History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.497
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.497
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*CĀNDRĀYAṆA*—The word is derived in this way That rite, where there is action by means of increase and decrease (in the intake of food) in imitation of the course of the phases of the moon, is cāndrāyaṇa³⁰⁸ The word occurs in Pāṇ. V. 1. 72 (*pārāyaṇa-turāyaṇa-cāndrāyaṇaṃ vartayati*) From very ancient times Cāndrāyaṇa has been divided into two varieties, called Yavamadhyā³⁰⁹ (lit. being large in the middle like a grain of *yava*, and therefore tapering or thin at the ends) and Pipīlikāmadhyā (lit. having a middle like that of an ant, that is, slender in the middle and large at the ends). Baud Dh S. III. 8. 33 names these two varieties. According to Jābāli³¹⁰ there are five varieties of Cāndrāyaṇa viz. *Yavamadhya*, *Pipīlikāmadhya*, *Yatīcāndrāyaṇa*, *Sarvatomukha* and *Śiśucāndrāyaṇa*. These will be described later on. Yājñavalkya says (III. 326) that where no specific penance is prescribed in the smṛti texts, cāndrāyaṇa effects purification and cāndrāyaṇa may be undergone not as a penance but for the purpose of accumulating merit and that in the latter case (when performed for a year) the performer enjoys the happiness of going to the world of the moon after death.³¹¹ Manu XI. 221 and Gaut. 27.18 state the same view about cāndrāyaṇa for accumulating merit. When the *vrata* of cāndrāyaṇa is performed for the sake of merit, there is no tonsure (vide Gaut. 27.3 '*vapanam vrataṁ caret*' and Haradatta thereon). Gaut. 19.20 (= Vas. 22.
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20) prescribes that Kṛcchra, Atikṛcchra and Cāndrāyaṇa are the same penance for all sins (collectively for grave sins, for lesser ones separately, according to Haradatta and others). Compare Manu V 21 and XI. 215 (=Baud. Dh S. IV. 5. 16). Manu XI. 27, Yāj. III. 323, Vas. 27 21, Baud. Dh. S. IV. 5.18 and others define Cāndrāyaṇa (of the Yavamadhya type) as follows: On the first day of the bright half of a month only one morsel of food (*grāsa* or *piṇḍa*) is taken, on the second *tithi* two and so on; on the full moon (Paurṇamāsī) 15 morsels are taken; then on the first of the dark half 14 morsels, one being reduced on each succeeding day. So on the 14th of the dark half only one morsel is eaten and on the Amāvāsyā there is a complete fast. Here in the middle of the month of thirty days the largest number of morsels is taken (and so this is Yavamadhya) just as on the Paurṇamāsī day the moon becomes full and begins to wane from the next day. Here Paurṇamāsī is in the middle of the period of the observance as Viṣṇu Dh. S. 47.6 says. If one begins the *vrata* on the first *tithi* of the dark half, he reduces one morsel on the 1st i. e. takes 14 morsels on that day, 13 on the 2nd tithi of the dark half and so on On the 14th of the dark half he eats one morsel and on the amāvāsyā he eats nothing. Then on the 1st of the bright half he takes one morsel and goes on increasing the intake till on the Paurṇamāsī he takes 15 morsels The month is taken in this latter case to be Pūrṇimānta.
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Here in the middle of the observance there is no food taken and a large number of morsels is taken at the beginning and at the end So this is called Pipīlikāmadhya. This latter is described by Vas 23.45 and Manu XI. 216. Viṣṇu Dh. S. 47.5-6 say: Yasyāmamāvāsyā madhye bhavati sa piplīkā-madhyah yasya paurṇamāsī sa yavamadhyah. If there are 14 or 16 tithis in any particular pakṣa (half of a month) then the number of grāsas must be regulated accordingly There are other descriptions of cāndrāyaṇa Vide Haradatta on Gaut. 27.12-15. The Kalpataru appears to have held (explaining two verses of Jābāla) that on the first of the dark half of a month 15 morsels were taken, then one morsel less was taken on each succeeding tithi; so that on amāvāsyā one morsel was eaten, then on the first of the bright half two morsels were eaten and one morsel was added every day so that on the 14th of the bright half fifteen morsels were taken and there was a complete fast on Paurṇamāsī. But this seems to be opposed to the very idea of increase and decrease of the intake of food on the analogy of the waxing and waning of the Moon and to several smṛti texts such as Vas 23.45 and Parāśara X 2 Therefore the Pr. Prakāśa (folio 58b) finds fault with it311a Cāndrāyaṇa may be divided from another point of view into two varieties: (1) *MUKHYA* (in the primary sense, viz. following exactly the waxing and waning of the moon) and *GAUNA* (having a secondary or metaphorical sense).
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The former is either *yavamadhya* or *pipīlīkā-tanu-madhya*), while the latter is of four kinds, viz. sāmānya, ṛṣi-cāndrāyaṇa, śiśucāndrāyaṇa and yaticāndrāyaṇa The last two will be described later. The Sāmānya (or sarvatomukha) consists in eating only 240 morsels of sacrificial food in a month of 30 days, distributing them according to one's choice (not necessarily in imitation of the phases of the moon) as stated by Manu XI 220, Baud. IV. 5.21, Yāj III. 324 and the Mit (on Yāj. III. 324), the Madana-pārijāta and other works. Here the penance, though it is not regulated by the phases of the moon, is called Cāndrāyaṇa for the purpose of prescribing the same procedure and observances in it as in the Cāndrāyaṇa which follows the phases of the moon. Here the Mīmāṁsā rule of Kuṇḍapāyinām-ayana applies.³¹² From the words of Gautama 27.12-15 it appears that he envisaged a cāndrāyaṇa of 32 days (pipīlikāmadhya) or 31 days, when he says that the performer should fast on the 14th of the bright half, eat fifteen morsels on the Full Moon day, then reduce it by one morsel, so that there is a total fast on the amāvāsyā and then on the first of the bright half one morsel is taken until on the full moon 15 morsels are taken. Thus from the 14th of the bright half (when there is a complete fast) to the full moon of the succeeding month there are in all 32 days and the penance is of the pipīlikā-madhya type.