History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.1831

v6.c81.1831

*Mahāmāghī*—When the Sun is in Śravaṇa nakṣatra and the Moon in Maghā it is called Mahāmāghī, acc to R. M. 1366 (vide ABORI, vol. 36 p 331 for three verses on Māghīsnāna) and it adds that in Māgha waters exclaim when the Sun is just risen ‘what great sinner, whether a drinker of *surā* or murderer of a brāhmaṇa, shall we purify’. This verse is q by VKK 490 from Bhav and by SmK 439 (from Pad), PC (313–314) says that when Saturn is in Meṣa (Ram), the Moon and Jupiter in Simha (Lion) and the Sun is in Śravaṇa-nakṣatra then it is Mahāmāghī. Vide NS 221 for other views. This verse emphasizes the importance of Māghasnāna at Prayāga and other holy rivers and in holy tanks in early morning for the removal of sins. Vide H. of Dh vol IV p 617 for Māghasnāna In Tamil country ‘Makha’ is an annual temple festival and Mahāmakha occurs once in twelve years, when a great *melā* is held at Kumbhakonam for a bath in a tank there called mahāmagha tank, the melā being comparable to the Kumbhamelā at Prayāga. This festival is popularly known as ‘Mamangam’ and takes place when the Full Moon is in Maghānaksatra and Jupiter is in Maghā or in the sign of Lion. It fell on 25th February in 1955 according to south Indian Almanacs It is reported that about a million people took a bath this year in eight to ten hours from 2 A. M. in the Mahāmakham tank at Kumbhakonam from which muddy water was pumped out and in which fresh water from the Kāverī river was made to flow.