History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.125
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.125
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v6.c81.125.1
Manu II. 176 and Yāj. I. 99, 100, 102 show that *Devapūjā* is different from⁷⁶ *homa* and was performed after the latter according to Marīci and Hārīta quoted in the Smṛticandrikā, Smṛti-muktā- phala and other digests Certain matters connected with devapūjā such as the questions whether images of gods were worshipped in the times of the Ṛgveda and the Saṃhitās, whether the worship of images arose spontaneously among the Vedic Aryans or whether it was derived from some other race or sectarians or from śūdras and Dravidian tribes, have already been dealt with at some length in H of Dh vol II pp 705-712 Similarly, descriptions of devapūjā and the several items and stages in the procedure of devapūjā have been set out in H of Dh. vol. II pp 726-735 A few matters either not set out there at all or briefly set out may be spoken of here It should be noted that ordinarily there are 16 upacāras⁷⁷ (items of showing honour) in the procedure of devapūjā, but they may be increased to 36 or 38 or reduced to 14, 12, 10 or 5 and there is no complete unanimity on the question of the names of the 16 upacāras and their order. The Brahmavaivartapurāṇa sets out what the sixteen, twelve and five upacāras are The Vratārka quotes verses enumerating 38, 16, 10 or 5 upacāras. If a person is unable to offer even five upacāras then he should offer two, viz sandalwood paste and flowers and if he cannot do even that, then he may offer only devotion.
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So says the Kālikāpurāna quoted in Varṣakriyā-kaumudī p 157. From Śabara's bhāṣya on Jai. V. 1. 4 it follows that long before his day (not later than 4th century A. D.) the order (*krama*) of the upacāras had been settled⁷⁸ Medieval works like the Vratārka (folio 23 b ff) and V. K K pp 200-201 (quoting Nṛsiṁhapurāṇa 62 8-14) prescribe for all vratas in general the recital of each of the sixteen verses of the Puruṣasūkta (Ṛg. X. 90) with each of the sixteen upacāras in order (viz. āvāhana, āsana, pādya, arghya, ācamanīyaka, snāna, vastra, yajñopavīta, anulepana (or gandha), puṣpa, dhūpa, dīpa, naivedya, tāmbūla, dakṣiṇā, pradakṣiṇā), while some works associate with each of these one or more Paurāṇika mantras also It should not be supposed that these upacāras (particularly puṣpa, gandha, dhūpa, dīpa and naivedya) were absent in the Vedic age and came into prominence at a very late stage by being borrowed from non-Aryan people. The Aśvins are described as wearing wreaths of blue lotuses (puṣkarasrajā) in Ṛg X. 184. 2 and Atharva III. 22. 4; the Maruts also are spoken of as wearing wreaths (Ṛg. V 53. 4). In numerous passages the Ṛgveda refers to the casting of offerings (*havya*) mixed with clarified butter in Agni (e g. Ṛg. III 59 1 and 5)⁷⁹ The gods are even asked to eat apūpa, puroḍāśa, dhānā, milk, curds, honey &c. in Ṛg. III 53 8, III 52 1-7, IV. 32. 16, VIII. 91: 2, in Atharva XVIII 4. 16-26.
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The underlying conception in these passages is the same as that involved in offering naivedya to an image. In the Śatapatha Br⁸⁰ the word upacāra appears to have been used in the sense of 'honour' or 'mode of showing honour' In the Tai. Ā X. 40⁸¹ occurs a mantra called 'Medhā-janana' which was recited in the ear of a child in the *jātakarma* 'may god Savitṛ, goddess Sarasvatī and the gods Aśvins wearing wreaths of blue lotuses produce in you intelligence'. There is evidence that long before the time of the gṛhyasūtras several of the sixteen upacāras were well-known. The Nighaṇṭu (III. 14) enumerates 44 verbs that have the sense of 'worship' among which 'pūjayati' is included. The Nirukta in explaining the word 'supāṇiḥ' occurring in Rg III. 33 6 states that the word 'pāṇi' is⁸² derived from 'pan' to offer pūjā and supports this derivation by saying that people worship gods by joining together their hands. It is clear that the Nighaṇṭu treated 'pūjayati' as a verb occurring in the Vedas and that folding the hands (i. e. namaskāra) was a item of worship long before the Nirukta While explaining the word 'saparyan' occurring in Rg. III. 31 1 the Nirukta offers 'pūjayan' as a synonym.
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From Pāṇinı⁸³ V 3 99 and the Mahābhāṣya thereon it is clearly seen that in the days of the former images of gods were made for sale and also for worship Patañjali expressly says that the rule applies to images which were worshipped and which gave livelihood to the *Pūjaris* of those images and not to images made for sale. Vide also Mahābhāṣya on Pāṇini I 1 25. The Āśv Gr⁸⁴ provides that when madhuparka is to be offered to a ṛtvik, an ācārya, a bridegroom, a king or a snātaka or a relative (like father-in-law, paternal or maternal uncle), a seat, water for washing the feet, arghya water, water for ācamana, honey mixture, a cow are to be announced to the guest three times in each case In another place, the same sūtra⁸⁵ speaks of the presentation of sandal-wood paste, flowers, incense, lamp and garment to the brāhmaṇas invited at a śrāddha In these two passages alone nine of the 16 *upacāras* are mentioned. The word pūjā took on a secondary meaning, viz. (honour without use of gandha, puṣpa &c ) even in the times of Dharmasūtrās (vide Āp Dh S I.
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4 14 9, 'nityā ca pūjā yathopadeśam') Yāj (I 229 ff) mentions in śrāddha *āsana, arghya, gandha, mālya, dhūpa, dīpa &c* When the worship of images became common, the upacāras that had been offered for showing honour and worship to worthy men were by a natural analogy employed in it In my view the theory that pūjā and the upacāras were borrowed from the Dravidians or some non-Aryan people cannot be held to be proved, is quite speculative and that ‘pūjā’ of images of gods was an indigenous development. Medieval writers were careful to point out that there was no essential difference between yāga (vedic or other sacrifice) and pūjā, as in both there was the giving of some substance intending it for a deity. Prof J Charpentier contributed a paper on ‘the meaning and etymology of pūjā’ to the Indian Antiquary vol 56 pp 93–99 and pp 130 ff I demur to his conclusions He points out that ‘pu’ in Tamil means ‘flower’, that the word pūjā is derived from Dravidian ‘pūcu’, ‘pūsu’ to paint or daub’ (p. 133) and asks the question why red colour is used in the worship of Gods; he himself answers it by suggesting that it was a substitute for blood There is no reason whatever for assuming that pūjā was derived from ‘pu’ and not from ‘puṣpa’ (flower) which was known to the Ṛgveda (II. 13 7 ‘puṣpiṇīḥ’ and X 97 3 ‘puṣpavatīḥ’).
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There is no sound reason to assume that ‘pūcu’ (to paint) existed thousands of years ago in Dravidian languages and was not a more recent acquisition, when the word pūjā can be traced a thousand years before any existing literary work in any Dravidian language.⁸⁶