365bet娱乐

The Sanskrit word for custom is acara, i.e.religious custom or established usage. The binding force of custom is fully recognised in the Sanskrit law books and the Puranas give lengthy expositions of sadacara. The term superstition in its concrete sense implies a number of beliefs, habits and

453 fancies, tribal and individual, which we regard as not being found on reasonable conceptions of the world and of human life, necessities and obligations.69 The Brahma Purana also deals at length with the exposition of virtuous custom, daily observances, regulations regarding food, dress, bath, acamana, purification against defilement on account of various reasons and many other aspects all reflecting the general social condition. The Brahma Purana explains the importance of following the virtuous custom. It states that a householder must ever maintain virtuous custom as there is no happiness either here or hereafter without following the virtuous custom. Sacrifice, alms giving and austerities do not tend to the welfare of a man here who transgresses virtuous custom. A man who follows bad custom does not get long life here and the practice of virtuous custom destroys whatever is inauspicious (221.6-8). The Brahma Purana throws light on the various aspects covering the daily routine of life. It states that a man should get up at the Brahma-moment, should reflect over righte- 70 ousness and wealth. He should then rinse his mouth, stand towards the east with self-restraint and purity and should 69 Alice Gardner, ERE, Vol. 12, P. 70 For discussion regarding the beginning of the day, vide Kane P.V., HDS, Vol.II, Part I, PP.646-47.

454 -ight worship the twil- with constellations in the east and the twilight with the Sun in the West (221.17,18). With restraint he should offer the homa oblation evening and morning, and should not gaze up at the orb of the Sun or sunset(221.18). He should look in a mirror in order to dress his hair, should wash his teeth and delight the gods in the very forenoon (221.21). In the forenoon he should worship the gods and at noon and in the afternoon the pitrs. After bathing overhead, he should perform the ceremonies to gods and pitys (221.72). He should satisfy the guests, kinsmen, living creatures, dependents with food (221.26). Having performed his household worship properly in the fitting place and in due order, the the ritual. he should next worship fire and offer it oblations in due order. He should make the first offering to Brahma, then to Prajapati, third to Guhyas, next to Kasyapa, then to Anumati (the 15th day of the Moon's age, personified). He should then offer household bali and the constant oblations according to Next he should make offering to Visvedevas, then the offering to all creatures, separately to gods according to place and apportionment. Ile should make the three oblations to Parjanya, Dharitris, and to Vayu in every direction, to the east and other regions of the sky in due order, to Brahma, to the air, and Sun in due order, to the visvedevas and all beings, then he should offer to the dawn and to give northwards and southwards to pitrs exclaiming 'Svadha-reverence'. Having

k 455 done it on the right and to the north-west saying '0 yasma' he may offer the remains of food and water from the vessel according to rule. He should perform ceremonies to gods and other objects of worship with each one's special portion of the hand. A line drawn to the left of thumb of the right hand is the portion of hand sacred to Brahma and the part between forefinger and thumb is the portion sacred to pitrs, and the tip of fingers is the portion sacred to gods. All the ceremonies should be performed with these respective portions of the hand (221.86-98). After walking along the high roads and after taking bath, satisfying hunger and thirst and after relieving oneself from weariness one should change one's cloth and daily rinse out one's mouth (221.131-132). There are rules of good behaviour. A man should strive to attain the three purusarthas. A quarter of his wealth should be laid aside for the next world, half of his wealth should be kept for his maintenance and for the performance of periodic addhas, and remaining quarter should be considered as capital and one should exert himself to increase it. Similarly a wise man should practise righteousness in order to withstand sin and so also kama yields fruits here on account of the next world. Thus a man should try to attain all the three purusarthas (221.11-13). One should offer a seat to the Gurus accompanied by

456 rinsing the mouth and other respectful acts and should converse with them agreeably, should follow them and should not speak adversely about them (221.31,32). He should clear the path for brahmins, king, who is ill with pain, his superior in tearning, a prognant women, a man affiliated with diseases, the dumb, blind, and deaf, a drunkard and a mad man (221.39,40). He should respectfully circumambulate a temple and a fig-tree standing on a sacred spot and a place where four roads meet, his superior in learning and a guru (221.40,41). He should avoid a deed that causes pain to others and the infliction of pain on living creatures (221.74). CHESTREREREO One should revere the brahmins according to one's ability with the offering of milk and honey, one should always respect brahmins and should not contradict them even though he might sometimes get. scoldings from them (221.83-85). There are many acts which a man should abstain from performing in order to preserve the right mode of behaviour. Many of the rules are simply hygienic but as Religion pervaded all the aspects of man's life, the rules of law, of morality, of health and hygiene and of religion are mixed up. Thus it is said that one should eschew conversation with the wicked, should not be addicted to falsehood, harsh sprech, evil books, evil words and the homage of evil (221.19). An intelligent man should not divalge another's fault except in the event of e

