History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.849

v6.c81.849

*Makara-Saṅkrānti.* This is a very important religious observance and festival About 70 years ago (in the author's boyhood) it occurred on the 12th or 13th January according to the several Indian almanacs then current, but now it falls, owing to the precession of the equinoxes, on the 13th or the 14th of January in the month of Pauṣa. Saṅkrānti means 'the (apparent) passage of the sun from one rāśi (sign of the Zodiac) to the next following' and hence the rāśi in which the Sun enters is designated as the Saṅkrānti of that name ⁵⁴⁰ When the Sun leaves the rāśi called Dhanus and enters the Makara-rāśi that is called Makarasaṅkrānti The rāśis are twelve and the Saṅkrānti names with their western equivalents are given in the note.⁵⁴¹ There are only twelve saṅkrāntis even if there be an intercalary month in some year. Everyone of the twelve saṅkrāntis was regarded as a holy day. The Matsya-purāṇa (chap 98) deals with the completion of Saṅkrānti-vrata. Briefly, it provides that on the day previous a person, whether male or female, should take food only once in the noon and on the Saṅkrānti day should brush his teeth and then take a bath with water mixed with sesame.⁵⁴² The person should offer to a self-restrained brāhmaṇa householder three vessels containing edibles together with a cow intending them to be for Yama, Rudra and Dharma and repeat four verses one of which is as follows: "As I do not make any difference between Śiva, Viṣṇu, the Sun and Brahmā, may Śaṅkara (Śiva) who pervades the Universe be always a bestower of welfare on me!'.⁵⁴³ The person should make, if able, further gifts of ornaments, a bedstead and golden jars (two) to the brāhmaṇa; but, if poor, should offer only fruits to the brāhmaṇa. Then he should take his meal but without oil and should feed others according to his ability. Women also should perform this vrata. Great merit was attached to a bath in the Ganges on a saṅkrānti, on an eclipse and on New and Full moon, as such a man reached the world of Brahmā.⁵⁴⁴ A bath with ordinary water (not heated) was obligatory (*nitya*) on every saṅkrānti, since the Devīpurāṇa declared:⁵⁴⁵ "the man who would not take a bath on the holy day of Saṅkrānti would be for seven lives diseased and poor; whatever offerings are made to gods and pitṛs by men on saṅkrānti are returned to them by the Sun again in several future lives".