Bhādrapada
Bhādrapada, “the month of the Bhadrapadā nakshatras”
Grammar: masculine noun; the month named after the nakshatras Bhadrapadā, “the auspicious feet” (Pūrva and Uttara Bhādrapadā).
Meaning: a month of the lunar year.
In the scriptures: in the dvādaśa-patraka yoga (the yoga of the twelve leaves) that Brahmā taught Sanatkumāra, the fifth leaf is the syllable “ga”, in the region of the heart, with the rāśi Siṃha and the month Bhādrapada (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35).
A preta tells a merchant how, as the miser Somaśarman of Śākala, he made one dāna in his whole life of seventy years. In the month of Bhādrapada the parva of Dvādaśī came, and the brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas and others of the city went for the parva bath to the confluence of the Irāvatī and the Naḍvalā. He bathed there with his neighbour, observed the Ekādaśī fast, and gave a brāhmaṇa a new water pot covered with a cloth, an umbrella, a pair of sandals and a pot of sweet curd-rice. After death those gifts sustained him as a preta. He calls this observance the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vrata and tells the merchant: “If you observe this Dvādaśī vrata of Bhādrapada śukla, joined with Budha (Wednesday) and the Śravaṇa nakshatra, endless happiness will come to you” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 53).
In his stotra to Bhagavān Vishṇu, Brahmā says: “You are the months Śrāvaṇa and Bhādrapada” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 66).
In Prahlāda‘s teaching to Bali on the gifts dear to Bhagavān Vishṇu month by month, in Bhādrapada one gives pāyasānna cooked with milk, ghee, honey and jaggery, and salt, to satisfy Hṛshīkeśa (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 68).
At the river Āpagā, one krośa east of the Mānusha tīrtha in Kurukshetra, one who gives piṇḍa on Bhādrapada kṛshṇa caturdaśī, above all at midday, attains moksha (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 15).
Related terms: Bhādrapadā · Dvādaśī · Śravaṇa Dvādaśī · Dvādaśa-patraka · Piṇḍa
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 35, 53, 66, 68
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 15