20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

The significance of the four commendations... 687incertitude Sāyaṇa’s commentary on the whole book is absent. The generalmeaning of the stanzas might be: to part from the great Soma sacrificemeans to break the line stretched to the gods through the rituals performedby the ancestors. The discharged pupil and the bride are sought to fulfil thereligious duties of a householder, and assure through progenies the latter’scontinuation, respectively. Similarly, the child, who is given a name, fedfor the first time with food, other than breast, taken outside his house, andwho has his/her hair cut, is wished not to discontinue the sacred obligationsof the ancestors.In the four commendations the actual offering consists in rice andbarley (dual again), śamī leaves, and water, offered on the child’s head.The offering on the yajamāna’s head seems to be a common practice inAtharvavedic circles. The AtharvaVedaPariśiṣṭa (AVPariś) 51 prescribesat the end of the puṣyābhiṣeka royal ceremony the offering on the king’shead of śamī together with rice and barley and other items, such as panicgrass (Panicum Dactylon), white mustard, ghee, and white flowers. Śamīand the pair of rice and barley are counted among the eight auspiciousitems created by Bṛhaspati 52 . In the KauśS śamī is recorded as śāntivṛkṣa(pacifying tree) among a dozen of other plants 53 , that might have been noeasily available, since Keśava, quoting Paiṭhīnasi, reckons that rice maybe used as a substitute for any of the mentioned items, and a late prayogahailing from Gore’s collection in Vaidika Saṁṣodhana Maṇḍala, theŚāntyudaka Prayoga, substitutes rice or barley or both for the same (v.ROTARU 2009 for this prayoga and for the substitution of the śamī: 178,n. 81 and 182, n. 96). However different parts of the śamī (leaves, fruits,wood) 54 are used in various rites.MEULENBELD (1974: 602) proposes four identifications of the śamī:1. Acacia Sundra=Acacia Suma Buch.-Ham. ex Wall.= Mimosa Suma515.5.6: dūrvāsiddhārthakān sarpih śamīr vrīhiyavau tathā | śuklāni caiva (caitra,Rāmkumār RAY) puṣpāṇi mūrdhni dadyāt purohitah ||52AVPariś 4.1.23: proktāni mangalāny aṣṭau brāhmaṇo gaur hutāśanah | bhūmihsiddharthakāh sarpih śamī vrīhiyavau tathā || – “Eight are the things called auspicious: thebrāhmaṇas, cows, fire, earth, white mustard, ghee, śamī, and rice and barley.”53Cf. the paribhāṣā 8.16. The actual usage of the plant is mentioned by KauśS asfollows: 28.9, a powder of the śamī leaves mixed with food, or a powder of śamī leavesadded to the cosmetics (alaṅkāra), and spread around the house, in a rite for removing theeffects of demon’s possession; 31.1, see further and the note 57; 31.8, see further and thenote 58; 35.8-10, v. infra; 69.6 in the agnyādhānam, 83.3 cf. 85.19, śamī leaves, in funeralrites; 106.5, as the enclosing sticks for the sacrificial fire.54V. supra, note 53. AVPariś 46.1.9-10 mentions a certain śamīdhānya, whichshould not be consumed by the yajamāna in specific vratas.