History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c42.62

v3.c42.62

The Matsyapurāṇa¹⁹⁷¹ (256. 10-11) states that a vāstuyajña has to be performed five times in relation to a house, viz. when laying down the foundation (lit. using the measuring line), when fixing the first post, when raising the first door frame, when entering the house (gṛhapraveśa) and when vāstuśānti is to be performed (for averting evil or on seeing portents). It briefly describes Vāstuyajña as follows (chap. 256. 5–9): On an auspicious day and moment, the stone should be laid over jewels and all seeds; similarly the post is to be worshipped at the hands of four brāhmaṇas; the priest who should wear white garments should be master of the Veda and should be accompanied by the artizans, should fix the post that is washed with water mixed with all herbs (or herbs called sarvauṣadhi) and covered with many whole rice and decked with clothes and ornaments to the accompaniment of Vedic mantras and the tunes of auspicious music; he should perform a homa with honey and clarified butter and should repeat the mantra 'vāstoṣpate prati' (Ṛg. VII. 54. 1); then the owner should feed brāhmaṇas with a dish of rice-milk. The Matsyapurāṇa notes that the foundation should be laid in the north-east corner and the first post fixed in the south-east. The Matsyapurāṇa (chap. 268) decribes the procedure of Vāstuśānti and remarks (verses 33-35) that it should be performed when beginning the construction of a temple or a house or a public park or when entering a town or one's house for the first time for averting all evil and it should also be performed every year in one's house. In that rite he should make the brāhmaṇas repeat the Rākṣoghna hymn and a hymn to Pavamāna Soma (one from Ṛg. IX. or IX. 1).