5. When the matter pleases both sides, let them touch a full vessel into which have been put flowers,

p. 22

fried grain, fruits, barley, and gold, and let them recite (the formula), 'Undisturbed art thou, the undisturbable vigour of the gods, not cursed, protecting against a curse, unexposed to a curse. Might I straightway attain to truth. Put me into prosperity.'

6. With the verse, 'Offspring may produce us' (Rig-veda X, 85, 43), the Âkârya of the girl's (family), standing up, places (the vessel) on her head (saying), 'Offspring I put into thee, cattle I put into thee, splendour and holy lustre I put into thee.'


Footnotes

21:1 6, 1. 'The wooers, i.e. his own father, &c.' Nârâyana.

21:3 'When the father of the suitor and the others, together with their Âkârya, have arrived at the house of him who is to give away the girl, they station themselves in the hall, and the father of the suitor says thrice, "Here am I, N.N. (amukasarman), Sir!"—in these words he announces himself three times . . . . For at the house of the person who gives the girl away, there arrive also, in order to see the festivities, many other people. In order to distinguish himself from these, he pronounces his name.' Nârâyana.

22:6 The position of the words as well as the sense favours combining the genitive kanyâyâh with âkâryah, not with mûrdhani, though Râmakandra says that the varapakshâkârya is to be understood.


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