Agnipurana 26
English (machine translation) 26
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Contents
26.1
Nārada said: / I shall explain the characteristics of the ritual gestures, which cause [the deity's] presence and so forth. / The first ritual gesture is the folded hands (añjali), used in salutation, held near the heart.
26.2
The left fist has the thumb raised; the right thumb is clasped, / and the thumb of the right hand is stated to be upright.
26.3
Three are common to the divine emanations (vyūha); now these are the specific ones: / by releasing [the fingers] starting from the little finger, the eight ritual gestures are formed in order.
26.4
One should understand them in the order of the eight preliminary seed-syllables: / having bent the three fingers ending with the little finger with the thumb,
26.5
and holding them upward and facing forward, [that is] indeed for the ninth seed-syllable. / Then, turning the left hand upward, one should slowly bend half of it.
26.5.p1
[Footnote mark]
26.5.p2
1. The reading in the two manuscripts marked kha and ṅa is 'sarvasiddhyai'.
26.5.p3
2. The reading in the manuscript marked kha is 'vairājaṃ nāgasaṃyutam'; the reading in the manuscript marked ṅa is 'yauvījaṃ cāṅgasaṃyutam'.
26.5.p4
3. The reading in the manuscript marked kha is 'yaḥ savyerdhe prakīrtitaḥ'. / [Page 70]
26.6
This is remembered as the ritual gesture of Varāha, and these are successively [those] of the ancillary [deities]: / having formed a left fist, one should release each single finger in turn.
26.7
One should contract the previous gesture, and similarly with the right [hand] as well: / the left fist with the thumb upright—thence comes success with the ritual gestures.
26.7.p1
Thus in the glorious Agni Mahāpurāṇa, the twenty-sixth chapter, entitled 'Explanation of Ritual Gestures'.
26.7.p3
Now, the twenty-seventh chapter.
26.7.p4
Explanation of the Rules of Initiation
Other recensions (1)
- Agnipurāṇa (Nag Publishers edition, Delhi) — Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Agnipurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit