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xxviii
GRIHYA-SUTRAS.
it in the series of the festivals. As a rule the acts we have just mentioned are followed, in accordance with the natural series, by the Ashtaka festivals, which are celebrated during the last months of the year.
Alongside of these acts which are connected with fixed points of the year we find in the various Grihya texts an account of a series of other ceremonies, which, in accordance with their nature, have no such fixed position in the system of the ritual. Thus, for instance, the rites which refer to the choice of a piece of ground to build a house or to the building itself; further, the rites connected with agriculture and cattle raising. In many texts we find together with this group of acts also an account of the ceremonies, related to fixed points in the year, which stand in connection with the annual course of Vedic study: the description of the opening festival and of the closing festival of the school term, as well as a point which generally follows these descriptions, the rules as to the anadhyâya, i.e. as to the occasions which necessitate an intermission in the study of the Veda for a longer or for a shorter period. As a rule, the Grihya-sätras bring the account of these things into the group of acts which refer to the household life of the Grihastha; for the Adhyâpana, i.e. the teaching of the Veda, held the first place among the rights and duties of the Brahmana who had completed his time at school. On the other hand these ceremonies can naturally also be considered as connected with the school life of the young Hindu, and accordingly they are placed in that division by Gobhila ?, between the description of the Upanayana and that of the Samåvartana.
The sacred acts connected with the burial and the worship of the dead (the various kinds of Sraddha rites) may be designated as a third group of the ceremonies which are described to us in the Grihya-sätras. Finally, a fourth group comprises the acts which are connected with the attainment of particular desires (kâmyâni). Among the
1 Not in Sânkhayana, who describes the Ashtakás before these sacrifices.
III, 3.
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