History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.937

v6.c81.937

of the Śiva mantra of five letters (*Śivāya namaḥ*), the metre (*Anuṣṭup*), the Devatā (*Sadāśiva*) and it is to be employed for *nyāsa*, *pūjā* and *japa*. Then he should bow to the sage, metre and Sadāśiva and perform *nyāsa* on the several parts of the body from the heart with appropriate mystic letters and mantras (such as ‘*om namas-tat-puruṣāya namaḥ hṛdaye*’ to the last ‘*om yaṁ astrāya phaṭ*); then he should worship the jar (*kalaśa*) and contemplate on Śiva as portrayed⁶⁰⁰ in the verse quoted below. He should then establish a liṅga by performing the *prāṇa-pratiṣṭhā* and touch it and should invoke⁶⁰¹ Śiva with four mantras and pray Śiva to be present in the liṅga till the end of the pūjā. Then he should offer an *añjali* of flowers. If the liṅga is already permanently fixed or if the liṅga, though not fixed, has already been established with the necessary saṁskāras, he should omit the details from prāṇapratiṣṭhā to *āvāhana*. Then he should perform the remaining upacāras (out of 16) from āsana to the last. As regards snāna it is provided that the liṅga is to be bathed with pañcāmṛta (vide note 218), with the *mūlamantra* (*Śivāya namaḥ*) and the mantras ‘*āpyāyasva*’ (Ṛg I. 91. 16 ff) and should wash it with pure water with ‘the three verses ‘*āpo hi ṣṭhā*’ (Ṛg. X. 9. 1-3). Then he should perform *abhiṣeka* (bathing of the deity) with water made fragrant with sandalwood, saffron and camphor to the accompaniment of the Rudra mantras⁶⁰² recited once or repeated eleven times and of the Puruṣasūkta (Ṛg. X. 90). At the end of snāna (of the liṅga) the performer should give *ācamana* water (to the liṅga) and perform *tarpaṇa* with water mixed with akṣatas for Śiva with eight names (Bhava⁶⁰³ &c.) and the wives of these eight. After flowers the performer should offer 1008 or 108 who and the family of the buck ultimately became transformed into the Mṛgaśīrṣa nakṣatra with the star of the hunter (Sirius) behind.⁶⁰⁹