अथ प्रोष्यान्पुत्रस्य मूर्धानमभिमृशेत् । अङ्गादङ्गात्सम्भवसि हृदयादधिजायसे । आत्मा त्वं पुत्र माविथ स जीव शरदः शतमसाविति नामास्य गृह्णाति । अश्मा भव परशुर्भव हिरण्यमस्तृतं भव । तेजो वै पुत्रनामासि स जीव शरदः शतमसाविति नामास्य गृह्णाति। येन प्रजापतिः प्रजाः पर्यगृह्णादरिष्ट्यै तेन त्वा परिगृह्णाम्यसाविति नामास्य गृह्णात्यथास्य दक्षिणे कर्णे जपत्यस्मै प्रयन्धि मघवन्नृजीषिन्नितीन्द्र श्रेष्ठानि द्रविणानि धेहीति सव्ये मा च्छित्था मा व्यथिष्ठाः शतं शरद आयुषो जीव पुत्र । ते नाम्ना मूर्धानमभिजिघ्राम्यसाविति त्रिर्मूर्धानमवजिघ्रेद्गवां त्वा हिङ्कारेणाभिहिङ्करोमीति त्रिर्मूर्धानमभिहिङ्कुर्यात्
atha proṣyānputrasya mūrdhānamabhimṛśet | aṅgādaṅgātsambhavasi hṛdayādadhijāyase | ātmā tvaṃ putra māvitha sa jīva śaradaḥ śatamasāviti nāmāsya gṛhṇāti | aśmā bhava paraśurbhava hiraṇyamastṛtaṃ bhava | tejo vai putranāmāsi sa jīva śaradaḥ śatamasāviti nāmāsya gṛhṇāti| yena prajāpatiḥ prajāḥ paryagṛhṇādariṣṭyai tena tvā parigṛhṇāmyasāviti nāmāsya gṛhṇātyathāsya dakṣiṇe karṇe japatyasmai prayandhi maghavannṛjīṣinnitīndra śreṣṭhāni draviṇāni dhehīti savye mā cchitthā mā vyathiṣṭhāḥ śataṃ śarada āyuṣo jīva putra | te nāmnā mūrdhānamabhijighrāmyasāviti trirmūrdhānamavajighredgavāṃ tvā hiṅkāreṇābhihiṅkaromīti trirmūrdhānamabhihiṅkuryāt
Then, having returned from a journey, let him touch his son's head: “From every limb thou hast arisen, from the heart thou art born; thou art my self, O son; thou hast saved me. Live a hundred autumns” — and he speaks his name. “Be a stone, be an axe, be unbreakable gold; thou, son, art called radiance. Live a hundred autumns” — and he speaks his name. “Wherewith Prajāpati embraced the creatures for their unhurtness, therewith I embrace thee” — and he speaks his name. Then he whispers in his right ear: “Grant to him, bounteous, impetuous one; O Indra, bestow the best riches” — and in the left: “Be not cut off, waver not; live a hundred autumns of life, my son. With thy name I smell thy head, such-a-one.” And thrice let him smell his head. “With the lowing of cows I hum over thee” — and thrice let him make the hiṅ-sound over his head.
5aedba767244 · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 3:43:45 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The rite of a father meeting his son after absence, and it consists wholly of touches and words over the child's head.
The first thing spoken is a genealogy from within: “from every limb thou hast arisen, from the heart thou art born”. The śāstras have a well-known saying: the son is born of the father's body limb by limb, and of the heart entire. Hence the next word, the strongest: ātmā tvaṃ putra, “thou art my self, son”. Not “part of me”, not “the line continued”, but the very word by which the Upaniṣads name what is highest in a man.
Then come the wishes of firmness: be a stone, be an axe, be unbreakable gold. Three images in ascending order: the stone does not yield, the axe itself cleaves, gold does not rust. The boy is wished not luck but unbreakability.
The embrace is explained through Prajāpati: “wherewith he embraced the creatures for their unhurtness, therewith I embrace thee”. The father's arms are set in one line with what holds the universe; ariṣṭi, “unhurtness”, is the very thing asked of the Lord of creatures — and the father gives it to the son.
Into the right ear is whispered the plea to Indra for riches; into the left, the plea for life itself: “be not cut off, waver not”. The division is expressive: on the right — for prosperity; on the left — that he simply be.
And twice a triple act: the smelling of the crown and the sound over it. “To smell the head” is the ancient gesture of tenderness that served for a kiss; so in the epics elders greet the young. And the hiṅkāra is the sound with which the sāman is begun and with which a cow calls her calf. The father greets his son as a cow greets her calf; and with that short lowing the rite ends.