The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c31.s4.11

v2.c31.s4.11

The beginning of each term of study is marked by a festival under the Nakṣatra Hasta or Çravaṇa, but there are traces of different openings of the year; roughly the rainy season may be said to have been the popular time, when other forms of activity were hampered. The ceremony was performed by means of offerings of grains with ghee and milk, and with the repetition of either the whole of the Rigveda or the first verses of sections and many offerings: the deities vary from each Veda, and it is only of interest to note that they include abstractions such as Medhā, ‘intelligence’, Dhāraṇā, ‘fixing in memory’, Çraddhā, Anumati, ‘favour’, and Sadasaspati and other deities: the divisions of the texts were sometimes ascribed to deities, and the seers are duly honoured. The ceremony was followed by three days’ break of study, and similarly a break occurred at the end: breaks are also prescribed after the Aṣṭakās, when offerings were made to the Fathers, and on many other days, full- or new-moon days, while deaths and other things such as Çrāddhas, the sight of unholy persons, dogs, asses, or jackals, the noise of a Sāman, the cries in distress of men and so forth, prevent learning; the aim of the Sūtras seems to have been to interrupt study as often as possible. Thunder, lightning, rain, earthquakes, meteors, and other prodigies more reasonably interrupt study.¹