India: What can it teach us?: A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of CambridgeMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Philosophy
India: What can it teach us?: A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
India; Sanskrit literature -- History and criticism; Vedas
Let us now return to the passage in the G_ri_hya-sûtras of Â_s_valâyana,
where we met for the first time with the name of _S_râddha.[313] It was
the _S_râddha to be given for the sake of the Departed, after his ashes
had been collected in an urn and buried. This _S_râddha is called
ekoddish_t_a,[314] or, as we should say, personal. It was meant for one
person only, not for the three ancestors, nor for all the ancestors. Its
object was in fact to raise the departed to the rank of a Pit_ri_, and
this had to be achieved by _S_râddha offerings continued during a whole
year. This at least is the general, and, most likely, the original rule.
Âpastamba says that the _S_râddha for a deceased relative should be
performed every day during the year, and that after that a monthly
_S_râddha only should be performed or none at all, that is, no more
personal _S_râddha,[315] because the departed shares henceforth in the
regular Pârva_n_a-_s_râddhas.[316] _S_ânkhâyana says the same,[317] namely
that the personal _S_râddha lasts for a year, and that then "the Fourth"
is dropped, _i.e._ the great-grandfather was dropped, the grandfather
became the great-grandfather, the father the grandfather, while the
lately Departed occupied the father's place among the three principal
Pit_ris_.[318] This was called the Sapi_nd_îkara_n_a, _i.e._ the elevating
of the departed to the rank of an ancestor.
There are here, as elsewhere, many exceptions. Gobhila allows six
months instead of a year, or even a Tripaksha,[319] _i.e._ three
half-months; and lastly, any auspicious event (v_ri_ddhi) may become
the occasion of the Sapi_nd_îkara_n_a.[320]
The full number of _S_râddhas necessary for the Sapi_nd_ana is
sometimes given as sixteen, viz., the first, then one in each of the
twelve months, then two semestral ones, and lastly the Sapi_nd_ana.
But here too much variety is allowed, though, if the Sapi_nd_ana takes
place before the end of the year, the number of sixteen _S_râddhas has
still to be made up.[321]
When the _S_râddha is offered on account of an auspicious event, such
as a birth or a marriage, the fathers invoked are not the father,
grandfather, and great-grandfather, who are sometimes called
a_s_rumukha, with tearful faces, but the ancestors before them, and
they are called nândîmukha, or joyful.[322]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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