Water and the Rites of Giving Gifts in Ancient India

Since the Gṛhyasūtras, water has been involved in the rituals of giving gifts. As to the use of water at the giving of a girl to the suitor in the marriage ceremony, some Gṛhyasūtras preserve concrete prescriptions, while the Dharma texts prescribe it simply in the phrases “to give with water (adbhir dā)” or “to give being preceded by water (udakapūrva-)” without giving any details. Those simple phrases, which are attested since the younger Gṛhyasūtras and the Dharma texts, continue prevalently for other kinds of gift as well in post-Vedic texts.In Buddhist texts, the giving of donations and the giving of a girl in marriage are described principally in the same or similar expressions in the narratives: one is said to give a gift with a water-jar in hand. On the other hand, the enumeration of forms of marriage and wife in the Vinayas preserves a peculiar and concrete use of water at a certain type of marriage. Such a unique description might reflect the various uses of water at the rites of giving gifts before their descriptions were unified and simplified.