457 injury (221.28). A wise man should never stand with his foot or leg extended, nor should he throw out both his feet or press one foot with another. He should eschew deadly attacks, abuse and calumny. A clever man should not play deceit, selfconceit, or sharpness. Ca He should not disgrace with ridiculous fools, insane persons, those in calamity, the deformed, or magicians or those who have limbs deficient or superfluous. He should not inflict punishment on another in order to instruct a son or disciple and he should not draw his sit towards him or sit down (221.43-47). One should not revile or ridicule the gods, vedas, dvijas, good, truthful or magnanimous men, a guru, or devoted and virtuous wives, or persons who are sacrificing or performing austerities. One should never listen to those unmannerly persons who do such things. One should not mount on a high bed or seat nor on a low one (221.78-82). A sensible man should not carry water and fire at the same time, nor should he thrust out both his feet towards guru and gods (221.101). A wise man should never 7 stand in gardens and other places in the afternoons, nor should he converse with a woman hated by the populace or with a widow (221.139,140). He should not defecate or void urine in a path leading to villages or temples, to places of pilgrimage or to the fields, nor on cultivated ground, nor in a cattle-pen.

458 He should not void urine, defecate or engage in sexual intercourse in water.. He should not gaze at another's wife naked and should not look at his own ordure (221.22-24). He should not step on ordure, urine, hair, ashes or potsherds and a wise man should not step on husks, charcoal, bones or decayed things, or on rope, clothing etc. whether on road or on the earth (221.24,25). He should not defecate or void urine while walking or standing (221.29). One should not look at the Sun, Moon or constellations with passionate desire and should avoid a broken seat, bed and cup (221.30,31). without any reason. He should not scratch his head frequently And when his head is washed he should not touch his body with oil at all and he should 嘟撪紜 cease his own reading when everyone is abstaining from reading (221.33,36) He should not talk of his Guru's evil doing and should appease him when angry. He should not listen to abuse when others utter it (221.38). He should not carry shoes, clothes, garlands, etc. that others are carrying. He should avoid oil anointments and sexual intercourse on the fourteenth, eighth and fifteen days of the month (221.41-43). A man should not sleep with his head to the north, or west but he should sleep placing his head to the north-east or east (221.49,50). One should not look at a heifer sucking and should not drink water with the hands joined together. should not blow the fire with his mouth (221.102). He

459 Elaborate rules for acamana are laid down in several smrtis.71 1 The Brahma Purana states that one should take one's food after duly rinsing his mouth with frothless, inodourous, pure and holy water (221.63). After washing his hands and feet and sprinkling water on them he should, with his face between knees and composed mind, rinse out his mouth. He should drink water three or four times after twice wiping the sides of his mouth, the apertures of the body, and his head. After duly rinsing out his mouth with water, being pure, he should perform the ceremony to the gods, pitrs and Rishis deligently. He should rinse out his mouth when he has sneezed or spitten out or donned his raiment. sneeze and licking and a vomit and spitting etc. he should rinse out his mouth, touch a cow's back and look at the Sun, and he should hold up his right ear, since this is in his power, in the absence of the former he should do the latter (221.65-69). After a Various kinds of snana and procedures about snana are laid down in Nibhandhas and sastras.72 The Brahma Purana states that one should not bathe in perfurmed water and at night. Bathing except by day is declared to be most potent for calamity and he should not apply ungents when he has not bathed 71 Kene P.V., Op.Cit., PP. 315-16. 72 For a detailed discussion regarding snana, vide Kane P.V. Op.Cit., PP.656-668.

