Kṛcchra
Kṛcchra · kṛcchra, “hardship”
Pāpa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Pāpa.
Grammar: noun, kṛcchra: “hardship”.
Meaning: a purifying vrata of twelve days, accomplished by hardship to the body, done as a prāyaścitta (a rite that removes a fault).
In the scriptures: the Bhavishya Purāṇa defines it: for three days one eats by day only, for three days at night only, for three days only what comes unasked (ayācita), and for three days one keeps a pure fast. A brāhmaṇa fallen by tending and selling cattle and the like is purified by three kṛcchras. One who in ignorance cleans his teeth with a nīlī twig is purified by two. Three sāntapanas, which the chapter glosses as kṛcchras, purify one into whose body blue colour has entered (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 65).
Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches that at the end of the kṛcchra prāyaścitta one gives a cow and feeds brāhmaṇas according to one’s ability; this is the Prājāpatyavrata, and it purifies from pāpa (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 121). One who wishes to reach Brahmaloka should do vratas such as kṛcchra and cāndrāyaṇa, and the Tulāpurusha-dāna. These vratas are told for brāhmaṇas living in the forest, for bhikshus and for widowed women, and they are accomplished only by hardship to the body (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 175).
Related terms: Vrata · Prāyaścitta · Cāndrāyaṇa · Sāntapana · Prājāpatya
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 65; Uttara Parva, Chapters 121, 175