namaste shrI Sangom and others.
I request shrI Sangom to clarify on the following, with reference to the mantra quoted in his post no.6:
. . .
I would request shrI Sangom to clarify that since this event of anointing the hearts and then reciting the procreation mantras take place on the late hours of the fourth night, if there is a chance of a priest reciting them on behalf of the couple or if these mantras and events are skipped altogether.
Shri Saidevo,
I am compelled to observe that perhaps you are not at all familiar with how tabra marriages are celebrated for some 40 0r 50 years now, or else you are still living in Apastamba's times!
It is true that Apastamba prescribes three nights of continence for the newly married couple. I reproduce below the relevant portions of the Grihya Sutra :
"7. Let him notice the day on which he brings his wife home.
8. (From that day) through three nights they should both sleep on the ground, they should be chaste, and should avoid salt and pungent food.
9. Between their sleeping-places a staff is interposed, which is anointed with perfumes and wrapped round with a garment or a thread.
10. In the last part of the fourth night he takes up the (staff) with the next two (verses; M. I, 10, 1-2), washes it and puts it away ; then (the ceremonies) from the putting of wood on the fire down to the A^yabhaga oblations (are performed), and while she takes hold of him, he sacrifices the oblations (indicated by the) next (Mantras ; M. I, 10, 3-9) ; then he enters upon the performance of the Jayā and following oblations, and performs (the rites) down to the sprinkling (of water) round (the fire). Then he makes her sit down to the west of the fire, facing the east, and pours some Ajya of the remains (of those oblations) on her head with the (three) Vyahṛtis and the word Om as the fourth (M. I, JO, 10-13). Then they look at each other with the next two verses (M. I, 11, 1-2), according to the characteristics* (contained in those verses); with the next verse (M. I, 11, 3) he besmears the region of their hearts with remains of Ajya ; then he should murmur the next three verses
(I, 11, 4-6), and should murmur the rest (of the Anuvaka ; I, 11, 7-1 1) when cohabiting with her.
11. Or another person should recite (the rest of the Anuvāka) over her, (before they cohabit)."
—
Hermann Oldenberg's translation.
*yathāliṅgaṃ mithassamīkṣya = look at each other as if they are embracing
Since you have tried to couch your questions as though you are unaware, let me state that for decades now, the practice of the "four-day" marriage (நாலு நாள் கல்யாணம்) has virtually gone into oblivion. (I think it is not necessary to disabuse any notion regarding girls being married before they attained puberty and śeṣahomam being performed a few years later. In both cases —"four-day" marriage and marriage before puberty — the śeṣahomam was reportedly, as told to me by elders, performed by 8 or 9 P.M., since in those days the general practice was to go to bed early and get up also early, despite Apastamba's instructions ! Now the śeṣahomam is performed immediately after the marriage, even before "grihapravesam" in the groom's house, in some cases, unless it is done in the mandapam itself taking the groom's room as the future griha of the bride. (The deciding factor is that sometimes the mandapam has to be vacated by 2 or 3 P.M. for the next party to occupy! ) Hence the question of śeṣahomam being performed duirng the last part of the night or "late hours" does not/did not generally arise among tabras AFAIK, for the last several decades.
Whatever the timing, the śeṣahomam was performed in the "sadas", in the presence of the elders, and not in the privacy of bed room. The couple used to prostrate before the elders after the homam before going into bedroom, I was told. Even in those days the priest only recited (perhaps with the "sollunko" prefixed) and the groom would have repeated it; this I say because, even in my father's generation, except for vaadhyars and a very few others, tabras generally were not knowledgeable enough to know the vivaaha mantras, nor understand their meaning.
It is therefore a surety that the priest must have recited these mantras in those days also with the "sollungo" saver (may be some vaadhyars might even now be using that "face saver" but many may not be doing that, also).
Even if we now decide to follow Apastamba to the full stop and comma, there is a provision "Or another person should recite (the rest of the Anuvāka) over her, (before they cohabit)." and so privacy was not envisaged by Apastamba himself, I would say.
After all, the word for a brahmanic marriage was "udvāha" or "lift and carry" the girl (by force) which perhaps was a reminder of ancient tribal practice; marriage is also called "garbhādhāna" or creating pregnancy. Hence the main purpose or aim in the ancient days ought to have been to bring a girl as wife in order to get her pregnant and have children (the words, aśūnyopasthā - not ever having an empty lap; jīvatām mātā - mother of children -plural, appear in the homa mantras and so the later concoction that a "true" brahmana should have only one son, etc., does not seem to have been endorsed by the vedic ṛṣis.)
