History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.159
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.159
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As against several *adbhutas* and *utpātas*, texts prescribe a rite called Mahāśānti. The Śāṅkhāyana Gṛ. (V. 11) speaks of a Mahāśānti, when an ant-hill grows in one's house, which has been referred to above on p. 730 note 1162. The details of a Mahāśānti differ in different texts and on different occasions. The Adbhuta-sāgara provides that where no specific details about śāntis against certain utpātas like a fall of meteors are prescribed one should have recourse to a śānti consisting in homa offerings to the accompaniment of one million repetitions of the sacred Gāyatrī verse ('tat-savitur' &c. Ṛg III. 62. 10) or to the Mahāśānti called Abhayā according to the nature (grave or light) of the omen or portent.¹²²⁶ In the Marāṭhi commentary on the Nirnayasindhu (p. 233) about the question of a rite on the first appearance of a woman's monthly illness a *japa* of Mahāśānti is prescribed after an elaborate homa and worship and the Mahāśānti is explained as consisting of the recitation of Ṛg I. 89. 1-10 (beginning with 'ā no bhadrā'), Ṛg V. 51. 11-15 (beginning with 'svasti no mimītām &c ') and Ṛg. VII. 35. 1-15 (beginning with 'śan-na Indrāgnī'). The Bhaviṣyottara (143.
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2-46) describes a Mahāśānti to be performed at a king's coronation, on his marching out on an invasion, when one has bad dreams or inauspicious omens (*nimittas*), when the planets are unfavourable or when there is lightning and the fall of meteors, when a Ketu appears, in a hurricane, earthquake, birth on a Mūla nakṣatra or Gandānta, on birth of twins, when parasols and banners fall on the ground, when a crow, owl or pigeon enters a house, when malefic planets are retrograde (especially in the nakṣatra or rāsi of birth), when Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the Sun are in the 1st, 4th, 8th or 12th houses (in a person's horoscope), when there is *grahayuddha*; when garments, weapons, horses and cows, or jewels and hair are lost, or when rainbow is seen at night in front, when the beam on a house pillar is smashed, when a she-mule conceives, on eclipses of the Sun and the Moon—on these a Mahāśānti is commended. The procedure is briefly as follows. Five learned and well-conducted brāhmaṇas should officiate in a *maṇḍapa* ten or twelve cubits on each side, in the midst of which there should be a raised platform four cubits on each side and in the south-east corner of that platform there should be a *kuṇḍa* (receptacle for fire).
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Five jars should be placed, four in the four intermediate quarters (south-east &c.) and the fifth in the middle of the platform and numerous things such as twigs and leaves of some plants, jewels, sandalwood, mustard grains, *śamī* and *dūrvā*, *kuśas* and grains of rice should be collected thereon; Vedic mantras such as 'āśuh śiśāno' (Ṛg. X 103. 1) on north-west, 'īśā vāsya' (Vāj S. 40.1) on north-east, were to be recited over the jars, worship is to be offered with *gandha*, flowers, lamps, fruits like cocoanut to the jars and fire should be placed in the *kuṇḍa* with 'agnim dūtam' (Ṛg I. 12 1), seat (*āsana*) should be offerred with the mantra 'hiraṇya-garbhaḥ' (Ṛg X. 121. 1), then *pāyasa* should be cooked to the accompaniment of Puruṣasūkta (Ṛg X. 90), eighteen fuel sticks of śamī and seven palāśa ones should be cast into Agni, seven *āhutis* of clarified ghee and seven of rice boiled in milk should be offered to Agni with a mantra 'Jātavedase' (Ṛg I. 99 1), four more with the hymn 'tarat sa mandī' (Ṛg. IX. 58), seven with 'yamāya' (Ṛg. X. 14 13) and again seven with 'idam Viṣṇur' (Ṛg. I. 22. 17) and 27 āhutis to the 27 nakṣatras, then performance of 'sviṣṭakṛt' homa, grahahoma with sesame covered with ghee, then prāyaścitta; thus ends the homa;
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then the *yajamāna* sitting on a throne of kāśmarya wood should have sprinkled over him to the accompaniment of drum-beating and conch-blowing water from the five jars with five different mantras, then an offering to all the directions (*digbali*) with the mantra 'salutation to all bhūtas'. After the bath, brāhmaṇas recite a śānti over him after letting fall a stream of śānti water all round; then *puṇyāhavācana* and then close of the śānti rite, then gifts of land, gold, beds, seats according to the person's ability to brāhmaṇas; he should treat to a sumptuous meal the poor and helpless and men learned in the Veda. On doing this he secures long life, quick victory over enemies, even difficult undertakings succeed.