What is annaprashana, a baby's first rice?

Grihya Sutras of the Rigveda (Ashvalayana and Shankhayana)

Both manuals set the rite in the sixth month. They name several foods, each joined to a wish for the child: boiled rice with ghee, goat's meat or partridge (and fish in Shankhayana). The food is mixed with curds, honey and ghee and given with the verse “Lord of food, give us food painless and strong”. Shankhayana has the child set down on kusha grass first, and the mother eats what is left. For a girl, Ashvalayana keeps the rite without the verse.

Sources for this reading

• Shankhayana Grihya Sutra 1.27, in Hermann Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 29, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886): “In the sixth month the Annaprasana (i.e. the first feeding with solid food)”; the foods and wishes; the child set on kusha grass; “Let the mother eat the remnant.” Oldenberg died 1920: public domain. Summarised in our words. (pp. 54–55 (leaves n65–n66))
• Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra 1.16, in Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part I (SBE 29, 1886): the sixth month; food mixed with curds, honey and ghee, given with the verse “Lord of food, give us food painless and strong”; “The rite only (without the Mantra) for a girl.” Public domain. (pp. 183–184 (leaves n194–n195))

Grihya Sutras of the Yajurveda (Paraskara and Apastamba)

In Paraskara's manual (White Yajurveda) the father makes offerings, among them one to Vak, the goddess of speech. Then, after he has eaten, he sets apart a little food of every kind and every flavour and gives it to the child, in silence or with the word hanta. Paraskara also lists meats and fish for particular wishes, and the rite ends with a meal for Brahmins. Apastamba's manual (Black Yajurveda) has Brahmins fed and asked for blessings, and then the child is given boiled rice mixed with curds, honey and ghee; some teachers add partridge.

Sources for this reading

• Paraskara Grihya Sutra 1.19, in Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part I (SBE 29, 1886): the offering to Speech; “After he has eaten (himself), he should set apart food of all kinds, and of all different sorts of flavour, and should give it to him (i.e. to his son) to eat, silently or with (the word), ‘Hanta’”; the foods by wish; the feeding of the Brahmanas. Public domain. (pp. 299–300 (leaves n310–n311))
• Apastamba Grihya Sutra 6.16.1–2, in Hermann Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part II (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 30, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892): “In the sixth month after the child's birth he serves food to Brahmanas and causes them to pronounce auspicious wishes; then he should pour together curds, honey, ghee, and boiled rice, and should give (the mixture) to the boy to eat”; partridge “according to some (teachers)”. Checked on the page image. Public domain. (p. 283 (leaf n326))

Dharmashastra (Manu)

The Manusmriti places the first leaving of the house (nishkramana) in the fourth month and the first feeding with rice in the sixth. It adds that any other auspicious rite the family's custom requires may be done as well. Its old commentators read that clause on family custom as applying to all the samskaras.

Sources for this reading

• Manusmriti 2.34, in Georg Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886): “in the sixth month the Annaprasana (first feeding with rice), and optionally (any other) auspicious ceremony required by (the custom of) the family”; Bühler's note: the clause on family customs “refers, according to Medh., Gov., and Kull., to all sacraments”. Bühler died 1898: public domain. (p. 36 (leaf n178))

Family custom in Gujarat

A record of Gujarati Brahmin families from 1920 places the rite at about the sixth month, and at about the ninth among Nagar Brahmins. A pudding of milk, sugar and rice is made. A little of it is put on a silver coin and given to the baby to lick; the older rule asks for a gold coin. The father's sister keeps the coin.

Sources for this reading

• Margaret Stevenson (Mrs Sinclair Stevenson), The Rites of the Twice-Born (London: Oxford University Press, 1920), chapter 1, “Birth and babyhood”: the Anna-prasana at about the ninth month among Nagar Brahmins and about the sixth among others; a pudding of milk, sugar and rice, put on a silver coin (the scriptures say gold) and given to the child to lick; the aunt gets the coin. Stevenson died in 1957 (Library of Congress name authority n86817364): the book is public domain in the US and India, but in copyright in the UK, the EU and Australia until December 31, 2027. Cited only: facts restated in our own words, nothing quoted; the author's own judgements and the health beliefs she reports are not repeated. Checked on the page images. (pp. 19–20 (leaves n46–n47))

Family custom in Kerala

A 1906 record from Travancore describes two customs. Among Nambudiri Brahmins the rite is held on an auspicious day when the child is six months old. Friends and relatives gather, the food is blessed with hymns, and the father feeds the child a little rice, sugar, honey, ghee and water from a silver vessel. Among Nayar families the rite, called choroonu, is in the sixth month: the uncle or the father gives the child its first rice, and only after this is the child fed rice.

Sources for this reading

• The Travancore State Manual, by V. Nagam Aiya, vol. II (Trivandrum: Travancore Government Press, 1906) (Nambudiris, “Annaprasanam”, p. 256 (leaf n295); Nayars, “Ceremonies”, “Annaprasanam or Choroonu”, p. 352 (leaf n395); both checked on the page images)

Family custom in Mysore (Kannada country)

A 1928 account of Brahman families in the Mysore State, in the Kannada country, sets the rite in the sixth month, or in the eighth where the family's custom asks for it. After the worship of Ganesha and the offerings in the fire, the dishes are served on a plantain leaf. The father mixes rice with curds, ghee and honey, says the verse to the Lord of food, and feeds the child with his rings at the end of each verse. Then the mother feeds the child from the same leaf, and the near relatives do the same. Aarti is waved to close the rite.

Sources for this reading

• H. V. Nanjundayya and L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer, The Mysore Tribes and Castes, vol. II (Mysore, 1928), “Brahman”, Annaprasana: the sixth month, or the eighth by family custom; rice mixed with curds, ghee and honey; the father feeds the child with his rings, then the mother and the near relatives. Public domain. Summarised in our words. (pp. 382–383 (leaves n476–n477), checked on the page images)

Sources

• Manusmriti 2.34, in Georg Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (SBE 25, 1886): the first feeding in the sixth month, and other rites by family custom. Public domain. (p. 36 (leaf n178))
• The Travancore State Manual, by V. Nagam Aiya, vol. II (Trivandrum: Travancore Government Press, 1906) (p. 256 (leaf n295): the first feeding with rice at six months, on an auspicious day)

Samskaras and family rites

Muhurat rules for this rite, and windows for your city. Every date is computed by our calendar, with its rule and source named. The family priest’s choice comes first.

• What is namakarana, the Hindu naming ceremony?
• What is mundan, a child's first haircut?
• What is vidyarambha, a child's first letters?
• What is the sacred thread ceremony (upanayana)?
• What are the Hindu wedding rituals, from kanyadan to saptapadi?
• What are Hindu funeral rites (antyeshti)?
• What is shraddha?
• What is griha pravesh?
• All samskaras, in the order of life

More questions

• Words of the Hindu calendar
• What is a puja?
• What does dharma mean?
• What are the Hindu holy books?
• All questions
• Stories for children