What is griha pravesh?

Grihya Sutras (Paraskara, Ashvalayana and Shankhayana)

The Paraskara Grihya Sutra has the house built on an auspicious day. Before the family moves in, the householder sets up the fire inside, seats the priest to the south, puts a pot of water to the north and cooks an offering. Then he goes out, stands at the door and asks the priest, “Brahman, I enter (the house)!” With the priest's consent he enters, saying “To right I advance, to luck I advance!” He makes offerings to Vastoshpati, the lord of the dwelling, with verses of the Rig Veda that ask for a good entering and a home free from harm, and sprinkles the seats and the shrines. When the house is complete, the family enters with words that call relatives and friends into it: “Hither is called the whole number (of relatives), the friends whose coming is good.” A meal for the priests and guests follows.

The Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra has food cooked in the middle of the house and offered with the verses to Vastoshpati; the guests eat and say, “Lucky is the ground! Lucky is the ground!” The house is to have seed grain in it when the family enters. The Shankhayana Grihya Sutra also gives an offering to Vastoshpati, with a new pot of water set on fresh kusha grass; Oldenberg notes that it is made when the householder enters his new house.

Sources for this reading

• Hermann Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Rules of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 29, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886), Paraskara Grihya Sutra III.4: “Let him have his house built on an auspicious day” (III.4.2); fire inside, the Brahman to the south, a water-pot to the north; “Brahman, I enter (the house)!” and “To right I advance, to luck I advance!” (III.4.5–6); oblations to Vastoshpati (Rig Veda VII.54; III.4.7); seats and shrines sprinkled (III.4.9); entering the finished house, “Hither is called the whole number (of relatives), the friends whose coming is good” (III.4.18); “Then (follows) feeding of the Brahmanas” (III.4.19). Oldenberg died 1920: public domain. (pp. 345–349; pp. 346 and 349 (leaves n357, n360) checked on the page images)
• Oldenberg, Grihya-Sutras Part I (SBE 29, 1886), Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra II.9.9 (food cooked in the middle of the house, the four verses “Vastoshpati, accept us”, the Brahmanas say “Lucky is the ground! Lucky is the ground!”) and II.10.2 (“The house, when he enters it, should be provided with seed-corn”). Public domain. (p. 215 (leaf n226), checked on the page image)
• Oldenberg, Grihya-Sutras Part I (SBE 29, 1886), Shankhayana Grihya Sutra III.4.1–8: the sacrifice to Vastoshpati, a new water-pot on fresh eastward-pointed kusha grass; Oldenberg's note, “The sacrifice to Vastoshpati is celebrated when the sacrificer enters his new house.” Public domain. (p. 95 (leaf n106), checked on the page image)

Later custom (as recorded in 1883 and 1920)

Margaret Stevenson recorded the Vastu ceremony of Brahman families in Gujarat in 1920. No one lives in the new house before it. The family priest helps fix the day, and the rite begins with the worship of Ganesha. At the chosen moment an unmarried girl or a married woman carries in a new copper pot filled with fresh river water, with five leaves, turmeric, a coin, an areca nut, rice and a coconut on top, and the god Varuna is asked to dwell in it. An altar is made in the centre of the main room. The wife of the householder brings fire from the hearth of the old home to the new one, and the householder, guided by the priest, offers ghee, sesame seeds and rice into it. A coconut, a sign of full and unbroken prosperity, is the last offering. Yellow threads tied round the house wish the family a long life there, and in the evening relatives and guests share a feast.

Monier Monier-Williams recorded in 1883 that families also remember their ancestors with a shraddha at happy events, among them “entering a new dwelling”.

Sources for this reading

• Margaret Stevenson (Mrs Sinclair Stevenson), The Rites of the Twice-Born (London: Oxford University Press, 1920), chapter XIII, “Occasional rites and ceremonies”, section “House building” (Vastu worship): no one lives in a house till after the Vastu ceremony (p. 356); the day fixed beforehand; Ganesha worshipped first; a girl or a married woman brings in a new copper vessel of river water (p. 357); its five leaves and auspicious things, the coconut, Varuna invoked; the altar in the centre of the main room (p. 358); the wife brings fire from the hearth of the house where she is living; oblations of clarified butter, sesame seeds and cooked rice; the coconut as the full, unbroken fruit of prosperity; yellow threads round the roof (p. 359); an evening feast for relatives and Brahmans (p. 360). Stevenson died in 1957 (Library of Congress name authority n86817364, “Stevenson, Sinclair, Mrs., 1875-1957”): 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. Left out: her account of the astrologer's limits and of omens read in dreams and in the lamp on the first night, and her own judgements. (pp. 356–360; pp. 357 and 359 (leaves n384, n386) checked on the page images; pp. 356, 358 and 360 read in the OCR text)
• Monier Monier-Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India, Part I (London: John Murray, 1883), “Sraddha Ceremonies”: shraddha at “the marriage of a son or daughter, on entering a new dwelling, on naming a child, on performing tonsure” (quoting the Vishnu Purana III.13). Monier-Williams died 1899: public domain. (pp. 304–305; p. 305 (leaf n320) checked on the page image)

For families far from home (practice today)

Ask the family priest or the local temple first. They can say which form the family keeps, what to buy, and how long it takes, and whether a priest can come to the home. If the family wants a muhurat, it comes from the panchang for the city where the home is, not for a city in India.

The core of the rite fits a flat as well as a house: a clean home, Ganesha worshipped first, a pot of water carried in, a lamp lit, a short prayer to the lord of the dwelling, a meal cooked in the new kitchen, and relatives, friends and neighbours welcomed in. Some families bring a flame or a lamp from the old home to the new one, as the old custom brings the fire of the old hearth.

If a havan (fire offering) is planned, read the lease or the building's fire rules first, keep the fire small and watched, and keep windows open. Do not cover or switch off a smoke alarm. If an open fire is not allowed, a ghee lamp and prayer keep the meaning of the rite.

Sources for this reading

• Margaret Stevenson, The Rites of the Twice-Born (1920): the wife brings fire from the hearth of the house where she is living to the new house (p. 359). Cited only (the author died in 1957); facts restated in our own words. (p. 359 (leaf n386), checked on the page image)
• Oldenberg, Grihya-Sutras Part I (SBE 29, 1886), Paraskara Grihya Sutra III.4.18: relatives and friends called into the new house; Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra II.9.9: food cooked in the middle of the house and shared. Public domain. (pp. 215 and 349 (leaves n226, n360), checked on the page images)

Sources

• Muhurtacintamani of Rama Daivajna, with Govinda's Piyushadhara commentary, ed. Vasudeva Sharma Panashikara (Bombay: Nirnaya Sagara Press, 1907), Grihapravesha-prakarana 13.2: entry into an old house (“jīrṇe gṛhe”, one built by others, says the commentary) or one made new after fear of fire and the like, with its own months and nakshatras; the commentary speaks of the entry as of three kinds (“trividhasyāpi gṛhapraveśasya”, p. 440). The text and the commentary are centuries old and the printing is of 1907: public domain. Summarised in our words; no rule or date is taken from it here (the muhurat tool's rule and every date come from the Pujadeep calendar). (pp. 439–440 (leaves n452–n453), checked on the page images)
• Wikipedia, “Grihapravesha” (revision 1356206981, read October 15, 2026): the rite is performed on moving into a new home, and the Vastu tradition names three forms, among them entry after renovation or reconstruction. Background; cited, not copied.
• Monier Monier-Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India, Part I (London: John Murray, 1883): the twelve samskaras (“purificatory rites”) of the Grihya Sutras and Manu, from conception to marriage; entering a house is not among them (p. 353). Monier-Williams died 1899: public domain. (p. 353 (OCR text))
• Oldenberg, Grihya-Sutras Part I (SBE 29, 1886): the house-building and house-entering rites stand apart from the rites of a person's life in each Grihya Sutra (Paraskara III.4, Ashvalayana II.8–10, Shankhayana III.2–4). Public domain. (pp. 92–96, 212–215 and 345–349)

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 annaprashana, a baby's first rice?
• 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?
• 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