Shloka 12

Yājñavalkya on the Sources of Dharma and the Saṁskāras of the Twice-Born

Devanagari script

अहन्येकादशे नाम चतुर्थे मासि निष्क्रमः / षष्ठे ऽन्नप्राशनं मासि चूडां कुर्याद्यथाकुलम्

Transliteration

ahanyekādaśe nāma caturthe māsi niṣkramaḥ / ṣaṣṭhe 'nnaprāśanaṃ māsi cūḍāṃ kuryādyathākulam

Translation

မွေးပြီးနောက် ၁၁ ရက်မြောက်နေ့တွင် အမည်ပေးပွဲကို ပြုလုပ်ရမည်။ လေးလမြောက်တွင် ကလေးကို ပထမဆုံး အပြင်ထွက်စေ (နိෂ္က్రమ) ရမည်။ ခြောက်လမြောက်တွင် အန္နပြာရှန (အစာခဲ ပထမဆုံးကျွေးခြင်း) ကို ပြုရမည်။ ထို့ပြင် မိသားစုထုံးတမ်းအတိုင်း သင့်တော်သော လတွင် စူဍာ (ဆံပင်ဖြတ်/တုတ်ဆံ) ပွဲကို ပြုလုပ်ရမည်။

Word by Word

• अहनि: on the day
• अहनि: Adhikarana (Time/अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: अहन् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, सप्तमी (7th), एकवचन; अधिकरण (locative)

• एकादशे: on the eleventh (day)
• एकादशे: Adhikarana (Time/अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: एकादश (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग/नपुंसकलिङ्ग, सप्तमी (7th), एकवचन; संख्यावाचक (ordinal sense)

• नाम: name-giving (naming rite)
• नाम: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: नामन् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st), एकवचन

• चतुर्थे: in the fourth (month)
• चतुर्थे: Adhikarana (Time/अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: चतुर्थ (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग/नपुंसकलिङ्ग, सप्तमी (7th), एकवचन; क्रमवाचक

• मासि: in the month
• मासि: Adhikarana (Time/अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: मास (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, सप्तमी (7th), एकवचन; अधिकरण (locative)

• निष्क्रमः: going out (first outing rite)
• निष्क्रमः: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: निष्क्रम (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st), एकवचन

• षष्ठे: in the sixth (month)
• षष्ठे: Adhikarana (Time/अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: षष्ठ (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग/नपुंसकलिङ्ग, सप्तमी (7th), एकवचन; क्रमवाचक

• अन्नप्राशनम्: first feeding of solid food (annaprāśana)
• अन्नप्राशनम्: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: अन्न (प्रातिपदिक) + प्राशन (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st), एकवचन; षष्ठी-तत्पुरुषः (अन्नस्य प्राशनम्)

• मासि: in the month
• मासि: Adhikarana (Time/अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: मास (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, सप्तमी (7th), एकवचन; अधिकरण (locative)

• चूडाम्: tonsure/tuft ceremony (cūḍā)
• चूडाम्: Karma (Object/कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: चूडा (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd), एकवचन; कर्म (object)

• कुर्यात्: should perform
• कुर्यात्: Kriya (Action/क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: कृ (धातु)
• Form: विधिलिङ् (Optative), प्रथमपुरुष, एकवचन; परस्मैपद

• यथा: according to
• यथा: Sambandha (Manner/सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: यथा (अव्यय)
• Form: उपमान/प्रकारवाचक-अव्यय (adverb: according as)

• कुलम्: family tradition
• कुलम्: Adverbial (Manner/प्रकार)
• Type: Noun
• Root: कुल (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd), एकवचन; अव्ययीभावार्थे उपपद-सम्बन्धः (यथाकुलम् = कुलानुसारम्)

Speaker

Lord Vishnu (in dialogue with Garuda/Vinata-putra)

Philosophical Teaching

Concept: Postnatal saṃskāras: naming on day 11, first outing in month 4, first solid food in month 6, and tonsure according to family custom.

Vedantic Theme: Saṃskāra as social-spiritual inscription of identity and responsibility; honoring kula-ācāra within dharma.

Application: Mark child-development milestones with meaningful, non-coercive family rituals; keep the focus on blessing, gratitude, and community support.

Verse Rasa

Primary Rasa: shanta

Secondary Rasa: adbhuta

Geographic Context

Type: domestic ritual space / first outing setting

Cross References

Related Themes: Garuda Purana (continued saṃskāra list: upanayana and later rites typically follow in sequence)

FAQs

What is the importance of samskaras like nāma-karaṇa in the Garuda Purana?

This verse treats early-life samskaras as dharmic milestones, prescribing specific times for naming, first outing, first solid food, and tonsure to align a child’s life with ritual order and family tradition.

How does this verse explain the path of the soul?

It does not describe the after-death journey here; instead, it emphasizes dharma through samskaras, implying that orderly rites and right conduct support a well-formed life that later bears karmic and spiritual fruit.

Practical application of this wisdom today?

Follow a consistent, family- and tradition-aligned approach to key life rites (naming, first feeding, etc.), prioritizing meaningful observance over mere formality, and consult qualified elders/priests for customary timing (yathākulam).