History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.1009

v6.c81.1009

The following list of vratas and utsavas does not claim to be thoroughly exhaustive But it is far more exhaustive and informative than any similar list so far prepared in English by any one or contained in any work in English. The line of demarcation between vratas and utsavas is very thin. Many vratas contain an element of festivities and many utsavas have more or less a religious element also and were religious in the beginning though later on they became secular, like the Olympic games of Greece. It may be pointed out that in the Asiatic Researches, vol III, Sir William Jones published a list of Hindu festival days based on the Tithitattva (pp 257–293) and Prof. Kielhorn also inserted a list of festival days based mainly on the Dharmasindhu in I. A vol 26 pp 177–187. Both these are meagre The Indian Ephemeris (vol. I part 1 pp. 55–69) has a long descriptive list and a brief but accurate account of Indian festivals in relation to tithis and *vice versa*. Yet it is not as exhaustive as this list will be and it refers hardly to any authoritative texts. Very recently in the Report (1953) of the Calendar Reform Committee presided over by the late Dr M. N Saha there is a list of lunar festivals (from Caitra onward) and solar festivals and of some important tithis (pp 101–108) and an alphabeticed list of festivals (pp 111–115), which is exhaustive but its great defect is that no texts are cited or referred to and hardly any details are given except month, pakṣa and tithi. There are a few works on vratas written in Bengali and other regional languages of India, but I could not include most of them in this volume as I do not know most of those languages, though I have referred to some of them. Apart from vratas and utsavas certain matters and technical terms that occur frequently in works on vratas have been included. The list is arranged in the Sanskrit alphabetical order, though everything is transliterated into the English alphabet for the convenience of printing For saving space abbreviations have been very largely employed and a list of the most important abbreviations is given in the preceding pages. As regards each vrata the time when it begins, whether it is a tithivrata or vāravrata, samvatsara-vrata or a nakṣatravrata or a prakīrṇaka vrata is generally indicated (except where from its very title or description its nature is clear), the deity to be worshipped is pointed out where possible or necessary, some details are added in certain cases, and some of the works in which it is described are mentioned. The rewards promised are not generally set out, as most of them are included in the rewards mentioned on p 55-56 above, and as they are often too numerous to specify and also for reasons of space. Similarly, tithis that are Yugādi or Yugāntya or Manvādi or Kalpādi have not all been noted, as they are too many but they are enumerated in one place under the words Yugādi &c. I have made great efforts to trace the Paurāṇic quotations to their sources, but I regret that I have not been quite successful owing to several causes such as the vast extent of Purāṇas, owing to several recensions of the same purāṇa and owing to my inadvertence or sheer weariness. One feels that tracing a verse to its origin is often as difficult as finding a pin in a haystack. The author or authors of Purāṇas often wrote like modern advertisers of medicines, toilet articles &c. Most of the vratas are said to have been declared by divinities like Śiva to Pārvatī, by Kṛṣṇa to Yudhiṣṭhira, by great sages like Mārkaṇḍeya, Nārada, Dhaumya, Yājñavalkya, Vasiṣṭha and it is often added that the Vrata is a great secret not narrated or known even to gods and goddesses e. g. Śivarātrivrata (in HV II. 88).