History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.1689

v6.c81.1689

*Pretacaturdaśī*—on 14 of K. kṛ, the vrata is begun to be performed at night; if in addition there is Tuesday and Citrā nakṣatra, the merit is far greater; Śiva is deity; if 14th is viddhā, the day on which 14th exists at night is to be preferred; fast on 14th and worship of Śiva and dinner to devotees of Śiva and gifts; by bath in Ganges on this tithi, one becomes free from all sins, one should whirl over one's head a twig of apāmārga plant and engage in tarpaṇa of Yama uttering his names (14 in all), one should light rows of lamps on a river, in temples of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, houses where four roads meet; the performer reaches Śivaloka together with 21 generations of his family; on this tithi firebrands are lighted for persons of the family that died by wounds from arms and for others on amāvāsyā, the performer listens to the story called Pretopākhyāna (of five pretas which a brāhmaṇa met in a desert) set out from Saṁvatsarapradīpa (in VKK 461-467) which was narrated by Bhīṣma to Yudhiṣṭhira about the actions by which a man is reduced to the condition of a *preta* (a disembodied spirit, a ghost), and the actions which relieve him from that condition; the performer should also partake of 14 vegetables that are enumerated in Kṛtyacintāmaṇi set out in Introduction (p. XIII) to Vivāda-cintāmaṇi (G. O. S ); RM 1338-1345, ABORI vol 36 pp. 328-329, VKK 459-467 (which quotes on p. 460 two verses viz. 1343-1344 from RM), KT 474, SM 100, SmK 371, PC 242-243, TT p 124 and KT 45, set out the fourteen vegetables This was probably named Pretacaturdaśī because Pretopākhyāna was to be recited on it.