History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.896

v6.c81.896

The origin of the observances of Makarasankrānti cannot be very ancient. The Sun's apparent northward march for six months has been mentioned in Brāhmaṇa and Upaniṣad texts at least a thousand years before Christ. For example, the Śatapatha⁵⁷⁵ Br. states 'That half moon which increases represents the gods and that which decreases represents the fathers. The day represents the gods and the night represents the fathers. And further, the forenoon represents the gods and the afternoon the fathers ...Now when he (the sun) moves northwards then he is among the gods, then he guards the gods; and when he moves southwards then he is among the fathers, then he guards the fathers.' The Chāndogya-Upaniṣad⁵⁷⁶ contains a reference to the Sun's passage to the north during six months in the words 'from light to day, from day to the bright half of the month, from the bright half of the month to the six months during which the sun goes towards the north, from the months to the year, from the year to the Sun &c.' But here the word *udag-ayana* is not expressly employed The word 'ayana' occurs in the Ṛgveda III 33. 7 (āyannāpo ayanam-icchamānāḥ) 'the waters seeking a passage went rushing.' Here 'ayana' has the etymological sense of 'passage' or 'place' But in the gṛhyasūtras the word 'udagayana' in the sense of the sun's northward passage occurs. The Āśvalāyana-gṛhya⁵⁷⁷ prescribes the auspicious times for certain domestic rites as follows: 'in the northward passage of the sun, in the bright half of a month and on an auspicious nakṣatra, *caula* (child's tonsure), *upanayana*, *godāna* and marriage may be celebrated; according to some teachers a marriage may be celebrated at all times (not necessarily in northward passage of the sun &c.)'. But here no rāśi name appears In Jaimini VI. 8. 23 it is provided that rites for gods are to be performed in the northward passage of the Sun, some day in the bright half of the month and on an auspicious day. As a matter of fact, none of the ancient Śrauta, Gṛhya or Dharmasūtras mentions any rāśis or prescribes any auspicious or inauspicious times concerned with rāśis but only times in relation to nakṣatras Some people try to interpret the words '*susthe indau*' (when the moon is well placed i. e auspicious) in Yāj. I 80 as referring to rāśis, but they forget or ignore the fact that the earliest extant commentator of Yājñavalkya, Viśvarūpa, explains those words as referring to nakṣatras and not to rāśis. The subject about the introduction of rāśis will be briefly discussed in the next section on Kāla and Muhūrta. As udagayana had already been regarded for many centuries as an auspicious period, naturally Makarasaṅkrānti from which the northward passage of the Sun starts became a very sacred day, when the rāśi system was introduced. Why so much importance was attached to sesame on this Makarasankrānti day it is difficult to say Probably in view of the cold prevailing at the time of the beginning of uttarāyaṇa an oily substance like sesame easily available and of great food value was selected. In any case the observances and festival of Makarasankrānti do not appear to be much older than the beginning of the Christian era