History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.159.1

v7.c89.159.1

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.