History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.1084

v6.c81.1084

*Avyaṅgasaptamī*—Śr. śu. 7; tithi; to be performed every year; 'AVYAṄGA' to be offered to the sun; 'Avyaṅga' is explained in KKV 150 as a hollow strip made of fine white cotton thread, resembling a serpent's slough, 122 finger-breadths long (the best), or 120 (middling) or 108 (the shortest) It seems to have been like the *Kusti* worn by modern Parsis. Vide Bhav. (Brahma-parva) 111. 1-8 q. by KKV 149-151 and HV I 741-743, also V. P (folio 116, which mentions the story of Sāmba in Bhav.). The printed Bhav. uses the word 'abhyaṅga'. In Bhav (Brāhma) 142. 1-29 we have the legend of Avyaṅgotpatti. In verse 18 occurs the word '*sārasanah*', which reminds one of '*Saracen*'. Vide Nar. I. 116. 29-31 for AVYAṄGĀKHYA-VRATA, the 7th tithi being destroyer of sins if it is conjoined to Hasta-nakṣatra. Avyaṅga appars to be a Sanskrit adaptation of the Avestan '*Aivyāṅghana*' (meaning 'girdle'). In the 16 ślokas addressed to the prince Jādī Rānā by the Parsis emigrating to India occurs this 'who put on the waist a woollen *kushti* which is fastened on the *sadra* (garment), each end of which is like the mouth of a serpent, which is tied into knots at equal distances' (vide M. M Murzban's 'Parsis in India' vol. I at p 93) It seems probable that this particular form of Sun-worship was imported from Iran or was borrowed from Parsi practices. The Br. S. (59 19) states that the priests of Savitṛ should be Magas i. e Maga or Śākadvīpīya brāhmaṇas for whom vide I. A. vol. VIII. 328 and Weber's edition of Magavyakti of Krishnadas Mishra.