History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.182

v7.c89.182

Another very curious portent mentioned in the Mahābhārata, Kauśikasūtra¹²⁴² (kaṇḍikā 105), Matsya (243), Viṣṇudharmottara, Bṛhatsaṁhitā and the Adbhutasāgara (pp. 425-436), Hemādri on Vrata vol. II (pp. 1078-79) and Madanaratna (on śānti, folio 54b) is the trembling, dancing, laughing and weeping of the images of gods. The Bhīṣmaparva¹²⁴³ refers to the images in the temples of the Kaurava king doing these acts. In the encounter of Hiraṇyakaśipu with the Man-lion form of Visnu the Matsyapurāṇa¹²⁴⁴ states 'the images of all gods shut and open their eyes, laugh, weep, scream, emit smoke, blaze, and these signs indicate that great danger impends.' In the Ātharvaṇa-pariśiṣṭa¹²⁴⁵ LXXII this matter is treated (in prose). It says 'there are portents called *divya* which occur in temples, they (images) laugh, sing, weep, shriek, perspire, cause smoke to issue out of them, they blaze, they tremble, open their eyes and shut them, blood oozes from them, they move to and fro.' These strange phenomena are said to forebode drought, danger from weapons, famine, epidemic in the country and destruction of the king and his ministers (or relatives). The śānti prescribed in the same Ātharvaṇa-pariśiṣṭa (4 7) is as follows: one should boil *pāyasa* in the milk of 108 *kapilā* cows, if such cows are not available one should cook *pāyasa* with the milk of one hundred milch cows; he should put on the fire fuel sticks with ends towards the east, should spread round the fire darbha grass and should offer oblations (of rice) in fire to the accompaniment of the mantras addressed to Rudra¹²⁴⁶ and called Raudra-gaṇa and also offer clarified butter (in fire) He should present white flowers, he should treat brāhmaṇas with boiled rice and should donate the same cows (the milk of which was used for cooking pāyasa) or donate the kingdom for a limited period for the satisfaction of a brāhmaṇa, he should give to the officiating priest a thousand cows and donate a good village.