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1. After having performed the Upâkarman ceremony on the full moon of the month Srâvana, or of the month Bhâdra, the student must (pass over the two next days without studying, and then) study for four months and a half.
2. After that, the teacher must perform out of town the ceremony of Utsarga for those students (that have acted up to this injunction); but not for those who have failed to perform the ceremony of Upâkarman.
3. During the period (subsequent upon the ceremony of Upâkarman and) intermediate between it and the ceremony of Utsarga, the student must read the Vedângas.
4. He must interrupt his study for a day and a night on the fourteenth and eighth days of a month[1].
5. (He must interrupt his study for the next day
[XXX. 1-33. Weber, Ind. Stud. X, 130-134; Nakshatras II, 322, 338-339; M. IV, 95-123; II, 71, 74; Y. 12 142-151; Âpast. I, 3, 9-11; Gaut. XVI; I, 51, 53.--33-38. Âsv. III, 3, 3; M. II, 107; Y. I, 41-46.--41, 42. M. II, 116.--43-46. M. II, 117, 146-148, 144.
1-3. The annual course of Vedic studies opens with a ceremony called Upâkarman, and closes with a ceremony called Utsarga. The latter, according to the rule laid down in Sûtra 1, would fall upon the first day of the moon's increase, either in Pausha or in Mâgha. Nand. states that those students who have not performed the Upâkarman ceremony in due time must perform a penance before they can be admitted to the Utsarga; nor must those be admitted to it who have failed to go on to the study of another branch of the Veda at the ordinary time, after having absolved one.
4. 1 Nand., with reference to a passage of Hârîta, considers the use of the plural and of the particle ka to imply that the study must also be interrupted on the first and fifteenth days.
5. 1 This refers to the second days of the months Phâlguna, Âshâdha, and Kârttika. (Nand.)]
and night) after a season of the year has begun[1], (and for three nights) after an eclipse of the moon.
6. (He must not study for a day and a night) when Indra's flag is hoisted or taken down.
7. (He must not study) when a strong wind is going,
8. (He must not study for three days) when rain, lightning, and thunder happen out of season[1].
9. (He must not study till the same hour next day) in the case of an earthquake, of the fall of a meteor, and when the horizon is preternaturally red, as if on fire.
10. (He must not study) in a village in which a corpse lies;
11. Nor during a battle;
12. Nor while dogs are barking, jackals yelling. or asses braying;
13. Nor while the sound of a musical instrument is being, heard;
14. Nor while Sûdras or outcasts are near;
15. Nor in the vicinity of a temple, of a burial-ground, of a place where four ways meet, or of a high road;
16. Nor while immersed in water;
17. Nor with his foot placed upon a bench;
18. Nor while riding upon an elephant, a horse, or a camel, (or in a carriage drawn by any of those animals), or being borne in a boat, or in a carriage drawn by oxen;
19. Nor after having vomited;
[8. 1 'I.e. not during the rains.' (Nand.)
12. Nand. considers the term sva, 'dog,' to include all the other animals mentioned by Âpastamba, I, 3. 10, 17.
19-21. After having vomited or been purged he shall interrupt {footnote p. 125} his study for a day and a night; when suffering, from indigestion, till he has digested his food. (Nand.)]
20. Nor after having been purged;
21. Nor during an indigestion.
22. When a five-toed animal has passed between the teacher and the pupil (the latter must interrupt his study for a day and a night).
23. When a king or a learned Brâhmana (who has mastered one Veda), or a cow, or a Brâhmana (in general) has met with an accident (he must not study).
24. After the Upâkarman (he must not study for three days).
25. And after the Utsarga, (he must interrupt his study for as many days).
26. And (he must avoid to study) the hymns of the Rig-veda, or those of the Yagur-veda, while the Sâman melodies are being chanted.
27. Let him not lie down to sleep again when he has begun to study in the second half of the night.
28. Let him avoid studying at times when there ought to be an intermission of study, even though a question has been put to him (by his teacher);
[22. According to Nand., the interruption of study is to last for two days, when a crow, or an owl, or a wild cock, or a mouse, or a frog, and the like animals have passed; and for three days, when a dog, or an ichneumon, or a snake, or a frog (sic), or a cat has passed. He quotes Gaut. I, 59 in support of his interpretation. I have translated according to M. W, 126; Y. I, 147.
23. in these cases the study shall not be taken up again till the accident has been appeased by propitiatory rites. If any of the persons in question has died, the interruption is to last for a day and a night, in case they were persons of little merit; but in case they should have been very virtuous, it is to last for three days. (Nand.)
28. Every lesson consists of questions put by the teacher and the pupil's answers to them.]
29. Since to study on forbidden days neither benefits him in this nor in the other world.
30. To study on such days destroys the life of both teacher and pupil.
31. Therefore should a teacher, who wishes to obtain the world of Brahman, avoid improper days, and sow (on proper days) the seed of sacred knowledge on soil consisting of virtuous pupils.
32. At the beginning and at the end of the lecture let the pupil embrace his teacher's feet;
33. And let him pronounce the sacred syllable Om.
34. Now he who studies the hymns of the Rig-veda (regularly), feeds the manes with clarified butter.
35. He who studies the Yagus texts, (feeds them) with honey.
36. He who studies the Sâman melodies, (feeds them) with milk.
37. He who studies the Atharva-veda, (feeds them) with meat.
38. He who studies the Purânas, Itihâsas, Vedângas, and the Institutes of Sacred Law, feeds them with rice.
39. He who having collected sacred knowledge, gains his substance by it in this world, will derive no benefit from it in the world to come.
[33. Nand., quoting a passage of Yama, states the particle ka to imply that the pupil must touch the ground, after having pronounced the syllable Om.
38. Nand. considers the use of a Dvandva compound to imply that logic (Nyâya) and the Mîmâmsâ system of philosophy are also intended in this Sûtra. Regarding the meaning of the terms Purâna and Itihâsa, see Max Müller, Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 40 seq.
39. This rule cannot refer to teaching for a reward, because {footnote p. 127} that is a minor offence (upapâtaka; see below, XXXVII, 20); nor can it refer to teaching in general, because it is lawful to gain one's substance by it; but it refers to those who recite the Veda in behalf of another, and live by doing so. (Nand.)]
40. Neither will he (derive such benefit from it), who uses his knowledge in order to destroy the reputation of others (by defeating them in argument).
41. Let no one acquire sacred knowledge, without his teacher's permission, from another who is studying divine science.
42 . Acquiring it in that way constitutes theft of the Veda, and will bring him into hell.
43. Let (a student) never grieve that man from whom he has obtained worldly knowledge (relating to poetry, rhetoric, and the like subjects), sacred knowledge (relating to the Vedas and Vedângas), or knowledge of the Supreme Spirit.
44. Of the natural progenitor and the teacher who imparts the Veda to him, the giver of the Veda is the more venerable father; for it is the new existence acquired by his initiation in the Veda, which will last him both in this life and the next.
45. Let him consider as a merely human existence that which he owes to his father and mother uniting from carnal desire and to his being born from his mother's womb.
46. That existence which his teacher, who knows all the Vedas, effects for him through the prescribed rites of initiation with (his divine mother) the Gâyatrî, is a true existence; that existence is exempt from age and death.
47. He who fills his ears with holy truths, who
[41. See XXVIII, 6, and the preceding note.]
frees him from all pain (in this world and the next). and confers immortality (or final liberation) upon him, that man let the student consider as his (true) father and mother: gratefully acknowledging the debt he owes him, he must never grieve him.