History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c44.48
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c44.48
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The Vaikhānasa Smārtasūtra (IV. 10-11) contains perhaps the earliest extant detailed description of the consecration of the image of Viṣṇu. But it appears to have been mainly concerned with an image installed in private houses or with the worship of an image by one individual. It is briefly as follows:²⁰⁹² After the daily homa comes the daily worship of Viṣṇu, which (worship) comprehends in itself the worship of all gods. A brāhmaṇa passage (Ait. Br. I. 1) says ‘Agni is indeed the nethermost (or the lowest) among gods and Viṣṇu the highest; between these two stand all the other deities’. Therefore having established in one's house the highest god Viṣṇu the householder worships him at the end of the evening and morning homa. He should make an image of Viṣṇu in length not more than six fingers; he should perform its consecration in the bright half (of a month) on an auspicious nakṣatra. Three days before he should prepare the space (kuṇḍa) of the gṛhya fire and perform the several rites of prokṣaṇa, drawing lines as described (in Vaik. I. 9). Then he is to perform homa up to āghāras (as described above pp. 210-11). Then he performs the sacrifices to the limbs in the words ‘to the teeth, svāhā: to the jaws, svāhā’, and other oblations with the six mantras beginning with ‘ato devā’ (Ṛg. I. 22. 16-21). Then he performs while repeating audibly the hymn to Puruṣa (Ṛg. X. 90. 1-16) the opening of the eyes (of the god Viṣṇu) with a golden needle.
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Having spread in a river or a pond or in a vessel filled with water cloth and kuśa grass with the mantras beginning ‘ye te śatam’ (mentioned in Vaik. III. 17) he lays down (the image of) the god on these with the head turned to the east and leaves the image there. On the second day after he bathes, he offers at night the āghāra in the usual way; he brings eight jars, fills them successively with pañcagavya, ghee, curds, milk, water mixed with whole rice, water with fruits, water with kuśa grass, water with jewels (pearls &c.); worships the god, bathes the image with the (contents of) the (eight) jars successively with the following mantras: 'vasoḥ pavitram' (Vāj. S. I. 31), 'agna āyāhi', 'iṣe tvorje tvā,' 'śaṁ no devīr,'²⁰⁹³ 'catvāri śṛṅgā' (Ṛg. IV. 58. 3), 'somo dhenum' (Ṛg. I. 91. 26), 'catvāri vāk' (Ṛg. I. 164. 45), 'idam viṣṇur' (Ṛg. I. 22. 17); he further bathes the image with perfumed waters to the accompaniment of the mantras 'āpo' (Ṛg. X. 9. 1), 'hiraṇyavarṇāḥ' (Tai. S. V. 6. 1. 1) and the pavamāna section. He then makes to the north of the fire a vedi (altar) with rice, places a seat on it, spreads cloth on it, places the god thereon and having decked (the image) with clothes &c. worships the image. He has the benediction pronounced (by the brāhmaṇas), he touches the pratisara (a band or ribbon) with the svasti hymn²⁰⁹⁴ and ties it (on the right hand of the image) with the mantra 'svastidā viśaspatir' (Ṛg. X. 152. 2). He then lays the god down as before.
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After filling with purified clear water a jar that is not dark-coloured, he places it by the (right) side of the image, touches it with the syllable 'om' and throws into it a bunch of kuśa grass, whole rice, a piece of gold and a jewel (pearl). Having meditated on the god who is really without parts as residing in his own heart and also in the clear water, as golden in splendour, as having red face, eyes, hands and feet, as wearing the śrīvatsa mark and a yellow garment, as having (in his hands) the conch and the disc, as of benign countenance and as possessed of all parts (i. e. complete) he should bow before him. Having sprinkled water round the fire and having lauded the work of the hotṛ, he invokes the god by name in the southern praṇīdhi vessel in the words 'om bhūḥ puruṣam' (āvāhayāmi) and performs invocations in the same way with vyāhṛtis separately and together and of Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu, Puruṣa, Satya, Acyuta, Aniruddha, Śrī, Mahī. Having poured out the rice (for the sacrificial offering) he sacrifices four times with ghee and with a hymn to Viṣṇu, with the Puruṣasūkta (Ṛg. X. 90), with the mantras beginning with ‘ato devāḥ’ (Ṛg. I. 22. 16-21) and with the mantra ‘medinī devī’; he should then offer the mess of boiled rice sprinkled over with clarified butter after invoking the god’s names (Keśava and 11 others mentioned in Vaik. III. 13). On the following morning he bathes, placing the god in the standing position after uttering ‘om’;
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carries the image with the jar while muttering the śākuna hymn (Ṛg. II. 42. 1-3 and II. 43. 1-3) in the northwestern direction into his house or in a temple or in the agnihotra-shed; placing down on the pedestal meant for the image jewels and gold he instals the image of Viṣṇu saying ‘I install Viṣṇu’ while repeating a hymn to Viṣṇu and the hymn to Puruṣa (Ṛg. X. 90). He makes a *nyāsa* on the head, on the navel, on the feet and the chest of the image of the syllables svaḥ, bhuvaḥ and bhūḥ and om; fixing his mind on the god with the mantra ‘idam Viṣṇur’ (Ṛg. I. 22. 17) and taking with a bunch of kuśa grass the clear water that has been already poured in the jar and that has already the *śakti* (power personified) in it, he makes (the water) flow on the head of the image and performs the invocation with the words ‘I invoke Viṣṇu’. Having propitiated by worship as laid down in the śāstric rules he presents the sacrificial food (to the image).