Saptamī Snapana
Saptamī Snapana, simply known as Saptami Snapana, Sanskrit: सप्तमी स्नपन, Telugu: సప్తమి స్నపనం, Hindi: सप्तमी स्नपन.
The Saptamī Snapana (also called Saptamī Snāna) is a śānti (peace-giving) rite. It is done for a child or an adult who faces a fearful event, such as a deadly illness or the death of infants in a family. It is taught in Chapter 68 of the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa. Bhagavān Sūrya taught it to King Kṛtavīrya. It uses five kalaśas (water pots), a Sūrya-Rudra homa (fire offering) with one hundred and eight āhutis (offerings) of each kind, a bath given by seven suvāsinīs and seven brāhmaṇas, and the gift of a gold Yamadharmarāja mūrti in a copper vessel filled with black sesame.
Why it is taught
Nārada asked Parameśvara what should be done when fearful and extraordinary events come. These include the death of infants, near-fatal diseases in children and alarming omens. Bhagavān Śiva answered that such events are the fruit of pāpa (sin) done in an earlier life. He said that the Saptamī Snapana is the śānti that ends them.
The account of Kṛtavīrya
In the coming Vārāha Kalpa, in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, a king named Kṛtavīrya will be born in the Haihaya line. He will rule the earth of seven islands for seventy-seven thousand years. Because of the śāpa (curse) of Cyavana muni, his hundred sons will die at birth. Only one son, the future Sahasrabāhu Arjuna, will be born with the marks of cakravartitva (sovereignty over the whole earth).
To keep this son alive against the curse of Cyavana, Kṛtavīrya goes to Sūrya. Sūrya teaches him the Saptamī Snapana. By it Arjuna, known as Kārtavīrya Arjuna, rules the earth for a lakh (one hundred thousand) of years.
When it is done
The Saptamī Snapana is done when:
- infants die again and again in a family;
- a nursing infant has a deadly illness;
- infants or young children are born with dangerous omens;
- adults, elders or youth meet a sudden and terrible event or calamity;
- bad dreams or extraordinary happenings trouble the household.
The time may be any of these:
- when the mother is in her seventh month of pregnancy;
- on a Śukla-paksha Saptamī (a seventh day of the bright fortnight) in the child’s infancy;
- on a day when the child’s birth nakshatra is favourable;
- on the child’s own birth tithi or the day of the child’s janma-nakshatra.
For elders and adults the same vidhi is used when great trouble strikes.
The vidhi
The first homa
The ācārya (the priest who leads the rite) first does a Sūrya-Rudra homa on ground plastered with cow dung.
- The havis (offering) is red rice (erra vaḍlu biyyam) and cow’s milk.
- The mantras are sūktas of Sūrya and of Rudra, used one after the other.
- The samidhas (sticks for the fire) are arka and palāśa, dipped in ghee.
- The offerings are yava (barley), black sesame and ghee, one hundred and eight āhutis of each.
The five kalaśas
Four kalaśas without cracks are set at the four corners. They are decorated with mango shoots. A fifth kalaśa is set in the middle and covered with two cloths. All five are filled with:
- fragrant waters;
- shoots of the aśvattha (pīpal), the āmra (mango) and other trees;
- all kinds of oshadhis (healing herbs);
- white gariḷe (short grass);
- fruits and the pañcaratnas (five jewels);
- holy earth gathered from places where elephants, horses, chariots and cattle stand, from anthills, from the meeting of rivers and from the meeting of a river with the ocean.
The middle kalaśa also holds curd and akshatas (unbroken rice grains). All five kalaśas are consecrated with mantras of Agni and then with the sūktas of Sūrya.
The snāna
Seven suvāsinīs (women whose husbands are alive and whose limbs are whole) and seven brāhmaṇas are honoured with flowers, clothes and ornaments. Together they bathe the child, or the person in trouble.
While they bathe the child, the ācārya says the protective mantras:
May this child (or person) live long! May the mother be the mother of living children! May Āditya, Candra, the nine grahas, the nakshatras, Indra, the Lokapālas, Brahmā, Vishṇu, Maheśvara and all the devatās protect this kumāraka (or kumārikā, the boy or girl) at all times! May lightning, fire, the bāla-grahas and all other dangers do no harm to this child or to the parents!
The dāna and the end of the rite
After the bath, the child’s mother, with the child and the father, bows to the elders and gurus in the assembly of brāhmaṇas. Then:
- A copper vessel is filled with black sesame.
- A gold mūrti of Yamadharmarāja is set on top.
- All of it is given to the guru.
The ācārya then gives this blessing:
May this child live for a full hundred years! May all the child’s pāpa fall into the fire! May Brahmā, Rudra, the Vasus, Subrahmaṇya, Vishṇu and Huta-aśana give all good to this child!
The guru is honoured with gold, jewels and clothes. If it can be done, a go-dāna (gift of a cow) of a kapilā (tawny cow) is also given. The child’s mother then eats the charu (the cooked rice of the homa) that remains from the homa. As she eats it, she says “Ādityāya namostu” (salutation to Āditya).
The phala
The Matsya Purāṇa calls this snāna a destroyer of great pāpa (mahā-pātaka-nāśana) and says it gives akshaya phala (fruit that does not fail). Even those who only hear this account with a single-pointed mind (ananya-citta) receive the same phala as those who do the rite. When Kṛtavīrya followed this vidhi for his son, that son, Kārtavīrya Arjuna, became a cakravartī (emperor) and ruled the earth for a lakh of years.
Sources
- Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 68