Vrata Paribhāshā

Vrata Paribhāshā, “the terms of the vows”

A vrata is a niyama (a rule of conduct) laid down by the śāstra. The Agni Purāṇa, in Chapter 175, gives the general rules for all vratas. Agni tells them to Vasishṭha. The Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 128, also gives them. This general frame of rules is the vrata-paribhāshā. Both texts give the ten common dharmas that belong to every vrata, the rules of the upavāsa (fast) and the rules for a broken vrata (vrata-bhaṅga). The Garuḍa Purāṇa adds the exact measures for pañcagavya, the rules against rites in the malimāsa (extra month), and rules for yugma-tithi.

In the Agni Purāṇa, Agni Deva closes this teaching with the whole frame of a vrata: the foods allowed and forbidden, the kṛcchras and the cāndrāyaṇa that purify, the Brahmakūrca, the four kinds of month and the rules of tithis and nakshatras, what is done when a vrata is broken or when the keeper is unable, and the prayers by which the keeper takes the vrata before Keśava as Vratapati (lord of the vrata), worships him with each offering and sends him away at the end. Pleased by vratas, fasts, niyamas and dāna, he says, the devas grant both bhukti and mukti.

What a vrata is

Agni tells Vasishṭha that vratas may be kept on tithis, on vāras (weekdays), on nakshatras, on set days, in months, in ṛtus (seasons), in saṃvatsaras (years), and at the moment of Sūrya-saṃkramaṇa (the sun’s passing from one sign to the next). Both men and women may keep them.

The same niyama is also called tapas (austerity), because it makes the one who keeps it strive hard. The word comes from tapyate, “to make one burn”. Dama (restraint of the senses) and other virtues are particular niyamas inside the wider class of vrata. Keeping the whole group of the senses under control is niyama, and it is declared especially beneficial for vipras who do not keep the sacred fires. (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

The ten common dharmas of every vrata

These ten are to be kept in every vrata, whatever the vrata:

1. Kshamā: forbearance
2. Satya: truth
3. Dayā: compassion
4. Dāna: giving
5. Śauca: purity
6. Indriya-nigraha: restraint of the senses
7. Deva-pūjā: worship of the devatā
8. Agni-haraṇa: tending the sacred fire
9. Santosha: contentment
10. Asteya: not stealing

Besides these ten, everyone who keeps a vrata must recite sacred mantras, do homa as far as able, bathe every day, eat in moderation, and honour the guru, the devas and the brāhmaṇas. He gives up kshāra (pungent salts), honey, salt, madhu and meat. (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

The upavāsa (the fast)

Upavāsa is the main discipline of a vrata. The Agni Purāṇa tells true upavāsa from mere keeping away from food. True upavāsa is to turn away from all pāpa (sin) and to stay in the guṇas, giving up all bhogas (enjoyments). One who fasts for the devas and the ancestors, through the fast of a vrata, through niyama and through many dānas, receives from those devas the varas (boons) of bhukti (worldly enjoyment) and mukti (liberation). (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

What breaks the upavāsa

During the upavāsa these acts break (khaṇḍita) the fast:

• drinking water again and again
• eating tāmbūla (betel)
• sleeping in the day
• maithuna (sexual union)

At the time of upavāsa these are also forbidden: wearing flowers as ornaments, wearing new garments, putting on dhūpa, gandha and anulepa (incense, scent and ointment), cleaning the teeth with a twig (danta-kāshṭha), and putting on collyrium. The vrata is begun early in the morning, after taking pañcagavya. (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

Foods to avoid and foods allowed

Foods to avoid during upavāsa are: vessels of bronze (kāṃsya-pātra), meat (māṃsa), masura lentils, chickpeas, oil-seeds (kañjalu), leafy vegetables (śāka), madhu (honey), food got from others (parānna), and prosperity-related items. Also to be avoided are most legumes and grains, except tila (sesame) and mudga (green gram), sour or fermented preparations, sugarcane products, and various cold grains. The full list given up is: all pulses except tila and mudga; wheat, millets, cīnaka, deva-dhānya and śamī-dhānya (pod grains); things made from sugarcane; śīta-dhānya; bought goods (paṇya); and roots. (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

Foods allowed, and fit for the vrata, are: shashṭika rice, mudga (green gram), kalāya, tila, yava (barley), śyāmāka, godhūma (wheat), kshīra (milk), dadhi (curds), ghṛta, śāka (when it is allowed), mūlatandula (root-rice) and havishya (the sacred food for oblations). Except for madhu and māṃsa, all other food is acceptable in principle. In a vrata, in the nakta (night-meal) vratas and in the rites of the fire, these are also fit: caru received as bhikshā (alms), saktu (barley flour), curd, ghee, milk, śāli rice and nīvāra (wild rice). (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

