History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.189

v7.c89.189

The Āśleṣā nakṣatra has a mean measure of 60 ghaṭīs. It is to be divided into ten parts in order1246a viz. 5, 7, 2, 3, 4, 8, 11, 6, 9 and 5; birth of a son in these parts indicates in order the loss of kingdom, death of father, death of mother, addiction to lovemaking, he has devotion to father, has strength, loses property, has proneness to charity, pleasures, 'wealth. If the nakṣatra be divided into four parts, birth in the first part is auspicious but in the other three parts indicates loss of wealth, death of father, death of mother. If the child is a girl born on the last three quarters of Āśleṣā indicates the death of the future mother-in-law of the girl; if the child be a boy and is born in the last three quarters of Āśleṣā, that indicates death of his future mother-in-law. One should perform a śānti for birth on any quarter of Āśleṣā, either on the 12th day from birth, or if that be not possible, on the next Āśleṣā or on any auspicious day. On that day he (the father or other performer) should make a saṅkalpa¹²⁴⁷ as noted below after performing the Gomukhaprasava-śānti. He should worship Rudra and Varuṇa on two jars, should invoke the serpents, the lords of Āśleṣā, on an image placed on a jar established on the figure of a lotus with twentyfour petals and invoke Bṛhaspati, the lord of Puṣya nakṣatra, to the south of the jar (for serpents) and the *pitṛs* (the lords of Maghā) to the north of Āśleṣā jar and invoke on the twentyfour petals, beginning from the petal which is due east and proceeding to the right therefrom, twentyfour deities beginning with Bhaga, the lord of Pūrvā Phālgunī up to Aditi, lord of Punarvasu, then he should invoke the *lokapālas* (eight); then worship all the deities invoked, establish fire (for *homa*) and the planets and perform *anvādhāna* (putting fuel on the sacred Agni). After the *anvādhāna* of the Sun and other planets he should offer to the principal deities, viz. the serpents, 108 or 28 of each of the materials viz. pāyasa mixed with ghee, fuel sticks, clarified butter and boiled rice, to Bṛhaspati and pitṛs 28 or 8 offerings of the same materials and to the 24 deities (of nakṣatras) viz Bhaga and the rest eight *āhutis* of pāyasa to each with the verse 'rakṣohaṇam' (Ṛg. X. 87 1) The other deities are to be worshipped as in śānti for birth on Mūla nakṣatra and the offerings and mantras are to be the same as in that śānti A śānti for the birth of a child on the 14th tithi of the dark half is still in vogue and the author knows about it personally; it is described at length in the Madanaratna (folio 24 from Gārgya) and in Śānti-kamalākara. The śānti on the birth of a child on Mūla nakṣatra is described in Madanaratna from Garga (folio 27b to 28b,) one peculiarity of which is that the father had to collect one hundred roots of trees and plants (mūla means 'root'). Vide also Śānti-kamalākara (folio 77a).