20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

682 JULIETA Rotaru3. The significance of the four commendationsThe KauśS prescribes the entrusting of the child occasioned by his/hersaṃskāras, with the recitation of three sets of mantras. Keśava and followinghim Sāyaṇa 22 record in addition an oblation of rice-barley and śamī leavesoffered on the child’s head. The nowadays living Oriya scholar, UmākāntaPAṆḌĀ, mentions the feeding of the child instead. The AthPaddh and theSRM count water besides rice-barley and śamī leaves. It might seem thatthe later ritualists added one more oblation, consisting of water, in orderto equipoise the three sets of mantras with the abhimantraṇa of the threeoblations.In sum, the description of the four commendations according to thelate Śaunakin ritual sources (AthPaddh and SRM) is as follows: the firstone is to heaven and earth, and the verses employed for the consecration ofthe first oblation consisting of rice and barley refer to dual entities, heavenand earth (with its elements, sun, wind, and water), the lower and the upperearth 23 , the gods Ādityas (equated here with the sun and the moon) 24 . Thesecond commendation is directed to the rice and barley and the verses usedin the abhimantraṇa of the first oblation are a charm for rendering any typeof food and beverage (note the pair!) non injurious for baby: agrarian foodand animal products, such as milk; the food which can be eaten by the childand the food which can be eaten by the new born with difficulty (due toits solidity or taste) 25 . By the third commendation the child is placed underthe protection of the day and night who are asked to defend him/her fromthe Arāya-demons 26 seeking to devour him/her right from the inception.22Introduction to ŚS 2.29, etc.23Sāyaṇa on the pāda in question, ŚS 8.2.15b, counts a threefold subdivision of theearth as the first cosmic level (avamamadhyamottarabhedena pṛthivyās traividhyam).24MUIR (1872: 448, n. 621) reckons that the Moon is not counted in the Vedasamong Ādityas. Yet, such representations could be explained through the connectionthat the two Ādityas, here Mitra and Varuṇa, have with the nocturnal and daily light,respectively. cf. ŚS 13.3.13.a-b: sa varuṇaḥ sāyam agnir bhavati sa mitro bhavati prātarudyan |25Cf. Sāyaṇa ad ŚS 8.2.19c: adanānarhaṃ kaṭhinadravyam | atyantakaṭutiktatvāt vāanādyam |26Sāyaṇa: adhanebhyo dhanāpahartṛbyo vā – “poor people or ones who maysnatch away your wealth”. WHITNEY passim translates Arāyas “the niggards”. Onthe significance of the Arāya demon see GRIFFITHS 2009:104 and passim, under histranslation of the following hymn: PS 6.14.7, 8: “The Asurian fiend who eats a man’syoung boys, the hairy, dreadful Arāya who slays and eats men […]”, “[…] the one calledArāya, who is a slayer of that, which (or: him, who) is shone upon by the sun […]”, 7.19.5“The egg-eating, fetus-spoiling Arāya that licks at your womb, that reaches [your] son.”.