Vegetables that are specially to be avoided are: kūshmāṇḍa (pumpkin), ānapa (a gourd), vṛntāka (brinjal or eggplant), pālankī (spinach) and pūtikā (a bitter vegetable). (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

Forms of prāyaścitta within a vrata

The Agni Purāṇa lists several graded forms of tapas and prāyaścitta (atonement) that work within the frame of a vrata:

• Prājāpatya. Eat in the morning for three days, eat in the evening for three days, eat only what is given without asking for three days, then fast for three days.
• Atikṛcchra. The same pattern, but taking only one morsel (grāsa) in each stage.
• Kṛcchra-Sāntapana. Take the six substances gomūtra, gomaya, kshīra, dadhi, ghṛta and kuśodaka, and keep the last night as a full fast.
• Mahāsāntapana. The same substances, one each day for six days, with the seventh day a fast. This destroys all pāpa.
• Parāka. Twelve days of full fast. This destroys all pāpa.
• Mahāparāka. Three rounds of parāka.
• Cāndrāyaṇa. Begin on pūrṇimā by eating fifteen morsels. Take one morsel less each day until amāvāsyā, which is a full fast. Then take one morsel more each day until pūrṇimā again. The cāndrāyaṇa may also be kept in the reverse order.

(Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

The Brahmakūrca is a cleansing mixture of the six substances, each taken with its mantra: gomūtra with the Gāyatrī, gomaya with “Gandhadvārā…”, kshīra with “Āpyāyasva…”, dadhi with “Dadhikrāmṇam…”, ājya with “Tejosi…”, and kuśodaka with “Devasya…”. It is then joined with the Aghamarshaṇa-sūkta or the praṇava and taken. One who drinks it and then fasts reaches Vishṇuloka, freed from all pāpa. The Agni Purāṇa gives its measures: the gomūtra of a kapilā (tawny) cow, one pala; gomaya, half a thumb’s measure; kshīra, seven palas; dadhi, two palas; ghṛta, one pala; and kuśodaka, one pala. With it one does japa of “Āpo hi shṭhā…”. (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

These reach svarga: one who fasts by day and eats in the evening; the sannyāsī who eats only in the sixth of the eight parts of the day; the performer of the aśvamedha; and the one who speaks the truth. (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

Beginning and ending a vrata

Before beginning, the one who keeps the vrata calls on the devatā of the vrata with a prayer:

“O Vratapatī! For the sake of kīrti, santāna, vidyā, saubhāgya, ārogya, abhivṛddhi, nirmala-bhoga and moksha, I take up this vrata. I have received it in your presence. O Jagatpatī! May it go on without vighna through your grace. O vrata-pālaka! If I should die before this vrata is complete, may it be made whole by your anugraha.”

The devatā is then called with: “O Keśava! You are vrata-svarūpa and jagat-kāraṇabhūta. For all siddhi I call you to the maṇḍala.” The keeper adds: “Namaskāra to you. Be present here.”

Then come the upacāras. There is abhisheka with pañcagavya, with pañcāmṛta and with pure water, each with its own mantra. At the abhisheka the keeper says: “I bathe you with bhakti; remove my pāpas.” With the garments he asks to be made one covered with ornaments and fine garments; with the flowers, to be made very pure, for the growth of life and health. The words given are:

“O Arghyapatī! Accept this arghya and make me always worthy of arghya. O Vastrapatī! Accept these holy garments. O Gandhamūrti! Accept this fragrant gandha and make me free from the smell of pāpa. Accept these flowers and make me full of pushpa-gandha. Accept the dhūpa of ten ingredients with guggulu and ghṛta, and make me dhūpa-dhūpita. Accept the blazing dīpa and make me always lit and of upward movement. O Annapati! Accept this naivedya and make me full of anna and a giver of anna-dāna.”

At the end, the one who keeps the vrata prays:

“O Vratapatī! May the pūjā I have done, even though it lacks in mantra, in kriyā or in bhakti, be made complete. Give me dharma, dhana, saubhāgya, guṇa-samudāya, kīrti, vidyā, āyurdāya, svarga and moksha. Having received this pūjā, go to your own abode, but come again for the worship to come.”

(Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

Special observances during a vrata

The one who keeps the vrata must sleep on the ground (bhūmi-śayana). The golden vrata-mūrti is to be worshipped as far as one is able. At the end, japa, homa and dāna are done. Brāhmaṇas are fed: twenty-four, or twelve, or five, or at least one. The dakshiṇā (gift) to the brāhmaṇas should include, as far as one is able: cattle, gold, a water vessel, a food vessel, land, an umbrella (chattra), an āsana, a śayyā (bed), a pair of garments and a kumbha (pot). (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

Rules of timing

• A cāndramāsa runs from amāvāsyā to amāvāsyā.
• A sāvanamāsa is thirty days.
• A sauramāsa runs from saṃkrānti to saṃkrānti.
• A nakshatramāsa is the time in which all the nakshatras finish one round.
• Sauramāsa is best for vivāha and such auspicious rites. Sāvanamāsa is best for yajña. Cāndramāsa is best for śrāddha and pitṛ-karma.
• For māsika and vārshika vratas (monthly and yearly vratas), if a tithi spans two days, the tithi of the second day is the better one. The first is held impure (malina).
• For nakshatra-vratas, fast on the nakshatra in which Sūrya sets.
• For day-vratas, the tithi that spans the whole day is the most auspicious. For night-vratas, the tithi that spans the night is puṇyaprada (giver of puṇya).
• The month of Malimāsa (adhimāsa) is forbidden for auspicious acts such as agny-ādhāna, pratishṭhā, yajña, dāna, vrata, deva-vrata, vṛshotsarga, cūḍākaraṇa, mekhala-bandha and vivāha. The abhisheka (consecration) of a king is also not done in it.
• In the fifth paksha (fortnight) after Āshāḍha pūrṇimā, śrāddha must surely be done for the pitṛs, whether or not the sun has entered Kanyā rāśi.
• The good joinings of tithis are dvitīyā with tṛtīyā, caturdaśī with pūrṇimā, and amāvāsyā with pratipad; these give great fruit. The opposite joining (pratipad with dvitīyā and the like) is fearful, and destroys even the puṇya done before.
• For a king, a minister and one in the middle of a vrata, at a marriage, in calamities, in a place hard to reach, at a time of crisis and in war, purity is declared at that very time (tat-kāla-śuddhi).

(Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

Special provisions

• If someone keeping a long vrata becomes unconscious from fasting, the guru may give milk or some other means to bring the person round. This is not vrata-bhaṅga.
• These do not break the vrata: water, fruit, roots, milk, havishya, brāhmaṇocchishṭa-pūrti (taking the leavings of a brāhmaṇa’s meal as prasāda), guru-vacana (the guru’s word) and medicine.
• If the vrata-kartā (the one keeping the vrata) is unable, through anger, error or greed, and the vrata is broken, that person must fast for three days or shave the head.
• If a person cannot keep the vrata alone, the spouse or a son may keep it for that person.
• A vrata once begun must go on through aśauca (the impurity of birth and of death). Only the pūjā part is held back in that time, not the vrata.
• If a woman becomes rajasvalā in the middle of a long vrata, the vrata is not broken.
• For a pregnant woman, a woman in the delivery chamber, or a rajasvalā woman who is inauspicious, the auspicious acts may be done by others for her.

(Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175)

Additions in the Garuḍa Purāṇa

Pañcagavya: measures and mantras

The Garuḍa Purāṇa gives exact measures for each part of the pañcagavya, with its mantra:

These five are joined with kuśodaka (water in which kuśa grass has been steeped) and taken, with the Aghamarshaṇa-sūkta or the praṇava as the last mantra.

(Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 128)

Malimāsa (adhimāsa) rules

The extra month (malimāsa or adhimāsa) is forbidden for all auspicious rites, including agny-ādhāna, deva-pratishṭhā, yajña, vivāha, vrata-prārambha (the start of a vrata), vṛshotsarga, cūḍākaraṇa, upanayana and other saṃskāras. A vrata already going on that runs into malimāsa has its ritual pūjā held back, but it is not broken. The vrata goes on in the next śuddha-māsa (pure month).

(Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 128)

Rules for yugma-tithi

When two tithis fall on the same solar day, which is called yugma-tithi, the Garuḍa Purāṇa gives this guidance:

• Auspicious yugma-tithis. Tṛtīyā with caturthī, and similar pairs in which both tithis are of good quality, are especially auspicious.
• Inauspicious or dangerous yugma-tithis. In other pairs, where the earlier tithi is of bad quality, it taints the tithi that follows. Care is needed in deciding which tithi governs the day’s vrata.

The general rule for vratas is that when there is doubt about yugma-tithis, the tithi present at sūryodaya (sunrise) governs the day.

(Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 128)

Vrata-bhaṅga and its remedy

The Garuḍa Purāṇa agrees with these rules for a broken vrata and adds to them:

• A vrata is not broken when a woman has her monthly period in the middle of the vrata. The vrata goes on. Only the bodily acts of the pūjā are held back during the time of aśauca.
• If the vrata is broken by inadvertence, by carelessness or by compulsion, the remedy is three days of upavāsa, three days of fasting one after the other, followed by muṇḍana (shaving the head) to mark the prāyaścitta.
• Through this prāyaścitta, the intent of the vrata and the puṇya gathered up to the point of the break are kept.

(Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 128)

Sources

• Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 175 (Agni to Vasishṭha)
• Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 128