History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.497.1

v5.c71.s1.497.1

*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.