History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.998

v6.c81.998

About partaking of food before, during and after an eclipse elaborate rules were laid down from comparatively early times. The Viṣṇudharmasūtra⁶⁴⁷ provides· 'one must not eat during an eclipse of the moon or sun; he should eat, after having previously taken a bath, when the eclipse is at an end; if the sun or moon have set before the eclipse was over he must bathe and on the next day he may eat again after having seen the sun rise'. This is elaborated in two verses quoted in several works: 'One should not take food before a solar eclipse and also in the evening of the day of a lunar eclipse; and one should not eat when the eclipse is in progress; but when the sun or moon is free from eclipse one may, after a bath, partake of food; when the moon is free from eclipse one may take food (even at night thereafter) provided it is not *mahāniśā*, when the sun or moon sets before being free from eclipse, one should see them rising the next day, bathe and then partake of food'.