Saturday, February 27, 2010

Rituals for non brahmins

There are many texts available for performance of rituals for brahmins. The main ones are called gruhya sutras. Examples are Asvalayana sutra followed by Rigvedis, Apastamba sutra followed by Yajurvedis etc. The procedure and the Veda mantras employed are narrated in these texts.

However, when it comes to the other three varnas, there is only one text that I have come across. It is called "Kritya Divakara". At the beginning of the text, the author says "yesham na kinchit viditam kathamchit kuravanti karmani nrupadikanam tesham kritekari divakarena grantho laghuh krityadivakaroyam" - For kshatriya onwards, for whom not much is known about how to perform karmas, this book is for them"

The specialty of the text is that all Veda mantras have been substituted by purana mantras which can be used by all.

Some of the main topics of this text are - Ganapatipuja, punyahavachanam, agnimukham, nandisraadham, grahayajnah, garbhadhanam, pumsavanam, seemanthonnayanam, jatakarma, namakaranam, nishkramanam, choulam, vidyarambhah, mounjeebandhanam, dattaputrapratigraham, vivaha, various jananasanthis, nakshatrasanthis, Vastusanthi, nityakarma, sradhavidhi, antyeshti, tilahoma etc.