षष्ठी-पूजा

Source: TW

Neonatal rites

The original practitioners of the Apastamba school among the taittirIya shAkhAdhyAyin-s had a late vedic rite known as the ShaShThI-devI pUjA as part of the jAtakarman or neonatal rites. The primary deity of this ritual was ShaShThI, also invoked as jIvantikA (a name under which she is worshiped in a comparable prayoga of the atharvavedin-s). The other deities invoked in this rite are skanda and vighnesha. It is an example of an early kaumAra rite emerging out of the late vaidika matrix.

Prevalance

I have seen this rite being performed only by a subset of practicing ApastambIya-s from TN and Mh states. The rest seem unaware of it or skip it.

Could you kindly throw some more light on which sunset of TN smārtas practice it?

All those who I’ve seen perform it are ApastambIya KYV practitioners of the “vaDama” subcommunity. However, I don’t know if any Apastamba-s outside of this group practice it.

I was under the impression that ShaShthi devī pūjā was alive in parts of north, west and east India, esp on the sixth day as chhati pujan. For KPs, before जातकर्म proper, there’s a small pujā for the local deity of the प्रशूतिगृह which culminates with the burning of birch bark.

That’s right. It is practiced by knowledgeable v1s even in the south as jIvantikA for example. However, the practice in vaNga, aNga, and magadha is what one would call tAntrika or paurANika rather than the late Vedic tradition in my note above.

The Kashmiri yajurvedin-s are typically either kaTha or vajasaneyin-s. The gR^ihya-paddhati of the latter of the kAtyAyana school prescribes a worship of ShaShThI close to the ApastambIya version.

The kaTha-s are closer to the maitrAyaNIya-s and their gR^ihya sUtra the manava GS prescribes ShaShThI pUjA even outside the sUtika context – “if a man has 1000 wishes or one wish he worship ShaShThI.” This suggests that the lost paddhati of laugAkShi likely had a ShaShThI-pujA.

Oblations to maruts

However, what is notable is that just before the ShaShThI-pUjA there is a darvi-homa performed as part of the core agnikArya of the jAtakarman. It features a series of oblations starting with the incantation (all from the Apastamba-mantrapATha):

ayaM kalim patayanta.N shvAnam ivodvR^iddham |
ajAM vAshitAm iva marutaH paryAdhva.N svAhA ||
marudbhya idaM na mama ||

This series of mantra-s is directed at warding off various entities, such as rakShas-es/yakSha-s sent by kubera, the king of the rakSha-s, the demonic purohita-s shaNDa and marka, the nIshIthachAriNI rAkShasI, rudra gana-s with skulls and tridents etc, from harming the neonate.

Each of these incantations ends with an oblation to the marut-s as the first one.

marut-skanda pediatrics

This notable because it indicates that in the gR^ihya ritual context of the core Vedic tradition, the marut-s were invoked for pediatric protection, even as their counterparts skanda and vishAkha in the para-Vedic tradition. +++(5)+++

This indicates that the apotropaic functions of the sons of rudra in a pediatric context was not just seen on the para-Vedic side but also on the core Vedic side. Thus, the connection goes back deep within the Indo-Aryan tradition suggesting that we can look more confidently for homologous traditions deeper in the Indo-European world.

jIvantikA

The name jIvantikA is quite interesting. The bauddha-s have a mantra for buddha amitAyus which has the pada jIvantiye in it and list a few medicinal prayogas along with a prayoga to bring a dead child back to life &also suggest wearing an inscribed birchbark to protect the foetus.

While it is possible that it is a reference to this goddess, we should also consider the link of the goddess and medical practice to the jIvantI plant – butterfly milkweed – a type of arka plant. It is mentioned multiple sUkta-s in the 8th kANDa of the atharvaveda (vulgate) and continued to be an important medicine in later Ayurveda.

Pazuzu vs Lamashtu

I think there could be a broader thing st play here. Mesopotamian ‘wind demon’ Pazuzu, bringer of storms/plagues is also a protector of pregnant women and children. He’s supposed to ward of child eating Lamashtu. The wind connection and the evil/protector duality is interesting.

That’s indeed an interesting parallel: lamashtu does to bring to mind the nIshIthachArinI and lambastanI rAkShasI-s of the IA tradition.+++(4)+++ And women would wear pazuzu amulets.

But the disentangling the Semitic and Sumerian makes things complicated – the seven winds of the latter tradition. Then there is the possibility of IE influence as proposed by Bachvarova.