460 (221.51,52). After shaving, vomitting and sexual intercourse the wise man should resort to the place where the bodies are burnt and should bathe keeping his clothes on (221.79). The earth to be employed (like soap) for cleansing the body was to be employed from a pure place and not from a place beneath the water, from an ant-hill, from a ground infested with mice and where purification actions etc. have been carried on (221.64). 73 The rules and regulations about food and drink etc. framed by the law-givers were based on rules of hygiene and Physical science and were obviously meant to preserve the purity as 74 well as intellectual as well as culture of the Aryans. The and Brahma Purana also lays down many rules and restrictions regarding food and drinks some of which have been noted in the section of 'food and drinks!. Thus it states that a man should eat after revering the pitrs, gods, mankind and living creatures. He should always eat his food facing the east or north, restraining his speech, with his mind intent on food and with his face between the knees (221.26,27). He should not eat nor engage in the worship of gods while clad in a single garment (221.33). He should take his food evening 73 Vide also Daksa (II.44-45), Satatapa quoted by Grhya Ratnakara P.188, Parasaramadhavlya I., Part I,P.271, and Atti 321-322 for the seven kinds of earth to be avoided. 74 Pandya H.C.: Intelligent man's guide to Indian Philosophy, P.314.

461 1 and morning after revering his guest (221.48), one should not eat when unbathed, when reposing, while thinking of other things, when sitting on his bed or on earth, nor when making a sound nor when clad in a single garment, nor when speaking, nor without giving to spectators, but he should go eat according to rules after taking a bath in the morning and evening (221.58,60). Rice should be eaten that has been kept a while, mixed with oil and long stored and wheat, barley, butter-milk and preparations thereof unmixed with oil should be taken. The hare, tortoise, go-samp, porcupine and the Rhineceros may be taken and the domesticated pig and fowl may be eschewed (221.111). The practise of daily danta-dhavana has existed in India from the most ancient times. The Brahma Purana states that 75 one should always wash one's teeth facing eastwards or northwards and restraining the voice (221.48). He should not gnash his teeth, nor beat his own body. He should always avoid sleep, reading and food at both the twilights and sexual intercourse and setting out on a journey at the evening twilight (221.70,71). One should trim one's beard facing u eastwards or northwards (221.72). He should goard his wife, 75 Kane P.V., Op.Cit., PP. 653-656. t

462 should shun jealousy by day, in sleep and in sexual intercourse (221.74) One should not dress unbecomingly, nor speak so. One should be clad in pure white raiments and adorned with white flowers (221.81,82). As regards the dwelling place it is stated that one should not take up one's abode where four things do not exist, viz. a person who pays debts, a physician, a brahmink learned in vedas and a river fall of water. One should dwell at a place where the king is powerful, devoted to righe righteousness and where the foes have been vanquished. One should reside at the place where the king is unassailable, where the earth is prolific, where the citizens are well-governed and always practice justice, where folk are charitable, where the husbandmen are not gluttonous and where all medicinal herbs are procurable. One should not dwell there where three things are constant, viz. a person desirous of conquering, a former enemy and folk who are always holding festival. A wise man should always dwell among good tempered neighbours.(221.103- 109). A woman in her monthly course was considered to be impure Special rules were laid down for the time of sexual intercourse also. Thus it is said that one should avoid seeing touching, seeing and talking with a woman in courses (221.136). ' One should not have sexual intercourse with one's

463 wife on the fourteenth, eighth and fifteenth days of the Moon (221.42).. A woman during menstruation should be avoided by all the castes for four nights. He should avoid the fifth night of the Moon in order to avoid the birth of females, then let him approach his wife on the sixth night, that night is the best among even nights. As daughters are born as a result of the sexual intercourse on odd nights, a wise man should cohabit with his wife on even nights for getting sons. Lawless men cohabit with their wives in the morning and eunuchs at the evening (221.75,76). Special regulations are formed regarding purification from defilement by touch and other reasons, water that has satisfied cattle, that is in the natural state, that is lying on earth, and likewise flesh that has been slain by candalas, kravyadas, and others and clothes and other things lying on the high road are said to be made pure by the wind. Dust, firem, a horse, cow, the rays of Sun and Moon, wind, earth, drops of water, mosquitoes and other insects inflict no contamination though they have been in contact with currupt things. A goat and a horse are pure as regards their face but the face of cow er calf is not pure. A hawk is pure when it knocks the fruits down. The things like seat, boat, carriage, bed and grass on the road are purified by the rays of Sun, Moon and wind as the articles of trade (221.113-131)

