Ashṭakā
Ashṭakā, “the eighth-day rite”
Rohiṇī has other meanings too: see all meanings of Rohiṇī.
Grammar: feminine noun, from ashṭan (eight): “that which belongs to the eighth”, the rite of the ashṭamī (the eighth tithi).
Meaning: the rite kept on the three ashṭamīs (eighth tithis) that follow the full moon of Mārgaśīrsha; one of the pākayajñas (the household yajñas of cooked offerings) and a day for śrāddha to the pitṛs and for dāna. Anvashṭakā is the rite on the day after.
In the scriptures: in the rules of dāna, the Agni Purāṇa says: the three ashṭamīs that come after Mārgaśīrsha pūrṇimā are called ashṭakā; “the ashṭamī itself is the ashṭakā”. Dāna made on the ashṭakās gives akshaya (unending) fruit, and the ashṭakā śrāddha is among the times at which dāna should be made (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 209).
Among the forty-eight saṃskāras which Agnideva names, by which a man becomes equal to the devas, the fifteenth is the Ashṭakā and the sixteenth the Anvashṭakā. With the Pārvaṇa-śrāddha, the Śrāvaṇī, the Āgrahāyaṇī, the Caitrī and the Āśvayujī, these are the seven pākayajñas (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 32).
In the glory of Gayā, on the ashṭakā tithis, in ābhyudayika (auspicious) rites and on the death-day tithi of the father and others, there is at Gayā a separate rule of śrāddha for the mother; in other tīrthas a woman’s śrāddha is done only together with her husband’s (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 115). In the dharma which Pushkara teaches, the utsarga, the closing of the year’s Vedic study, is done in the month of Pausha on the Rohiṇī nakshatra or on the Ashṭakā tithi, outside the city or village, near water (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 162).
Related terms: Ashṭamī · Anvashṭakā · Pākayajña · Śrāddha · Saṃskāra · Dāna
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 32, 115, 162, 209