History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c34.134

v2.c34.134

The bath with water is called Vāruṇa (as Varuṇa is the lord of waters, according to Ṛg. VII. 49. 3 'yāsāṁ rājā Varuṇo' &c.) and Vāruṇa is the principal kind of bath. There are six kinds of *gauṇa snānas* which may be employed when one is either ill and so unable as to undergo a regular bath or when there is no time or room to take a regular bath. These six (with Vāruṇa as the seventh) are enumerated and defined in Yogayājñavalkya and other works and they are: mantrasnāna, bhauma, āgneya, vāyavya, divya, mānasa. Dakṣa II. 15-16 and Parāśara XII. 9-11 mention these except bhauma and mānasa and employ the word brāhma in place of mantrasnāna. The Vaik. gṛ. (I. 2 and 5) employs both words 'mantra' and 'gurvanujñā' as synonymous. Garga and Bṛhaspati omit bhauma and mānasa and speak of *sārasvata-snāna* instead, which consists in the blessing pronounced by a learned man in the case of a dvijāti, or a pupil or his son 'may you have a bath with golden jars of Ganges water and of other sacred waters' (vide Āhnika-prakāśa pp. 196–197). The mantrasnāna¹⁵⁸⁹ consists in sprinkling water with the verses ‘āpo hi ṣṭhā’ (Ṛg. X. 9. 1–3), the *bhauma* (or *pārthiva*) in smearing the body with loose earth, *āgneya* in smearing the body with holy ashes, *vāyavya* in taking on the body the dust raised by the hoofs of cows, *divya* in wetting one’s body with a shower of rain accompanied with sunshine and *mānasa* in reflecting on God Viṣṇu.