Grihya Sutras

SR No.: 007685
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1886
Total Pages: 2642
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 521

INTRODUCTION.
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Grihya-sútras treat their subject of course in exactly the same style in which the sacrifices of the Srauta ritual had been treated by the Srauta-stras, which they constantly assume to be known and which are the works of teachers of the same Vedic schools, and oftentimes even perhaps the works of the same authors. Only certain differences in the character of the two groups of texts are naturally conditioned on the one hand by the greater complexity of the Srauta sacrifices and the comparative simplicity of the Grihya sacrifices, on the other hand by the fact that the Srauta-sätras are entirely based on Brâhmana texts, in which the same subjects were treated, while the Grihyasûtras, as we have seen, possessed such a foundation only for a very small portion of their contents.
It goes without saying that the above-mentioned statement that the subjects treated of in the Grihya-sútras are Pakayagñas' or Grihyasthålipäkas should not be pressed with the utmost strictness, as though nothing were treated in the Grihya-sutras which does not come under these heads. First of all the term Sthålipaka is too narrow, since it does not include the offerings of sacrificial butter which constituted a great number of ceremonies. But besides many ceremonies and observances are taught in the Grihya-sätras, which cannot in any way be characterised as sacrifices at all, only possessing some inner resemblance to the group of sacrifices there treated of, or standing in more or less close connection with them?
The Satra texts divide the Pâkayagñas in various ways; either four or seven principal forms are taken up. The
I believe with Stenzler (see his translation of Asvalâ yana, pp. 2 seq.) that påkayagita means 'boiled offering.' It seems to me that the expression på ka in this connection cannot be otherwise taken than in the word sthali paka
pot-boiling '). Prof. Max Müller (History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 203), following Hinda authorities, explains Pakayagta as a small sacrifice,' or, more probably, a good sacrifice. The definition of Latyâyana may be also here quoted (IV, 9, a): påkayagita ity åkakshata ekågnau yagtan.
? Compare, for instance, the account of the ceremonies which are to be performed for the journey of the newly married pair to their new home, SankhayanaGrihya I, 15, or the observances to which the Snataka is bound, Gobhila III, 5, &c. According to the rule Sånkhåyana 1, 12, 13 we are, however, to suppose & sacrifice in many ceremonies where there does not seem to be any.
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