________________
The interaction of Sanskrit through Jainism
157
Lipisamkhyāna kriya is the kriya which is made at the age of five when a child starts his education first time. 1 This kriyă is performed when Civakan started his education first and this is explained in the following verse :
arum ponnum maniyu mut tum kāņamun kuruni yakap parant eläp pirappum vaittup paim pon cey tavicin ucci iruntu pon õlai cem pon ūciyal elutiy er ppat
tiruntu por kaņņiyarkkuc celviyaic cerrtinare. 2
YHaving placed the trays of rice on which gold, jewels and pearls are being kept to the amount of a Kuruni 3 and having sat on the golden seat, the teacher united the young lady (goddess of education) with Civakan who wore golden garland, by writing on the golden leaf with the golden needle.)
The rituals performed in marriage are mentioned in the Cc. in the description of the marriage between Ilakkanai and Civakan. Though Civakan marries eight girls, only the wedding which took place between Ilakkaņai and Civakan is described with full details of wedding rituals. According to the Ap. a young man should marry a
girl from a suitable family with the permission of his guru. The marriage should be perlormed in front of the holy fire after making pūjā to Jina, 5 After the wedding for seven days the couple should have no sexual relationship and they should go to a place of pilgrimage if possible. When they return home on proper time they should indulge themselves in sexual pleasures for the procreation of children.8
Tēvar follows some of these rules in describing the wedding of Civakan with Jlakka nai and also borrows some of the ideas expressed in the gļhya sūtras. Ilakkanai whom Civakan married was from a suitable family as she was his cousin, the daughter of his uncle Kovintan. In the wedding, the officiating priests made the altar with newly spread sand, sacred grass (darbha) and sacrificial fuel. They also placed two vessels of water, a pot of incense and a vessel of ghee, in the proper places. These detailed descriptions about making the altar and placing the water, incense, and ghee are not mentioned in the Ap. The water and ghee which are placed in the vessels are for the ceremony of madhuparka. Madhuparka is tbe first honour that the father-in-law bestows upon the bridegroom. The two vessels of water are, one for the wasbing the feet of the bridegroom and the other the arghya water,
1 Ap. loc. cit. 102-103 2 Cc. v. 369 3 'Kuruņi' is a grain measure equal to one marakkāl or eight measures, Madras Tamil lexicon,
Vol. II, Madras, 1962, p. 1054. 4 Ap. loc. cit. v. 127 5 ,
v. 128 6 ..
vv, 131-134 7 Nacciņārkkiniyar, commentary on the Cc. v. 2464 8 R. B. Pandey, Hindu Samskāras, 2nd Edition, Delhi, 1969, p. 211
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
