Patnī-saṃyāja
Patnī-saṃyāja · patnī-saṃyāja, “the joint offering with the wife”
Grammar: masculine noun; a compound of patnī (wife) and saṃyāja (offering made together), from sam and the root yaj (to offer, to worship): “the offering made together with the wife”.
Meaning: a rite at the close of a great yajña, performed together with the rites of the avabhṛtha, the closing bath; by its name, the offering made together with the wife.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa names the patnī-saṃyāja twice, each time at the close of a great yajña and just before the avabhṛtha bath.
At the Rājasūya. Śrī Śuka tells Parīkshit how, at the close of Yudhishṭhira‘s Rājasūya, the emperor Dharmarāja mounted a chariot with his wives and shone as if the Rājasūya itself, king of yajñas, had taken bodily form. Dharmarāja performed the rite called patnī-saṃyāja and the rites belonging to the avabhṛtha; then the ṛtvijas had him do ācamana and bathe in the Gaṅgā together with Draupadī, while the dundubhis of the devas sounded with those of men (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 75).
At Vasudeva‘s yajña. At Kurukshetra, when Vasudeva had completed his yajñas and given the ṛtviks their dakshiṇā, the maharshis who knew the Veda performed the patnī-saṃyāja yāga and the rites belonging to the avabhṛtha snāna. Then, placing the yajamāna Vasudeva in front, they bathed in Paraśurāma-kuṇḍa, and Vasudeva and his wives bathed and gave their clothes and ornaments to the reciters of stotras (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 84).
Related terms: Avabhṛtha · Yajña · Yajamāna · Ṛtvik · Rājasūya
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 75, 84