________________
INTRODUCTION.
7
and when she sees the star Arundhat, she says, ruddhâham asmi. As the full wording of these Mantras is given by Gobhila, they are omitted in the Brâhmana. Finally the bridegroom recites over the bride the Rik dhruvâ dyaur dhruvâ prithivi, &c.; this we find in the M.-B. (I, 3,7), the Pratîka only being quoted by Gobhila. If one were to suppose here that in the two texts two different stages in the development of this ceremony are represented, so that only the Mantras lekhâsandhishu and dhruvâ dyauh would belong to the more ancient form of it, while the Mantras dhruvam asi and ruddhâham asmi would have been introduced at a later time, it may perhaps not be possible to disprove, in the strictest sense of the word, such an opinion. But I think the data we have given point to another solution of the problem which, if not the only admissible, is yet the most probable and natural one. Gobhila gave the full wording of the shorter Mantras with which the description of the ceremony could be interwoven without becoming obscure or disproportionate; the longer Mantras would have interrupted, rather tediously and inconveniently, the coherency of his ritual statements; so he separated them from the rest of his work and made a separate Samhitâ of them. It is true that there are some exceptions to the rule that all long Mantras are given in the Mantra-Brahmana and all short Mantras only in the Sutra: on the one hand, there are some Mantras of considerable extent that are given by Gobhila and omitted in the Brahmana, thus, for instance, the Mantra yady asi saumî used at a preparatory ceremony that belongs to the Pumsavana 1. On the other hand, a number of short Mantras which Gobhila gives in extenso, are found nevertheless also in the Mantra-Brahmana: such is the case, for instance, with many of the Mantras belonging to the worship of the Fathers, Gobhila IV, 2. 3, Mantra-Br. II, 3.
1 Gobh. II, 6, 7. It is possible, though we have no positive evidence for this conjecture, that such statements regarding preparatory or auxiliary ceremonies may here and there have been added to the Sûtra collection in a later time. The Khâdira-Grihya (II, 2, 20) has instead of that long Mantra only a few words which in the Gobhiliya-sûtra stand at the end of it.
Digitized by
Google
