History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c34.213

v2.c34.213

After homa and japa one may spend some time in attending to or looking at auspicious things, such as seeing one's elders, looking at a mirror or in clarified butter, arranging and decorating his hair, applying collyrium to the eye, touching dūrvā¹⁶⁴⁹ &c. *Vide* Manu IV. 152 quoted above (p. 646). What objects a man should see on getting up has already been stated (p. 648). According to Nārada (prakīrṇaka vv. 54-55) there are eight maṅgala objects viz. a brāhmaṇa, a cow, fire, gold, clarified butter, the sun, water and the king and if one sees, bows to or circumambulates these, one's life is lengthened.¹⁶⁵⁰ The Vāmana-purāṇa (14. 35-37) mentions numerous objects that are auspicious and that one should touch or see before going out.¹⁶⁵¹ The Matsyapurāṇa 243 enumerates in 26 verses numerous auspicious and inauspicious objects (these are quoted in Gṛ. R. pp. 553-554). Viṣṇu Dh. S. 23. 58 enumerates six objects derived from the cow as auspicious. *Vide* Ādiparva 29. 34, Droṇaparva 127. 14 (for touching eight maṅgalas), Śānti 40. 7, Anuśāsana 126. 18 and 131. 8. According to the Viṣṇu Dh. S. 63. 26 one should start on a journey after seeing such objects as fire, a brāhmaṇa, *hetaera*, a jar full of water, a mirror, a banner, a parasol, palaces, fans, chowries &c. Viṣṇu Dh. S. 63. 27-31 states that when, on leaving one's house, one sees certain persons or objects one should return to the house and then restart viz. a drunkard, a lunatic, a cripple, one who has vomited or has undergone a purge, one who is completely shaved, one with dirty clothes, one having matted hair, a dwarf, one wearing orange-coloured clothes, an ascetic &c.