Ugrajanman and the Ṛshipañcamī Vow

The Ṛshipañcamī vow is kept on the fifth tithi (lunar day) of the bright fortnight of the month of Bhādrapada. It is given to the seven ṛshis (seers). The Padma Mahā Purāṇa teaches it through the account of the brāhmaṇa Ugrajanman. During the yearly śrāddha (rite for the ancestors), he heard a bull and a bitch of his own house speak of their pain. He knew them as his parents, reborn as animals. Vasishṭha told him the cause and gave him the vow, and the vow set his parents free.

The frame

Mahādeva tells this account to Pārvatī while teaching the Ṛshipañcamī vow. He calls it the best of vows. It brings sons and grandsons and prosperity. It frees from pāpa (sin) even a woman who has been in her monthly period. The inner account is told in the voice of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Ugrajanman’s śrāddha

Ugrajanman was a brāhmaṇa who loved study and knew the Vedas well. He did every sacred duty with care. He kept the sacred fire and followed the six duties of a brāhmaṇa. All the varṇas (classes) respected him.

On the day of his father’s śrāddha, he cooked food of eighteen flavours. He invited brāhmaṇas to his house at midday. He did every part of the rite with care. He gave the piṇḍas (rice balls for the ancestors). He honoured the brāhmaṇas with tāmbūla (betel), gifts and clothes. Then he fed his relatives.

The bull and the bitch

When the rite was over, Ugrajanman sat at the door of his house in the evening. He heard a bitch and a bull of his house talking to each other.

The bitch told the bull her pain. She had once gone into their son’s house to guard the stored milk. A serpent had poisoned that milk. She saw the danger and drank all the milk, so that it would not reach the brāhmaṇas and cause their death. The daughter-in-law did not know this. She saw the bitch drink the milk and beat her hard, and broke her back. From that grief the bitch became miserable and could not eat.

The bull answered: “O bitch, listen. I will tell you why I am miserable. When this day came, my son gave food to the brāhmaṇas but did not care for me. He never gave me water or grass. I carry pāpa, and I have been tied up without food.”

Ugrajanman heard these words. A thought came to him: “This is truly my father, born again as an animal in my own house, and this is truly my mother.” He could not sleep that night.

Vasishṭha explains the former birth

At dawn Ugrajanman went to the assembly of ṛshis. Vasishṭha received him with honour and asked why he had come. Ugrajanman told him all: the words he had overheard, and how he knew his parents. He said: “The two of them are very miserable. I have come to you. Take away my grief.”

Vasishṭha said: “O Ugrajanman, listen to what was done in the former life. In that life your father was a great brāhmaṇa in the fair city of Kundanagara. In the month of Bhādrapada the Pañcamī tithi of the bright fortnight came. It is the vow of the ṛshis. He did not keep it, because the śrāddha of his own father fell on the same day. On that day his wife was in her monthly period. Even so, she cooked all the food and served it. The result of this is known to be the worst pāpa. On the first day a woman has the standing of a cāṇḍāla woman. On the second day she has the standing of one who has killed a brāhmaṇa. On the third day she has the standing of a washerwoman. Only on the fourth day is she pure. Because of that pāpa, his wife became a bitch, and your father was born as a bull.”

The Ṛshipañcamī vow

Ugrajanman asked which vow, gift, yajña (fire ritual) or tīrtha (holy place) would free his parents. Vasishṭha gave him the Ṛshipañcamī vow.

On the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada, the one who keeps the vow goes to a riverbank, a well, a tank or a brāhmaṇa’s house. There he makes a ritual circle with cowdung. He places a pitcher in it, with a vessel full of the grains that ṛshis use. He also sets up seven images of the ṛshis, with a sacred thread, fruit and gold. He calls the seven ṛshis and honours them with incense, ghee, five kinds of food and a respectful offering. Then he pours out water for them and says: “May this please the ṛshis.” He eats once a day, and his food is made from the grains that ṛshis use.

The prayer names the seven ṛshis: Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Prācetasa, Vasishṭha, Marīci and Ātreya.

Vasishṭha said: “By the power of this vow, the dead ancestors are set free at once.”

The release

Ugrajanman kept the Ṛshipañcamī vow for the moksha (liberation) of his parents. The vow freed the bull and the bitch from their former pāpa, and they went on the path of moksha. As they went, they meant to give him their blessings.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 77