464 After touching a menstruous woman, a horse, a jackal and other animals, or a woman recently delivered of child, or people of low caste one should take bath for the sake of purification. and also after carrying a corpse. After touching an oily human bone a man becomes clean when he has bathed, after touching a dry human bone a man becomes clean by rinsing his mouth, or by touching the cow, or by gazing at the Sun. One should not disregard blood, spittle and ungents for body (221.134-136). Without taking up five pindas, one should not bathe in another man's water, one should take bath in holy ponds, in the Ganges, lakes and rivers. Aftor touching or conversing with the blasphemers of the gods, pitrs, and holy sastras, sacrifices, prayers and other sacred objects, one should purify one's self by gazing at the Sun. And after looking at a menstruous woman, a sadra, an outcaste, or a dead body, the unrighteous, a woman recently delivered of a child, a eunuch, a naked person, and persons of low caste, and on those who give away children and on the paramours of other men's wives, the wise must indeed perform this purification of themselves. After touching the forbidden food, a woman recently delivered, a eunuch, a cat, a rat, a dog, a cock and an outcaste or what is caste away, a Candalas and those who carry away corpses, one is purified by taking bath. One who touches a woman in her periods, and the domestic hogs, and even two men who have been contaminated by the impurity of a

465 newly-delivered woman and the base man who continually neglects the ceremonies and one who is abandoned by brahmins is polluted (221.123-146). There are rules again regarding forming friendship with people. One should not befriend with the haughty, OI insane, or fools or unmannerly of those having a bad disposition, or those who are currupted with thieving and other vices, or spendthrifts, or the covetous, or enemies, or prostitutes, or inferiors, or husbands of prostitutes. One should not make friendship with the mighty, or inferiors, or reprobates, or the evertimid, or fatalists, He should contact friendship with good men, with those who always observe virtuous custom, with the wise, with honest, with the powerful and with those resolute in action (221.22-34). The Brahma Purana also deals at length with the cleaning of various things. Thus it states that shells, stones, gold, silver, ropes, garments, vegetables, roots, fruits, wicker-work vessels, leather, gems, diamonds, corals, pearls, men's bodies are best cleansed with water and iron things with warm water, stones by scrubbing, oily vessels by warm water and winnowing, grain, antelope-skin, pestle and mortar for husking rice and thick clothes and a store by sprinkling and woolen things and hair have ceremonial purity. White mustard is cleaned with oily sediment or the sediment from

466 the seasamum seed. Things that are injured are always cleaned with water, cotton things with water and ashes, timbre, ivory, bone and horn by scrapping, earthen pots by reburning (221.113-119). There are somethings which are naturally pure. Thus the alms, a workman's hand, wares for sale, a woman's face, whatever passes at the high-road, what is unknown, what is brought by slaves and minerals, what is admirable for its sound, what is long past, what is extremely abundant, what is young, what is done by the old and sickly, kitchens having their business completed, women sucking children, running water and odourless bubbles are all pure things (221.128- 130). The ground is cleansed through time, by the rubbing of bodies, passage of cattle, by smearing, digging, watering, by houses, by sweeping or by worship. Things infested with d hair-dice or sniffed at by cattle or infested with flies should be sprinkled with earth water and ashes. Things made of udumbara wood should be cleaned, with vinegar, tin and lid with salt, brass things with ashes and water. flows of fluids are pure. A thing soiled by ordure is cleaned with earth and water by removing The oversmell and other such things by removing colour and smell (221.131,132). When one comes in contact with bad roads, mud and water one

467 is cleansed by leaving them alone and things made of brick or mud are cleansed by contact with the wind (221.132,133). Again there were some beliefs that on account of the presence of a divine jewel, people had no diseases and they were never afflicted by anavrsti (16.24). If the Linga of lord Mahadeva was plunged in blood it was considered to be a bad omen suggesting the coming of some disastrous event (169.38). The effect of an evil eye was counteracted by revolving round the face of a person the tail of a cow, vessel and pots (184.12,23) 75, There were different types of pastimes in which people indulged in order to get relaxation from the monotonous tasks of life. Hunting was a very good pastime (10.22), (13.89). The art of story telling prevailed and the characters of good kings were given as instances (15.40), (26.16). Some people were experts in Gajayuddha (44.18). Dyuta was considered to be vyasana (43.32) and men gambled and procured wealth (170.85). All people from the city together with women, servants, prostitutes and the king with 76 For details vide: (i) the evil eye, Amulets, Receipes, Exorcisation, etc. by E. Rehtsek, JBBRAS, X, PP.299. ff. (ii) The evil eye and allied notions by H.G.M. Murray, Aynslay: IAXV, PP. 320 ff.

468 his retinue came to witness the public sports like Mallayuddha (193. 23,24). .77 The custom of smelling the head of children to show parental affection very common in the Mbh. and Ramayang, was also there (9.31). When some public declaration was to be made, the custom of ghona (called dande pitavi) was there (170.74).