Halapaṅkti Dāna
Halapaṅkti Dāna · hala-paṅkti dāna, “the gift of a row of ploughs”
Halapaṅkti Dāna is the gift of a paṅkti (row) of ten ploughs, with their bulls and with land, to ten brāhmaṇas. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches its vidhi (the rule of the rite) to Mahārāja Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa, Chapter 166. He says that it destroys all pāpas (sins), gives all happiness, and brings the fruit of every kind of gift.
The ploughs are adorned with gold and ratnas, and young bulls are decked and yoked to them. At a sacred time, after a havana in a maṇḍapa, the yajamāna takes flowers in his joined hands, recites two mantras, and gives the land and the ploughs. He goes to svarga (heaven) with twenty-one kulas (generations of his family). The great rājarshis Dilīpa, Yayāti, Śibi, Nimi and Bharata made this gift.
What is given
- One hala (plough) needs four bullocks, and ten ploughs make one paṅkti.
- Ten ploughs are made of sākhū wood and adorned with plates of gold and with ratnas.
- Young, handsome, sturdy, excellent bulls, decked with cloth, gold, flowers, candana (sandalwood) and so on, are yoked to the ploughs.
- A yoke is placed on the shoulders of the bullocks. With it are kept a goad fitted with a pin and the other tools.
- With the row of ploughs one gives a large village rich with crops, or a small village, or a hundred nivartanas (a hundred bīghās) or fifty nivartanas of land.
One who cannot give ten ploughs may give five, four or one.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 166
When it is given
It is given at a parva (a sacred time), especially on Kārtikī, on Vaiśākhī, at the ayana-saṅkrānti (the turning of the sun’s course), on one’s janma-nakshatra (birth star), at an eclipse, and at the vishuva-yoga (the equinox).
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 166
The vidhi
- Ten brāhmaṇas who know the Veda, of good conduct, adorned on all their limbs, are invited.
- A maṇḍapa of ten hastas (cubits) is made. In it, on the east side, one or two kuṇḍas of one hasta are made.
- The invited brāhmaṇas perform havana with palāśa samidhs (sacred firewood), ghee, black sesame and kshīra (milk), with the vyāhṛtis, the Parjanya-sūkta, the Āditya-sūkta and the Rudra mantras.
- The yajamāna bathes and adorns himself with white cloth and so on. He sets the row of ploughs on saptadhānya (the seven grains) and yokes the bullocks to it.
- Many kinds of instruments are played, and the brāhmaṇas recite the Veda.
- At the time of the gift the yajamāna takes a flower añjali (flowers in his joined hands) and reads the mantras below.
- Then he gives the land and the ploughs to those brāhmaṇas.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 166
The mantras of the gift
यस्माद् देवगणाः सर्वे हले तिष्ठन्ति सर्वदा।
वृषस्कन्धे संनिहितास्तस्माद्धक्तिः शिवेऽस्तु मे।
यस्माच्च भूमिदानस्य कला नाहन्ति षोडशीम्।
दानान्यन्यानि मे भक्तिधर्मे चास्तु दृढा सदा॥
yasmād devagaṇāḥ sarve hale tishṭhanti sarvadā
vṛshaskandhe saṃnihitāstasmāddhaktiḥ śive’stu me
yasmācca bhūmidānasya kalā nāhanti shoḍaśīm
dānānyanyāni me bhaktidharme cāstu dṛḍhā sadā
Since all the deva-gaṇas ever stay in the plough set on the bull’s shoulder, may my bhakti be in Bhagavān Śaṅkara. Since all other gifts are not equal even to a sixteenth part of bhūmi-dāna (the gift of land), may my bhakti in dharma be firm.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 166
The phala
- One who gives a row of ploughs in this way goes to svarga with his twenty-one kulas.
- For seven births he does not suffer poverty, ill fortune, disease and other sorrows, and he becomes a ruler of the earth.
- One who with devotion watches this gift while it is being given is also freed of the pāpas of a lifetime.
- Givers of a row of ploughs dwell in Śiva-loka for as many thousand years as there are clods of earth raised by the plough and hairs on the bulls’ bodies. At the end they are excellent kings on the earth.
Mahārāja Dilīpa, Yayāti, Śibi, Nimi, Bharata and all the best rājarshis made this gift, and by its power those kings enjoy the happiness of svarga even today. Therefore, says Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa, all women and men should make this gift with devotion.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 166
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 166