History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.969

v6.c81.969

The first duty of a person on seeing an eclipse is to bathe. It is said 'on⁶²⁵ seeing Rāhu (i e. eclipse) men of all *varṇas* become impure They should first bathe and then do their usual duties and should give up food already cooked (before the eclipse)'. Peculiar sanctity was deemed to attach to the time of grahaṇa. If a man ⁶²⁶ does not take a bath at the time of eclipse, at the passage (of the sun) from one *rāśi* to another, there is no doubt that he would suffer from leprosy for seven future lives and sorrow would be his lot' He should take a bath in cold water and in as holy a place as possible. The holiest bath is the one in the Ganges or Godāvarī or at Prayāga, then in any one ⁶²⁷ of the big rivers such as the six rivers connected with Himavat mountain and the six south of the Vindhya mentioned in the Brahmapurāṇa, then in any other water, since at the time of eclipse all water becomes holy like Ganges water. A bath with hot water was allowed only to children, old men and persons that were ill. One had⁶²⁸ to take a bath when the eclipse began, to perform homa, worship of gods and śrāddha while the eclipse was in progress, to make gifts when the eclipse was about to end, and to take a bath again when the sun or moon became free from eclipse. Even a person who is impure owing to a birth or death has to take a bath on an eclipse but he is not to make a gift or to perform śrāddha (according to Gauda writers), but the Madanaratna and the Nirnayasindhu refute this view and hold that in an eclipse even one who is in aśauca can take a bath, perform śrāddha and purascaraṇa⁶²⁹ In the purāṇas and medieval digests some distinction as regards merit or holiness was made between eclipses in certain months and baths in certain rivers or holy places The Kālanirṇaya (p 350) especially commends the Godāvarī for a bath in a lunar eclipse and one in the Narmadā for a solar eclipse. The Kṛtyakalpataru (Naiyata-kāla), Hemādri on Kāla and the Kālaviveka quote⁶³⁰ a long passage from the Devīpurāṇa, some verses of which may be rendered here: 'an eclipse in Kārtika is the highest (in merit) at the confluence of the Gaṅgā and Yamunā, in Mārgaśīrṣa on Devikā, in Pauṣa Narmadā is holy, in Māgha Sannihitā is holy' &c. On the occasion of the partial eclipse of the sun on 20th June 1955 about four hundred thousand people took a bath at Kurukṣetra and Sanyahet (Sannihitā of ancient times)