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II PRASNA, I PATALA, 2 SECTION, 6.
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whose wheel does not roll back (?) !' (and), “May we find our way with thee through all hostile powers, as through streams of water' (above I, 20, 5).
Patala 1, Section 2. 1. Now (follows) the Pumsavana (i.e. the ceremony for securing the birth of a male child).
2. In the third month, in the fortnight of the increasing moon, under an auspicious constellation (&c.; see the preceding section, Satras 2 and 3, down to :) in a round apartment. He gives her a barley-grain in her right hand with (the formula), A man art thou ;
3. With (the formula), 'The two testicles are ye,' two mustard seeds or two beans, on both sides of that barley-grain.
4. With (the formula), 'Svâvritat' (? svâvrittat ?) (he pours) a drop of curds (on those grains). That he gives her to eat.
5. After she has sipped water, he touches her belly with the formula), With my ten (fingers) I touch thee that thou mayst give birth to a child after ten months.'
6. (He pounds) the last shoot of a Nyagrodha trunk (and mixes the powder) with ghee, or a silkworm (and mixes the powder) with a pap prepared of panick seeds, or a splinter of a sacrificial post taken from the north-easterly part (of that post) exposed to the fire, or (he takes ashes or soot [?] of)
2, 2. Comp. the note on Asvalâyana I, 13, 2.
6. The translation of this Satra should be considered merely as tentative. Some words of the text are uncertain, and the remarks of Matridatta are very incorrectly given in the MSS.
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