20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

The significance of the four commendations... 681types of divinatory objects, the ladle for taking out the oblation from itscontainer and the ladle used for offering of clarified butter in the public ritual(both are symbol of religiosity), and a book (sign of scholarship), whereasUmākānta PAṆḌĀ sanctions the choice of the same yathākuladharmeṇa.The rite of the first feeding in the PSPaddh follows the gist sketched bythe KauśS, with the proper annaprāśana followed by two commendations.The child is fed rice mixed with various flavours such as ghee, milk, wheat,sour milk, and molasses while the priest/father recites the two verses fromthe Paippalāda Saṃhitā (PS) 16.4.8-9 (ŚS 8.2.18-19). Next, with the versePS 16.4.10 (ŚS 8.2.20) he feeds the child and consigns him to day andnight. He feeds the child a third time while reciting the verse PS 16.5.2(ŚS 8.2.22.), by which he commits him to the seasons. It is noteworthy thatthe KauśS does not explicitly prescribe the feeding in the commendations.Next Umākānta PAṆḌĀ prescribes the proper feeding of the child “as perhis capacity”.We cannot relay barely on the learned Oriya scholar’s compilation andthus we are no able by now to see how these rites in the Paippalāda traditionoriginally were. We cannot ascertain if the Paippalādins’ paridānas imply,besides the recitation of two stanzas and the tyāga formulas, the actionof feeding, which is actually not mentioned by the KauśS. Yet, it seemsthat Umākānta PAṆḌĀ learnt from his sources about two commendationsperformed at the time of the first feeding in a manner similar to howKauśika mentioned them. The former ignores not only the paridāna in therite of the first shaving, although the KauśS refers to it precisely so (andthis might be due to paṇḍit’s omission), but also in the rites of the namegiving and the first going out, thus mentioned by Keśava, the AthPaddh,and the SRM. It might be the case that the development of the paridānato four, from some (original) two prescribed by the KauśS, or even theiraffiliation to four rites performed for the new born, instead of the (original)two precisely mentioned by the KauśS, are familiar to the later Śaunakincircles. However the two commendations of the Paippalādins are closer tothe original rites consisting in merely petitions to divinities, as comparedwith the complex Śaunakins’ offerings of rice and barley, śamī leaves, andwater on the child’s head.annāni ca sarvāṇi Keśava on 58.19) nivedayati || tato māṇavakasya dakṣiṇe haste srucaṃsruvaṃ pustakaṃ ca dadāti (tataḥ sruvaṃ pustakaṃ dadāti Keśava ad 58.19) || – “He takesthe rice and barley besmeared with the remnants of the oblation, he pounds [them] andfeeds the child. Then he announces all the foods. Next he places in the child's right handthe ladle sruc, the spoon sruva, and a book.”