So, your point re. "late hours" is answered.
Now, for "skipping" these explicit mantras altogether by the vadhyars . As I said in some other post, due to my health condition, I avoid sitting very near to the homa smoke (and hence the vaadhyaar) but the ritual of "anointing the hearts" does take place in the marriages. Unless, therefore, either you or some other member states categorically that as a general practice vaadhyaars have decided to omit the explicit mantras of marriage ritual, I will be under the impression that these mantras are being recited, at least by the vaadhyaar.
I think the explicit nuptial mantras in the vivAha ceremony could be understood in such contexts as above. It seems to me that the explicit references to the genital parts of the couple and the seeking of devAnugraha for their conjugal acts are like the kavacha mantras. Just as we chant the lines in a hymn like the skanda ShaShTi kavacham that refer to body parts, blissfully and without ignorance, it is possible to read between and behind the lines of the vivAha mantras that are explicit.
The funny thing is, Shri saidevo, you seem to be covering up one physiologically explicit mantra with another, which is more ludicrous, and thus trying to establish that both are "sublime"
Let us consider Kantar ShashTi kavacam (KSK) which you refer to. I will request the readers to note the following lines in it. (Translation into English is difficult, so kindly excuse me.)
mārpai rattiṉa vaṭivel kākka
ceriḷa mulaimār tiruvel kākka
Whereas "mārpu" denotes, I think "chest" in general, for males and females, both, the next line specifies "ceriḷa mulaimār" or, youthful breasts touching each other, and hence applies primarily to young women, I would say.
veṟṟivel vayiṟṟai viḷaṅkave kākka
ciṟṟiṭai aḻakuṟac cevvel kākka
nāṇāṅkayiṟṟai nalvel kākka
āṇkuṟiyiraṇṭum ayilvel kākka
piṭṭamiraṇṭum peruvel kākka
vaṭṭak kutattai valvel kākka
Here, vayiṟu (stomach portion), ciṟṟiṭai (slim waist), nāṇāṅkayiṟu (the chord around the lower waist - used when kovaṇam was the normal undergarment for males), āṇkuṟiyiraṇṭu (the two male genitals), vattakkutam (round anus) are specified. (The word "guda" in sanskrit means anus; I don't know whether in Tamizh it has any other meaning. But since most of these devotional works on Murugan, like Kantar Anubhooti, Tiruppukazh, etc., are in sanskritized Tamizh, I think my interpretation is correct.)
It will thus be seen that this KSK, when recited (and assuming Lord Murugan grants the prayers without fail to everyone reciting it) will have to make the males sport two beautiful, young breasts rubbing each other
. Not only that, the male reciters will be bestowed with a slim waist, an unbreakable nāṇāṅkayiṟu (at the least one that does not break in an awkward moment !).
On the other hand females reciting these lines faithfully will develop both the male genitals.
Finally, Load Murugan is persona non-grata in the tongue; only goddess Saraswati is allowed that realm:—
"nāvil sarasvati naṟṟuṇaiyāka"
Let us now look at the sanskrit kavacas. In gaṇeśa kavacam (origin gaṇeśa purāṇa) we find pṛṣṭham (buttocks), liṅgam (penis) and guhyam (female genitals), although both the words liṅgam and guhyam may refer to genitals of both males and females.
dharādharaḥ pātu pārśvau pṛṣṭham vighnaharaḥ śubhaḥ |
liṅgam guhyam sadā pātu vakratuṇḍo mahābalaḥ ||
The devīkavacam (source unknown) says:
stanau rakṣenmahadevī manaḥ śokavināśinī ||
. . .
nābhīm ca kāminī rakṣedguhyam guhyeśvarī tathā ||
bhūtanāthā ca meḍhram ca gudam mahiśavāhinī ||
"stana" refers most commonly to female breast, "guhyam" to the vulva especially, "meḍhram" is penis and "gudam" is anus.
Hence my feeling is that this Devaraya Swamikal who is considered the composer of KSK fashioned the kavacam on the older sanskrit models and went one step further also, probably ! It is only the gullible, undiscriminating brains (band akl ke taale!) which can go on reciting "blissfully and without ignorance" - as you say - such absurdities as profound "mantras" or prayers, IMO. It was fortuitous that such "geniuses" did not go into internal organs or perhaps they did not know the details, except bones, nerves, majjaa, blood, etc.
The very fact that in most other sanskrit kavacas these private parts are not referred to, is ample proof that only the perverted minds could have thought of ordering or wishing different deities to guard different organs and that there were people with more civilized thinking who composed the later kavacas.
