Vishnupurana 3.13.1

The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition 3.13.1

Language: English

3.13.1

AURVA continued.--"The bathing of a father without disrobing is enjoined when a son is born; and he is to celebrate the ceremony proper for the event, which is the Śráddha offered upon joyous occasions. With composed mind, and thinking on nothing else, the Brahman should offer worship to both the gods and progenitors, and should respectfully circumambulate, keeping Brahmans on his left hand, and give them food. Standing with his face to the east, he should present, with the parts of the hand sacred to the gods and to Prajápati, balls of food, with curds, unbruised grain, and jujubes; and should perform, on every accession of good fortune, the rite by which the class of progenitors termed Nándímukha is propitiated. A householder should diligently worship the Pitris so named, at the marriage of a son or daughter, on entering a new dwelling, on giving a name to a child, on performing his tonsure and other purificatory ceremonies, at the binding of the mother's hair during gestation, or on first seeing the face of a son, or the like. The Śráddha on such occasions, however, has been briefly alluded to. Hear now, oh king, the rules for the performance of obsequial rites.

3.13.1.n1

The offerings of the Hindus to the Pitris partake of the character of those of the Romans to the lares and manes, but bear a more conspicuous part in their ritual. They are said indeed by Manu (III. 203), in words repeated in the Váyu and Matsya Puráńas and Hari Vanśa, to be of more moment than the worship of the gods: These ceremonies are not to be regarded as merely obsequial; for independently of the rites addressed to a recently deceased relative, and in connexion with him to remote ancestors and to the progenitors of all beings, which are of a strictly obsequial or funereal description, offerings to deceased ancestors, and the Pitris in general, form an essential ceremony on a great variety of festive and domestic occasions. The Nirńaya Sindhu, in a passage referred to by Mr. Colebrooke (As. Res. VII.), specifies the following Śráddhas: 1. The Nitya, or perpetual; daily offerings to ancestors in general: 2. The Naimittika, or occasional; as the Ekoddisht́a,or obsequial offerings on account of a kinsman recently deceased: 3. The Kámya, voluntary; performed for the accomplishment of a special design: 4. The Vriddhi; performed on occasions of rejoicing or prosperity: 5. The Sapińd́ana; offerings to all individual and to general ancestors: 6. The Párvańa Śráddha; offerings to the manes on certain lunar days called Parvas, or day of full moon and new moon, and the eighth and fourteenth days of the lunar fortnight: 7. The Gosht́hi; for the advantage of a number of learned persons, or of an assembly of Brahmans, invited for the purpose: 8. The Śuddhi; one performed to purify a person from some defilement; an expiatory Śráddha: 9. The Karmánga; one forming part of the initiatory ceremonies, or Sanskáras, observed at conception, birth, tonsure, &c.: 10. The Daiva; to which the gods are invited: 11. The Yátrá Śráddha; held by a person going a journey: and 12. The Pusht́i Śráddha; one performed to promote health and wealth. Of these, the four which are considered the most solemn are the rite performed for a parent, or near relative, lately deceased; that which is performed for kindred collectively; that observed on certain lunar days; and that celebrated on occasions of rejoicing. Nirńaya Sindhu, p. 271.

3.13.1.n2

Manu directs the balls to be made from the remainder of the clarified butter constituting the previous oblation to the gods. III. 215. Kullúka Bhat́t́a explains, however, the oblation to consist partly of Anna food, or boiled rice. The latter is the article of which the balls chiefly consist. Yájnawalkya directs them to be made of rice and sesamum-seeds. The Váyu P. adds to these two ingredients, honey and butter: but various kinds of fruit, of pulse, and of grain, and water, frankincense, sugar, and milk, are also mixed up in the Pińd́as. Their size also differs; and according to Angiras, as quoted by Hemádri in the Śráddha Mayúkha, they may be of the dimension of the fruit of the jujube, or of the hog-plum, of the fruit of the Bel, or of the wood-apple, or of a fowl's egg. Some authorities direct Pińd́as of a different size for different Śráddhas; prescribing them no larger than the wood-apple at the first or pure funereal ceremony, and as big as a cocoa-nut at the monthly and annual Śráddha. In practice the Pińd́a is usually of such a magnitude that it may be conveniently held by the hand.

3.13.1.n3

We have here the authority of the text for classing the Nándímukhas amongst the Pitris (see p. 297): the verse is ###, and the same Gańa or class is presently again named: ### The Mantra of the Vriddhi or festival Śráddha is also said, in the Nirńaya Sindhu, to be ###. According to the authorities, however, which are cited in that work, there seems to be some uncertainty about the character of the Nándímukhas; and they are addressed both as Pitris and gods: being in the former case either the ancestors prior to the great grandfather, ancestors collectively, or a certain class of them; and in the latter, being identified with the Viśwadevas, or a class of them called also Úrddhavaktra. The term Nándímukha is also applied to the rite itself, or to the Vriddhi Śráddha, and to one addressed to maternal ancestors. Nirńaya Sindhu, p. 268, &c.

Linked texts (1)

Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit