Text 5
sa cāpi tad u ha pitṛ-sannidhāv evāsadhrīcīnam iva sma karoti chandāṁsy adhyāpayiṣyan saha vyāhṛtibhiḥ sapraṇava-śiras tripadīṁ sāvitrīṁ graiṣma-vāsantikān māsān adhīyānam apy asamaveta-rūpaṁ grāhayām āsa.
saḥ — he (Jaḍa Bharata); ca — also; api — indeed; tat u ha — that which was instructed by his father; pitṛ-sannidhau — in the presence of his father; eva — even; asadhrīcīnam iva — not correct, as if he could not understand anything; sma karoti — used to perform; chandāṁsi adhyāpayiṣyan — desiring to teach him Vedic mantras during the months beginning with Śrāvaṇa or during the period of Cāturmāsya; saha — along with; vyāhṛtibhiḥ — the utterance of the names of the heavenly planets (bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ); sa-praṇava-śiraḥ — headed by oṁkāra; tri-padīm — three-footed; sāvitrīm — the Gāyatrī mantra; graiṣma-vāsantikān — for four months, beginning with Caitra, on the fifteenth of May; māsān — the months; adhīyānam api — although fully studying; asamaveta-rūpam — in an incomplete form; grāhayām āsa — he made him learn.
Jaḍa Bharata behaved before his father like a fool, despite his father’s adequately instructing him in Vedic knowledge. He behaved in that way so that his father would know that he was unfit for instruction and would abandon the attempt to instruct him further. He would behave in a completely opposite way. Although instructed to wash his hands after evacuating, he would wash them before. Nonetheless, his father wanted to give him Vedic instructions during the spring and summer. He tried to teach him the Gāyatrī mantra along with oṁkāra and vyāhṛti, but after four months his father still was not successful in instructing him.