History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c37.90
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c37.90
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As regards the water to be employed in devapūjā and rites for the Manes, the Viṣṇu Dh. S. (66. 1) prescribes that it should not have been brought the night before (but it must be drawn that day). The worshipper should not sit on an āsana made of bamboo or stone, or of unsacrificial wood or on the bare ground, or on a seat made of grass or green leaves, but should sit on a woollen blanket or silken garment or deer-skin (Pūjāprakāśa, p. 95). When offering arghya, in the vessel containing the water to be used for that purpose all or as many as one can afford out of the following eight articles are to be mixed up, viz. curds, whole grains of rice, ends of kuśa grass, milk, dūrvā grass, honey, barley grains and white mustard seeds (Matsyapurāṇa 267. 2 quoted in the Pūjāprakāśa p. 34). It is further said that *arghya* is offered to the image of Viṣṇu by means of a conch in which water is mixed with sandalwood paste, flowers and whole grains of rice. In the water for ācamana are mixed cardamom, cloves, *uśīra* grass and kakkola or as many of them as possible. The snāna (bath) of images is effected with five materials called *pañcāmṛta* (five ambrosial things) viz. milk, curds, clarified butter, honey and sugar.¹⁷⁴⁰ The image is to be bathed with these five in the order stated, so that sugar coming last removes all effects of oiliness. After these a bath with pure water follows. In the pañcāmṛtasnāna the following Vedic verses are repeated in order; 'āpyāyasva' (Ṛg. I. 91.
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16), 'dadhikrāvṇo' (Ṛg. IV. 39. 6), 'ghṛtam mimikṣe' (Ṛg. II. 3. 11), 'madhu vātā' (Ṛg. I. 90. 6), 'svāduḥ pavasva' (Ṛg. IX. 85. 6). It will be noticed that each of these mantras is suggestive of the material with regard to which it is uttered. No bath with water or these things is allowed when only a picture or a clay image is to be worshipped. If one cannot afford these, one may bathe the image with water in which the leaves of the basil plant (tulasī) are mixed up, as that plant is deemed to be the favourite of Viṣṇu. The water used in the bath of the image of a God is regarded as very sacred and it is used for ācamana by the worshipper and members of his family and friends and is called *tīrtha* (it is also sprinkled over one's head).¹⁷⁴¹ As regards the unguents to be offered (anulepana or gandha) numerous rules are laid down (vide Pūjāprakāśa pp. 39-41). The Viṣṇu¹⁷⁴² Dh. S. (66. 2) says that unguents should be one or more out of sandalwood, pine tree paste, musk, camphor, saffron, nutmeg. If ornaments are offered, then gold and precious stones should be real and not imitation ones (Viṣṇu Dh. S. 66. 4). Very detailed rules are laid down about flowers. The Pūjāprakāśa (pp. 42-49) waxes eloquent over the merit of offering basil leaves to Viṣṇu and using the same wood in worship generally and also when no flowers are available. The Viṣṇu Dh. S.¹⁷⁴³ (66.
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5-9) prescribes that flowers emitting an overpowering smell or having no smell whatever are not to be used, nor flowers of thorny plants unless the flowers are white and sweetly fragrant; that even red flowers such as saffron flowers and those that spring in ponds or lakes may be employed. There are grades in the merit derived from offering certain flowers, e. g. the Sm. C. I, pp. 201-202 and the Pūjāprakāśa p. 51 quote many verses of the Narasiṁhapurāṇa, some of which arrange vanamallikā, campaka, aśoka, vāsantī, mālatī, kunda &c. in an ascending order among flowers and the jātī flower is said to be the best of the flowers in the worship of Viṣṇu. The same work (p. 56) names dūrvā and twentyfive flowers as favourites with Viṣṇu. Vide Vṛddha-Hārīta VII. 53-59 for the flowers that may be used in Viṣṇu-pūjā and Vṛddha Gautama p. 563. The flowers offered on a day are removed the next day by the worshipper when he is about to offer worship that day. Such flowers are called 'nirmālya' and great virtue is attached to placing such flowers on one's head by way of homage to the deity worshipped (vide Pūjāprakāśa, pp. 27 and 90). The Sm. C. (I. p.
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204) quotes a purāṇa to the effect 'He, whose heart contemplates the form of Viṣṇu, on whose lips there is ever the name of Viṣṇu, who partakes of the *naivedya* offered to Viṣṇu and who places on his head the water in which the feet of an image of Viṣṇu are washed and the *nirmālya* of Viṣṇu, never falls off (from heaven).' The Madanapārijāta (p. 303) quotes passages from the Viṣṇu-dharmottara about the flowers, that are not to be used in worship. In Śiva worship the following flowers and leaves are in an ascending grade of worth; viz. arka flowers, karavīra flowers, bilva leaves, flower of droṇa, leaves of apāmārga, flower of kuśa, śamī leaves, blue lotus leaves, dhattūra flower, śamī flower, blue lotus, which is the best (vide Pūjāprakāśa, p. 210). The Madanapārijāta, p. 303 quotes from the Devīpurāṇa verses which enumerate the flowers that are to be avoided in Śiva worship. If no flowers are available, then a fruit may be offered or if no fruit is available then only leaves and lastly only white whole grains of rice or even water may be offered.¹⁷⁴⁴ Lamps are to be fed with ghee or in its absence with sesame oil.¹⁷⁴⁵ Camphor is to be burnt before the image. There is a ceremony called *ārātrika* (waving lights round the image) performed with several lights or pieces of camphor placed in a broad vessel which is held in both hands and waved round an image and over its head. Vide Pūjāprakāśa, pp. 75 and 87.
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For *naivedya* no food is to be offered which is declared unfit in the śāstras for eating, nor the milk of a she-goat or she-buffalo though they are allowed for food, nor the meat of the five-nailed animals nor the flesh of the wild boar nor fish. The general rule is stated by the Rāmāyaṇa as 'whatever food a man eats the same is the food to be offered to his deities'.¹⁷⁴⁶ The Sm. C. (I. p. 203) quotes the Padmapurāṇa to the effect that *naivedya* should be offered in a vessel of gold, silver, bronze, copper or of clay or in palāśa leaves or on lotus leaf. The *naivedya* is offered with the formula set out below.¹⁷⁴⁷ According to the Brahmapurāṇa quoted by Aparārka, pp. 153-154 and Pūjāprakāśa (p. 82) the naivedya offered to Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, the Sun, Devī, the Mātṛs, to goblins and evil spirits respectively is to be given to brāhmaṇas, Sātvatas (Bhāgavatas), those whose bodies are smeared with ashes, to Magas, to the Śāktas, to women, to the poor.¹⁷⁴⁸