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BRIHADÂRANYAKA-UPANISHAD.
24.1. When the child is born, he prepares the fire, places the child on his lap, and having poured prishadâgya, i. e. dadhi (thick milk) mixed with ghrita (clarified butter) into a metal jug, he sacrifices bit by bit of that prishadâgya, saying: “May I, as I increase in this my house, nourish a thousand! May fortune never fail in his race, with offspring and cattle, Svâhâ !'
'I offer to thee in my mind the vital breaths which are in me, Svâhâ !'
Whatever 2 in my work I have done too much, or whatever I have here done too little, may the wise Agni Svishtakrit make this right and proper for us, Svâhâ !'
25. Then putting his mouth near the child's right ear, he says thrice, Speech, speech 3! After Ânandagiri explains : garbhanihsaranânantaram yâ mâmsapesî nirgakkhati sâvarâ, tâm ka nirgamayety arthah. Dvivedaganga (ed. Weber) writes: nirgamyamânamâmsapesî sâ-avarasabdavâkyâ, tam sâvaram ka nirgamaya.
1 These as well as the preceding rules refer to matters generally treated in the Grihya-sůtras ; see Âsvalâyana, Grihya-sûtras I, 13 seq.; Pâraskara, Grihya-sâtras I, 11 seq.; Sânkhâyana, Grihyasâtras I, 19 seq. It is curious, however, that Asvalâyana I, 13, 1, refers distinctly to the Upanishad as the place where the pumsavana and similar matters were treated. This shows that the Upanishads were known before the composition of the Grihya-sûtras, and explains perhaps, at least partially, why the Upanishads were considered as rahasya. Asvalâyana says, ' Conception, begetting of a boy, and guarding the embryo are to be found in the Upanishad. But if a man does not read the Upanishad, let him know that he should feed his wife,' &c. Narayana explains that Âsvalâyana here refers to an Upanishad which does not exist in his own Sâkhâ, but he objects to the conclusion that therefore the garbhadhâna and other ceremonies need not be performed, and adds that some hold it should be performed, as prescribed by Saunaka and others.
? Âsvalâyana, Grihya-sûtra I, 10, 23. S Trayîlakshanâ vâk tvayi pravisatv iti gapato 'bhiprâyah.
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